Army Taps Lockheed Martin for High-Energy Laser Prototype

Lockheed Martin-owned company Lockheed Martin Aculight Corp. has secured a $220.8 million contract from the U.S. Army to develop, integrate, manufacture, test, and deliver high-energy laser systems aimed at providing indirect fire protection capabilities. Work will be performed in six U.S. states with completion estimated for October 2025.

The award comes after Lockheed Martin shared last summer that it delivered a 300-kW-class laser to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD[R&E]). That system, which the company said at the time is the most powerful it has produced to date, supported the U.S. Army’s Indirect Fires Protection Capability-High Energy Laser (IFPC-HEL) Demonstrator laser weapon system.

The OUSD(R&E) selected Lockheed Martin in 2019 to scale its spectral beam combined high-energy laser architecture to the 300-kW-class level as part of the High-Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI).

Lockheed Martin said in September 2022 that it delivered a 300-kW-class laser to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. The office selected Lockheed Martin in 2019 to scale its spectral beam combined high-energy laser architecture to the 300-kW-class level as part of the High-Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI). The HELSI laser was to support demonstration efforts with the Army’s Indirect Fires Protection Capability High-Energy Laser (IFPC-HEL) Demonstrator laser weapon system (pictured). Courtesy of Lockheed Martin.

In the last 12 months, Lockheed and its umbrella companies signed an agreement with RAFAEL Advanced Defense Systems to jointly develop, test, and manufacture high-energy laser weapon systems in the U.S. and Israel; achieved first light from the Directed Energy Interceptor for Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense System (DEIMOS); and earned a U.S. Department of Defense contract to fabricate and deliver prototypes and equipment in support of solid-state high-energy laser weapon systems by 2028.