Army readies to launch 2026 competition for counter-drone laser weapon

August 8, 2025

Defense News

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. − The U.S. Army is counting on funding in fiscal 2026 to hold a competition to pursue a high-energy laser weapon system focused first on countering drones, according to service officials.

Over the course of the last five-plus years, the Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office, or RCCTO, has built a wide variety of directed energy prototypes, from 10-kilowatt palletized systems for fixed sites to 20- to 30-kilowatt lasers mounted on small tactical vehicles, to 50-kilowatt systems on the Army’s Maneuver-Short-Range Air Defense Stryker-based vehicles.

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