The Pentagon Is Putting Lasers and Microwave Weapons at 5 US Bases. Here’s What Each One Does

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon will put three high-energy lasers and a high-powered microwave weapon at five U.S. military bases for a year-long test of how well directed-energy systems can stop drones at home, the Defense Department’s counter-drone task force announced Oct. 6.

Service members, not contractors, will operate and maintain the systems at Fort Huachuca, Arizona; Fort Bliss, Texas; Naval Base Kitsap, Washington; Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota; and Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, according to Defense News. It is the first time the military has committed to fielding the weapons inside the United States for base defense rather than testing them on a range or sending them overseas.

The pilot, ordered by Congress, is run by Joint Interagency Task Force 401, an Army-led organization set up in 2025 to consolidate counter-drone work across the services and other agencies. Army Brig. Gen. Matt Ross directs it. The task force is coordinating with the services, U.S. Northern Command and the Federal Aviation Administration, and will collect data on performance, operating cost and upkeep.

The Pentagon has not said which system goes to which base or how much the pilot will cost. Installation commanders have 180 days to complete deployment plans, with operations expected to begin later this year.

The four systems

AeroVironment’s laser is packaged on a pallet so it can be rolled onto a truck or ship. Boeing’s CLWS is a lower-power, smaller system; a 5-kilowatt version brought down Group 3 drones, weighing up to about 1,320 pounds, at the 2024 Red Sands exercise in Saudi Arabia using targeting data from the Army’s Forward Area Air Defense network. CLWS units have also returned from a multiyear Marine Corps deployment overseas, though Boeing has not said whether they engaged hostile drones.

Leonidas already underpins the Army’s high-power microwave prototype under its Indirect Fire Protection Capability program. The Army awarded Epirus $66.1 million in December 2022 for four prototypes and $43.5 million in July 2025 for a second-generation version.

The mix reflects a basic trade-off. Lasers hold a narrow beam on one point of one drone until it fails, which limits collateral effects near runways, fuel farms and housing but means engaging targets one at a time. A microwave’s wider cone can knock out a swarm, but the same footprint raises concerns about nearby electronics on bases surrounded by neighborhoods, highways and airports.

Directed-energy advocates often cite the low cost per shot. Ross has been cautious about that argument. A system that costs millions of dollars and fires once a year can’t be justified by cheap shots alone, he said in an earlier discussion reported by Defense News; what matters is the total cost of buying, staffing, maintaining and powering it against how often it is needed. Producing that number is one of the pilot’s main goals.

Airspace

The FAA, not the Pentagon, controls U.S. airspace, and the two have already collided over lasers. In February, the FAA briefly closed airspace over El Paso, Texas, after a counter-drone laser was used near Fort Bliss without coordination with the agency, the Associated Press reported.

Defense and FAA officials held a live-fire demonstration at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in March. On April 10, the FAA said a safety review found the tested laser systems, with proper controls in place, “do not pose undue risk to passenger aircraft.”

The weather at the five sites will also test the lasers. Fog, heavy rain and dust degrade laser performance, and the pilot spans Arizona desert, Puget Sound rain and North Dakota winters.

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A bigger counter-drone push

Drones have repeatedly been reported over U.S. installations, including widely reported incursions over Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, in late 2023 and sightings over New Jersey, including military sites, in late 2024. Shooting down a drone that costs a few thousand dollars with a missile that costs hundreds of thousands is not sustainable, and firing anything over U.S. soil raises legal and safety questions that don’t exist overseas.

A week before the directed-energy announcement, on Sept. 29, the Army said JIATF-401 had awarded 10 contracts worth up to $4.15 billion combined for sensors, optical sights and gun-based systems under Domestic Shield, the effort to protect priority Defense Department sites in the U.S.

The task force plans a shoot-off for more laser and microwave systems at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, in December. Ross said in August that systems that perform well there could move quickly to purchase orders.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Defense News: Pentagon names 4 directed-energy weapons for counter-drone program at US bases
• Federal Aviation Administration: Unmanned aircraft systems
• U.S. Army: Fort Bliss

Featured image: AeroVironment / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped)