Sunday, October 19, 2025
Sunday, October 19, 2025
The Army is hosting an industry event at the end of the month to assess the level of ability and interest in what is geared up to be the service's first program of record for directed energy.
The Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office will host the event in Huntsville, AL, on Sept. 30 to give a production requirement overview and glean feedback on the Enduring High Energy Laser (E-HEL) program, according to a special notice posted today.
The program is planned to kick off in fiscal year 2026, wherein E-HEL will start “development, test and evaluation, systems engineering and program management,” according to Army budget books, while at the same time continuing directed energy development “to support modular, palletized and maneuverable capabilities.”
The Army has researched directed-energy capabilities for decades, but recently it has homed in on employing it specifically for short-range air defense to counter the rise in drones swarming the skies.
The Army’s capability office in June conducted a live-fire exercise at Ft. Sill, OK, centered around taking out drones using directed-energy prototypes alongside the Maneuver Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) system.
The exercise was designed to see how directed-energy systems pair with kinetic systems like M-SHORAD, an Army release said -- but RCCTO has also developed a directed-energy variant of M-SHORAD, or DE M-SHORAD, which entails mounting a 50-kilowatt directed energy onto a Stryker vehicle.
“Now that we have delivered directed-energy capabilities to the Army we are developing and maturing the domains of policy, doctrine, organization, training and personnel to employ the capability optimally,” Col. Steven Gutierrez, RCCTO project manager for directed energy, said in a statement following the testing in June.
RCCTO earlier this month also received two Infantry Squad Vehicles fitted with AeroVironment’s LOCUST directed energy weapon system for prototyping under the Army Multi-Purpose High Energy Laster (AMP-HEL) prototyping program.
LOCUST offers a 20 kw-class laser for air defense, according to the company, and next month AeroVironment will deliver the system integrated into two Joint Light Tactical Vehicles.
RCCTO is expected to put out a request for information with a draft statement of work before the industry day, according to the notice; to attend companies must reply by the end of the day Sept. 26.