The U.S. Army is closing in on a contract that would move high-energy laser weapons out of the testing phase and into permanent operational service — a shift that acquisition officials say marks the service’s first true program of record for directed-energy defense against drones.
Lt. Gen. Frank Lozano, the Army’s portfolio acquisition executive for Fires, confirmed on July 14, 2026, that the service was in active negotiations with AeroVironment over what’s being called the Enduring High-Energy Laser, or E-HEL. Lozano told a CSIS audience the company had shown “a lot of recent promise and capability” during testing at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
What E-HEL Would Actually Buy
Reporting since Lozano’s remarks has filled in the shape of the expected deal. The Army is reportedly looking to acquire up to 20 E-HEL systems, in an agreement that multiple outlets have pegged in the hundreds of millions of dollars — Bloomberg reported the figure at a minimum of $400 million, while other reporting has cited numbers approaching $500 million. As of this writing, the Army has not publicly confirmed a final contract value, system count, or award date.
The system at the center of the deal is AeroVironment’s LOCUST X3, unveiled in March 2026 at the AUSA Global Force conference as the third generation of the company’s high-energy laser family. LOCUST X3 is built on earlier Army high-energy laser efforts, including the AMP-HEL and PHEL programs, and is described as scalable from roughly 20 kilowatts up to more than 35 kilowatts of output — enough, AeroVironment says, to engage Group 1 through Group 3 unmanned aircraft, a range that spans small commercial-style quadcopters up to considerably larger unmanned platforms.
The Economics Behind the Push
The strategic logic driving E-HEL is less about raw firepower than cost per engagement. AeroVironment’s VP of directed-energy systems, John Garrity, put the underlying math bluntly at the AUSA Global Force Symposium in March 2026: the Army has been spending millions of dollars in missiles to shoot down drones that themselves cost a fraction of that. AeroVironment has cited a per-shot cost for LOCUST under $5, framed as a virtually unlimited magazine constrained only by available power rather than physical ammunition stocks.
That math matters more than ever against the kind of drone volumes now being seen on the Ukrainian front and, increasingly, in incursions over NATO territory — threats that would rapidly deplete conventional interceptor missile stockpiles if used as the primary counter-drone layer.
Part of a Bigger System, Not a Standalone Weapon
AeroVironment has positioned LOCUST as one layer within a broader counter-UAS architecture rather than a silver-bullet weapon. The company’s April 2026 Halo_Shield platform integrates LOCUST alongside its Titan family of radio-frequency detection and jamming systems — which disrupt drone control links without firing a shot — and the Freedom Eagle kinetic interceptor, reserved for larger or faster Group 2/3 threats that may be harder to defeat with directed energy alone. The full concept layers radar, electro-optical/infrared sensors, RF defeat systems, Switchblade loitering munitions, and battle management software into a single networked response.
That layering addresses a real limitation: LOCUST engages one target at a time, meaning a coordinated swarm attack — multiple drones sent simultaneously to saturate a point-defense system — can exploit the sequential nature of a laser’s engagement cycle. AeroVironment’s own senior director of business development, Aaron Westman, has acknowledged this as an inherent constraint of single-beam directed-energy systems, which is part of why the company pairs LOCUST with RF jamming and kinetic backup options rather than marketing it as a complete solution on its own.
Not the Army’s First Laser Test — But a Different Kind of Milestone
The Army has fielded and tested directed-energy counter-drone systems for several years, including a JLTV-mounted LOCUST variant delivered in December 2025. Those earlier systems were tested and deployed on a limited, largely experimental basis — including a February 2026 incident in which an Army laser was fired near El Paso, prompting the FAA to twice close nearby airspace over safety concerns, according to reporting from Task & Purpose. In one case, Department of Homeland Security personnel operated the system.
E-HEL is different in kind, not just scale. As a program of record, it would place high-energy lasers inside the Army’s standard acquisition, budgeting, and sustainment structure — the same institutional track that governs vehicles, missiles, and other enduring equipment — rather than treating lasers as a rotating set of prototypes and demonstrators.
The Army isn’t moving alone. The Air Force disclosed in July 2026 that it is already using a compact laser weapon system at multiple overseas locations to defend against drones, while the Navy has spent several years integrating its HELIOS system — which combines a high-energy laser with an optical dazzler and surveillance capability — aboard destroyers. Separately, the Pentagon’s JIATF-401 task force has named five domestic bases slated to receive directed-energy or high-powered microwave counter-drone systems within a 180-day window, with initial operations expected before the end of 2026.
Comparing the Directed-Energy Counter-Drone Field
| System | Service | Status (as of Aug 2026) | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| LOCUST X3 / E-HEL | Army | Contract negotiations underway with AeroVironment | Program of record, permanent base/maneuver-force defense |
| Compact laser weapon system | Air Force | Operational at multiple overseas locations | Overseas base defense |
| HELIOS | Navy | Fielded aboard destroyers | Shipboard counter-UAS and dazzler capability |
| High-powered microwave systems | Joint (JIATF-401) | Deployment to 5 domestic bases pending | Swarm-oriented base defense |
FAQ
E-HEL is a U.S. Army program to acquire high-energy laser systems as a permanent, program-of-record counter-drone capability, rather than treating lasers as experimental or prototype equipment. The Army is currently negotiating a production contract with AeroVironment.
Reported figures vary by outlet, ranging from roughly $400 million to around $500 million, potentially covering up to 20 systems. The Army has not publicly confirmed a final contract value or quantity.
AeroVironment says LOCUST X3 is designed to engage Group 1 through Group 3 unmanned aircraft, a range spanning small commercial-style drones up to larger unmanned platforms, with output scalable from about 20 kilowatts to more than 35 kilowatts.
AeroVironment has cited a per-engagement cost for LOCUST under $5, compared to interceptor missiles that can cost hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars — a significant factor given how many low-cost drones a defender may need to engage.
Not on its own. LOCUST engages one target at a time, which creates a vulnerability against coordinated, simultaneous drone attacks. AeroVironment addresses this by pairing the laser with RF jamming (Titan) and kinetic interceptors (Freedom Eagle) within its broader Halo_Shield counter-UAS architecture.
The Ammo-Economy Problem, Gamified
Anyone who’s played a tower-defense title knows the core tension the Army is trying to solve here: your strongest single-target tower can wreck a boss unit, but it’s useless against a swarm wave unless you’ve paired it with something that handles volume — a slow field, a chain-lightning tower, anything that hits multiple targets at once. LOCUST is, in effect, the Army’s single-target damage-per-second unit: cheap to fire, precise, but limited to one kill at a time. Pairing it with Titan’s jamming and Freedom Eagle’s kinetic backup is the real-world equivalent of building a layered defense rather than betting everything on one high-value tower — because against a determined swarm, target-saturation beats raw power every time.
