A new airborne laser pod, seen in detail at Sea Air Space, is being pitched as a solution for fleet defense against one-way attack drones. The capability is separate from previous efforts by the Department of Defense to put lasers on aircraft.
The new laser is part of the General Atomics Laser Weapon Systems portfolio, centering around the scalable High Energy Laser (HEL) Weapon System. The laser is in the 25kW class and scalable to 300kW in both pulsed and continuous wave systems, capable of operating in all environments.
The General Atomics booth at Sea Air Space featured a display of an MQ-9 with an underwing laser pod firing at several ‘Shahed’ style one-way attack drones approaching a surface warship. The pod holds a 25kW distributed gain laser with a large ram air intake for cooling, alongside an ultra-high power density battery system.
The airborne laser concept uses distributed gain technology to enable airborne operations with tight size, weight, and power (SWaP) constraints. Distributed gain allows for efficient cooling and beam generation that can handle the requirements of flight and constraints that an aircraft poses to onboard systems.
In 2025, the podded laser concept is being brought to the MQ-9 family. General Atomics has experience with stabilizing narrow laser beams for its UAS platforms and has demonstrated its capability with the Laser Airborne Communication (LAC)-12 Terminal. LAC-12 is able to transmit and receive laser-delivered communications over long distances with a successful test between two aircraft completed in 2022.
A previous cancelled effort, the Self-protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD) program, had Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman as prime contractors. SHiELD looked to develop and field an airborne laser demonstrator for 4th generation aircraft like the F-16 and F-15. It was cancelled in 2024 without any flight tests. The General Atomics effort shown at Sea Air Space 2025 is unrelated to the SHiELD program.
In 2025, the podded laser concept is being brought to the MQ-9 family. General Atomics has experience with stabilizing narrow laser beams for its UAS platforms and has demonstrated its capability with the Laser Airborne Communication (LAC)-12 Terminal. LAC-12 is able to transmit and receive laser-delivered communications over long distances with a successful test between two aircraft completed in 2022.
A previous cancelled effort, the Self-protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD) program, had Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman as prime contractors. SHiELD looked to develop and field an airborne laser demonstrator for 4th generation aircraft like the F-16 and F-15. It was cancelled in 2024 without any flight tests. The General Atomics effort shown at Sea Air Space 2025 is unrelated to the SHiELD program.
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