The Navy’s Chief Laser Weapon Is Finally Firing at Full Power
Lockheed Martin says its shipboard laser system hit 60 kilowatts at sea, contradicting Navy leadership.
The US Navy’s lone high-energy laser weapon has been quietly operating at full strength despite service leadership casting public doubt on the system earlier this year, according to a Lockheed Martin executive.
Speaking to lawmakers during a May hearing, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James Kilby stated that the service's High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) weapon system was only operating at one-third its maximum power output of 60 kilowatts amid unspecified “problems” during testing.
Currently installed aboard the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Preble, HELIOS is designed to neutralize hostile drones and watercraft with a relatively low cost-per-shot compared to conventional missiles and interceptors.
But in an interview with Defense Daily during the annual Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama in early August, Lockheed Martin vice president for integrated warfare systems and sensors Paul Lemmo stated that the system is not only operating at full power, but has “been at full power” for some time now.
Kilby’s earlier statement reflected outdated testing data, Lemmo told Defense Daily, adding that the admiral had made his May comments ahead of a successful “external calibration test” of HELIOS later that month.
While little information exists on how HELIOS actually performed under the punishing environs of the maritime domain, Lemmo told Defense Daily that the calibration test “allowed us to shoot down some UAVs … so very successful test.”
Those successful intercepts at sea mark an encouraging milestone for the Navy’s laser ambitions amid previous public concerns from leadership, especially with renewed interest in shipboard systems on the horizon. News of the fresh testing comes following newly-confirmed Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle explicitly stating during his confirmation hearing that he was strongly in favor of additional directed energy research and development efforts.
“My master’s degree from the Naval Postgraduate School back in 1990 through 1992 was in directed energy. My thesis was on high-powered lasers,” Caudle said in response to questioning from Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in July. "I've not seen the Navy do an adequate amount of effort translating the research and development into shipboard use.”
“We have the one installed on [USS] Preble, which is not enough,” Caudle continued in reference to HELIOS. “If confirmed, I will make that a priority, because it is the infinite magazine, if you will, especially against certain targets.”
HELIOS’s successful testing may validate Caudle’s vision, but it also highlights the tension between Navy leaders calling for more urgency and a defense budget that has effectively sidelined the program. Indeed, the service’s fiscal year 2026 budget request zeroed out R&D funding for the system under its Surface Navy Laser Weapon System (SNLWS) effort after spending nearly $350 million over more than a decade to develop and deploy shipboard laser weapons.
There’s a tinge of irony that HELIOS appears to be working just as the Navy has moved to cut off its future. And with allies and adversaries alike touting their own shipboard laser weapon programs, the service now risks being left behind in the naval directed energy arms race.
But if anyone is firmly optimistic about HELIOS’s outlook, it’s Lockheed Martin. In his comments to Defense Daily, Lemmo also revealed that the defense contractor is eyeing a modular, containerized version of the system — which currently integrates directly into Arleigh Burke-class warships’ Aegis Combat System — to ensure they can be rapidly swapped across Navy surface vessels so they can stay in the fight even as their host platforms undergo work in stateside shipyards.
“If the ship is in maintenance for a year or whatever, you’re not using the system,” Lemmo said. “So I think they’d like a containerized system so they can cross deck it on any of their ships and quickly integrate it with a post-combat system and have it operational.”
