{"id":13266091,"date":"2026-08-17T16:35:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T14:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/pentagon-airborne-directed-energy-weapons-counter-drone-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T16:36:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T14:36:33","slug":"pentagon-airborne-directed-energy-weapons-counter-drone-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/fr\/pentagon-airborne-directed-energy-weapons-counter-drone-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pentagon Wants Lasers That Fly"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n<p>Cheap drones have humbled expensive air defenses for years now. The Pentagon&rsquo;s answer keeps coming back to the same idea: a weapon that fires light, costs pennies a shot, and never runs out of magazine. This week a senior Defense Department official told industry to stop talking about it and start flying it.<\/p>\r\n<p>Mike Dodd, the assistant secretary of defense for critical technologies, used an 12 August post on X to push for &ldquo;lighter, more efficient&rdquo; directed-energy weapons small enough to ride on aircraft &mdash; for shooting down drones, for special operations, and for jamming an enemy&rsquo;s command links.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px;border-radius:8px;margin:24px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:18px\">Informations cl\u00e9s<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:20px;line-height:1.8\"><li><strong>OMS:<\/strong> Mike Dodd, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Critical Technologies<\/li><li><strong>The ask:<\/strong> &ldquo;smaller, lighter, more efficient&rdquo; directed-energy weapons for aircraft<\/li><li><strong>Missions :<\/strong> counter-drone, expeditionary, special operations, disrupting enemy command and control<\/li><li><strong>Why lasers:<\/strong> deep magazines, low cost per shot, less collateral damage than explosives<\/li><li><strong>Budget:<\/strong> the Air Force requested $91.8M for directed-energy research in 2027<\/li><li><strong>Past setback:<\/strong> the AC-130J&rsquo;s airborne laser (AHEL) was canceled in 2024<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">&ldquo;Size, weight, and power decide what flies&rdquo;<\/h2>\r\n<p>That line, from Dodd&rsquo;s post, is the whole problem in six words. Lasers and high-power microwaves work; making them light enough to hang on an airframe without eating its payload and range is the hard part. Dodd wants hardware on aircraft and high-altitude platforms &mdash; not another briefing.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"max-width:550px;margin:0 auto 28px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?id=2087653153432899870&theme=light\" style=\"width:100%;height:560px;border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;Smaller. Lighter. More efficient. Size, weight, and power decide what flies. We want tech on aircraft and high-altitude platforms for counter-drone, expeditionary and special operations missions, and disrupting adversary C2.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Mike Dodd<\/strong> &mdash; Assistant Secretary of Defense for Critical Technologies<\/div><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A quiet stretch, and a big cancellation<\/h2>\r\n<p>The Air Force&rsquo;s directed-energy work has gone quiet lately. Its trailer-sized THOR microwave system last publicly zapped a drone swarm back in 2023, with a follow-on called &ldquo;Mjolnir&rdquo; announced but not yet tested. And the service&rsquo;s most ambitious airborne effort &mdash; a high-energy laser for the AC-130J Ghostrider gunship &mdash; was killed in 2024 after it missed its flight-test window.<\/p>\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=1419146959  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:JKAH.cd26\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/directed-energy-laser-weapon.jpg\" alt=\"An AC-130J Ghostrider gunship refuels in flight\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The AC-130J Ghostrider was to carry an airborne high-energy laser before the program was canceled in 2024. US Air Force photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Cleared to fire at home<\/h2>\r\n<p>One thing has changed in the weapons&rsquo; favor: they can finally be tested over U.S. soil. After a military counter-drone laser forced the FAA to shut down the airspace over El Paso in early 2026, the Pentagon and FAA worked out a safety deal that reopened the door.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;We are now accepted to use high-energy lasers in the national airspace.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>David Bagnati<\/strong> &mdash; Executive Director, Joint Interagency Task Force 401<\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>Dodd&rsquo;s challenge to industry was blunter still: &ldquo;Bring us your best. Not slideware&mdash;hardware we can put on a range and stress.&rdquo; After years of promise, the Pentagon wants beams it can actually fly.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-style:italic;color:#777;font-size:14px;margin-top:24px\">Sources: Air &amp; Space Forces Magazine; Mike Dodd via X (12 Aug 2026); remarks by David Bagnati at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium, Huntsville, Ala. Budget figures per USAF 2027 request.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Articles similaires<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/usaf-compact-laser-weapon-system-europe-counter-drone-2026\/\">The USAF Brings a Laser to Europe&rsquo;s Drone Fight<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/centcom-task-force-falcon-strike-attack-drones-2026\/\">CENTCOM Builds a Drone Army in the Gulf<\/a><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cheap drones have humbled expensive air defenses for years now. The Pentagon&rsquo;s answer keeps coming back to the same idea: a weapon that fires light, costs pennies a shot, and never runs out of magazine. This week a senior Defense Department official told industry to stop talking about it and start flying it. Mike Dodd, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":13265825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[664,670],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13266091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-aviation","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pentagon Wants Airborne Directed Energy Weapons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A top Pentagon official is pushing industry for lighter airborne directed energy weapons to down drones, as US laser testing over home soil finally reopens.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/pentagon-airborne-directed-energy-weapons-counter-drone-2026\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pentagon Wants Airborne Directed Energy Weapons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A top Pentagon official is pushing industry for lighter airborne directed energy weapons to down drones, as US laser testing over home soil finally reopens.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/pentagon-airborne-directed-energy-weapons-counter-drone-2026\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Afterburner - 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