AeroVironment’s Palletized High-Energy Laser, the Epirus Leonidas high-powered microwave system, Kord’s Firefly High-Energy Laser and Boeing’s Compact Laser Weapon System are the first four systems picked for a Pentagon counter-drone pilot at home. Joint Interagency Task Force 401, the Army-led counter-drone task force, selected them in a Department of War release dated Oct. 5, 2026. They will be evaluated at five U.S. military installations chosen earlier in the year.
These are selections, not results. The evaluation described in the release is still ahead, and Combat Rated found no published performance data from the pilot. The pilot’s stated purpose is to find out how the systems perform, what they cost and what it takes to keep them running in an operational setting.
The Department of War release itself returned an access error when Combat Rated tried to open it. Army Recognition’s Oct. 6, 2026 report on the release states that “JIATF-401 selected the four systems” as “the first capabilities entering the directed-energy pilot,” and that “the systems will be tested for operational performance, sustainment demands, and cost.” The same report says the evaluation is being coordinated with U.S. Northern Command.
Three lasers and one microwave
The four picks split into two families. Three are high-energy lasers. The fourth, Leonidas, is a high-powered microwave system, the only non-laser in the first round.
Each comes with a track record its maker points to, and those are company claims rather than pilot findings. Boeing’s Compact Laser Weapon System product sheet describes a “Modular, High-Energy Laser Weapon System” in “Fixed Site and Mobile” configurations, aimed at “C-UAS and Swarm Defense,” and claims “100’s of UAS Defeated in Field Testing.” Army Recognition reports that Epirus “has repeatedly positioned Leonidas as an area-effect counter-swarm weapon” and has demonstrated it against fiber-optic-controlled drones. It adds that earlier Army configurations of AeroVironment’s P-HEL “have used a 20-kilowatt-class laser,” and that the Pentagon has released fewer technical details on the Firefly configuration.
Five installations, from Arizona to Washington
The sites came first. JIATF-401 announced in early May 2026 that the pilot would run at Fort Huachuca, Arizona; Fort Bliss, Texas; Naval Base Kitsap, Washington; Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota; and Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. DefenseScoop’s May 8, 2026 report on the site selections quotes Army Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, director of JIATF-401: “Countering unlawful and adversarial drone activity is a homeland defense imperative.”
The task force’s own announcement, written by Army Lt. Col. Adam Scher of JIATF-401 and carried on Air University’s news page, lists the same five installations. It quotes Ross saying, “There is no ‘silver bullet’ to address this challenge,” and frames directed energy as one layer of a wider counter-drone defense. That announcement says the department would spend the following 180 days finalizing deployment plans with installation commanders, and that the effort was developed in coordination with the services, U.S. Northern Command and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Safety near the bases is part of the test. The same announcement says the pilot will look at how well the systems disrupt and defeat unlawful or adversarial drones while minimizing risk to nearby personnel and infrastructure.
A December shoot-off at Dugway
Interesting Engineering’s Oct. 6, 2026 account of the selection quotes Ross again: “High-energy lasers and high-powered microwave systems are tools that can be effectively used in a layered drone defense.” Ross added that the pilot will test the capabilities in an operational environment to learn how best to integrate and sustain them. The same report says the systems were chosen under a requirement in the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act.
The four systems named on Oct. 5 are a first round, not the full roster. Army Recognition reports that JIATF-401 “plans another directed-energy shoot-off at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah in December 2026,” where additional laser and microwave technologies will be assessed for possible future use. Interesting Engineering’s account of the release likewise says further high-energy laser and high-powered microwave systems will be assessed during that event.
Combat Rated has covered a separate Army laser contract with AeroVironment; the JIATF-401 pilot is a distinct effort focused on defending domestic installations. Combat Rated found no published results yet from the four systems at Fort Huachuca, Fort Bliss, Kitsap, Grand Forks or Whiteman. The next scheduled step on the record is the Dugway shoot-off in December 2026.
Top image: AeroVironment’s LOCUST high-energy laser mounted on a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. AeroVironment’s P-HEL is one of the four systems picked for the JIATF-401 pilot. Image Credit: AeroVironment — CC BY 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Combat Rated editors prior to publication.