Army Laser Defeats Three Hostile Drones in a Border Operation

The release language is operational, not experimental: JTF-SB personnel used the AMP-HEL system to engage and defeat three hostile UAS, with the hostility determination tied to activities posing a physical threat to US military personnel and CBP partners. On this briefing's reading, that is a rules-of-engagement statement, not a test-range result.

The programme behind the system is documented separately. Under AMP-HEL's first increment, AeroVironment delivered the first two mobile counter-UAS prototype Laser Weapon Systems, its 20kW-class LOCUST integrated on the General Motors Defense Infantry Squad Vehicle, to the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office on 31 August 2025, with a second increment of two Joint Light Tactical Vehicles adding radar and command-and-control, per the company's release. Which increment or configuration fired at the border is not stated in any document read by this briefing.

Per CBS News, Taylor framed the threat as cartel networks increasingly employing unmanned aircraft systems for human-smuggling facilitation and surveillance of US personnel and law enforcement partners. That gives the border mission a sustained, real drone threat at home-station tempo, which is precisely the condition prototype counter-UAS equipment needs and rarely gets outside a war zone.

The environment cuts both ways. CBS News also reported a February incident in which a US military laser accidentally shot down a US Customs and Border Protection drone. Operational employment among friendly air traffic is harder than defeating targets on a range; on this briefing's reading, the February incident documents that difficulty.

The release discloses the defeat and withholds the engagement detail: no location, no range, no power setting, no cost, no target types beyond the hostility determination, per the DVIDS release and press reports read by this briefing. A USNORTHCOM spokesperson tied the reticence to operational security and ongoing counter-cartel and counter-drone operations, per CBS News.

For the questions a procurement or investment reader actually has, whether the engagement validates the cost-per-shot case for lasers, what target set a 20kW-class system defeats operationally, and how directed energy slots into a layered architecture alongside kinetic and electronic effectors, the disclosure supplies no data. The event is confirmed; the performance envelope is not.

Six days after the border disclosure, the Army announced on 2 September 2026 the award to AeroVironment, Inc., Albuquerque, New Mexico, of an other-transaction-agreement for production under the Enduring-High Energy Laser program, describing it as the Army's first production contract for a high energy laser weapon system, per the Army's release. The release describes E-HEL as offering a low cost-per-shot against critical unmanned aircraft system threats, a magazine that regenerates with the system's power supply, and a modular open systems approach design consisting of 11 major interfaces. It states no dollar value, quantity or schedule.

Those figures come from press reporting of company and service statements, not from the Army release: Breaking Defense and DefenseScoop both put the contract at $464.8 million, for LOCUST X3 systems with a 30-kilowatt laser designed to take down drone threats up to Group 3, with deliveries described as dozens over the next few years and initial capabilities within one year, per Breaking Defense. AV's John Garrity, vice president of directed-energy systems, is quoted by Breaking Defense on introducing production directed energy for the first time in the nation's history, and Mary Clum, president of AV's space, cyber and directed energy program, told DefenseScoop the programme is historically significant. Service and company officials characterised it as the first production contract for directed energy weapons in US history, per DefenseScoop; this briefing repeats that as their characterisation.