Pentagon Seeks $452M for Directed-Energy Weapons for Golden Dome Despite History of Program Cancellations

The Pentagon’s fiscal year 2027 budget request includes $452 million for the development, integration, and assessment of directed energy weapons in support of the Golden Dome for America missile shield, more than triple the $142 million enacted under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law in July 2025.

” He said the department is now focused on engineering challenges that would allow prototypes to become mass-producible systems. “We now have a suite of directed energy products that go from low-end to high-end, and now we have to scale production of those,” Michael said.

” “A lot of the money allocated to Golden Dome is going to go to the fundamental engineering of these systems so that we can make them cheaper, smaller and more proliferated,” Michael said. ” A directed energy demonstration is expected to occur during the summer of 2028 as part of a series of planned Golden Dome-related events.

“There’s never been more effort in the department on this particular capability,” Michael said.

S. S. 93 million over the next five years on a containerized 150-300 kW Joint Laser Weapon System as part of the Golden Dome architecture.

Past programs have struggled to move beyond testing. The Army’s 50 kW Stryker-mounted Directed Energy Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense was determined not mature enough to become a program of record after operational testing in the Middle East in 2024. Retired Army Lt.

Gen. ” The Army abandoned its 300 kW Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High Energy Laser project after reducing it to a single testbed. The Navy’s 60 kW High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance system began testing at full power and successfully engaged drone targets aboard the USS Preble, but the system has effectively disappeared from the Navy’s fiscal year 2027 budget request outside sustainment dollars.

The Marine Corps returned its five Compact Laser Weapon System units to Boeing without a replacement program. The Air Force spent years testing Raytheon’s High-Energy Laser Weapon System before abandoning it without a program of record. A 2023 Government Accountability Office report found that promising laser weapons advanced through prototyping without securing formal transition partners or drafting agreements binding developers and the acquisition community.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called institutional inertia a problem in his posture statement to the House Armed Services Committee in April. Two current efforts are positioned as early indicators. The Army plans to produce and rapidly field 24 Enduring High Energy Laser systems over a five-year period.

The first E-HEL prototype is expected no later than the second quarter of fiscal year 2026, with initial procurement units slated for delivery by the end of fiscal year 2027. 7 million in contracts for development of a Joint Beam Control System capable of supporting a 300-500 kW laser weapon system in the fourth quarter of 2026.

The Navy expects another $30 million in contracts for procurement and testing of containerized Joint Laser Weapon System hardware by March 2027.

The current Joint Laser Weapon System R&D roadmap runs through fiscal year 2031.