The weapon is envisioned to protect Army bases and vehicles from small- to medium-sized drones.
breakingdefense.com
The article does not give any technical details on the laser weapon or on who is building the laser.
Since HII is the builder of the
Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, including the USS Preble which carries the Lockheed Martin HELIOS laser system, and the builder of the entire San Antonio class of ships, including the USS Portland LPD-27 which carries the Northrop Grumman Laser Weapon System Demonstrator (LWSD), I am guessing that HII may have Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, and perhaps other companies, compete to provide the laser weapon system for this new contract, with HII providing the system integration and operator control interfaces, since I have not seen any indication that HII has its own in-house HEL development.
Note that when it spun off as a new company in 2011, Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) comprised Northrop Grumman’s shipbuilding businesses.
I found an article at
https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/25/us_army_laser_weapon/ which states "HII's system is being designed to take out drones weighing up to 1,320 pounds (about 600 kg), flying at speeds of up to 250 knots (463 kph), and operating at altitudes as high as 18,000 feet (5,500 m) above sea level -
classified as "group 3" unmanned aerial systems (UAS)...
RCCTO wants sensor and laser lethality characterization testing in the first quarter of FY2025, a lab demo in Q2 FY25, an integrated system field test in Q3, and a Soldier Touch Point event in Q1 FY26 - which kicks off in October 2025. The program's goal is to pick a prime contractor for production in the first quarter of FY26, with a potential transition to producing up to 20 laser weapon systems by the third quarter of FY26 under a separate Production OTA award...
The Army has had laser weapons capable of neutralizing unmanned aircraft since 2022 in the form of BlueHalo's LOCUST system developed through the Laser Technology Research Development and Optimization (LARDO) program.
The current LOCUST system delivers "hard kills" with a 20-kilowatt beam, meaning it can physically destroy drones mid-flight. The Army signed another contract with BlueHalo last year to develop advanced directed energy prototypes with increased automation, efficiency, ruggedization, and improvements in size, weight, and power.
Lockheed Martin also demonstrated its own
vehicle-mounted 50 kW laser system way back in 2023, highlighting the Army's growing list of laser zapper projects and raising questions about how - or if - they're meant to complement each other.
With HII declining to explain how its weapon system differed, the only available clue comes from the solicitation, in which the RCCTO mentions it wants "to expedite the development and field testing of a producible and sustainable laser weapon system," suggesting rapid prototyping and fielding is the objective."