Pentagon picks AeroVironment, Epirus, Kord and Boeing for homeland counter-drone directed-energy pilot program

TLDR

• The Pentagon selected four vendors, AeroVironment, Epirus, Kord and Boeing, for a directed-energy counter-drone pilot program ordered by the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act.¹
• The Army-led Joint Interagency Task Force 401 will run the pilot, testing high-energy laser and high-powered microwave systems to defend the U.S. homeland.¹
• The program follows a February incident in which an Army-loaned counter-drone laser used by Customs and Border Patrol forced a temporary airspace closure near El Paso's airport.¹
• JIATF-401 plans a vendor "shoot-off" in December, where systems that perform well could be bought on the spot.¹

The Defense Department said Monday it has selected four vendors for a directed-energy pilot program aimed at expanding the "operational use" of high-energy laser and high-powered microwave weapons to defend the homeland.¹² The program, ordered by fiscal 2026's National Defense Authorization Act, will be run by the Army-led Joint Interagency Task Force 401. The selected systems are AeroVironment's Palletized HEL, Epirus's Leonidas HPM, Kord's Firefly HEL, and Boeing's Compact Laser Weapon System.¹²

"This pilot program will test these capabilities in an operational environment so we can understand how best to integrate and sustain them to defend the homeland," Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, director of JIATF-401, said in the release.¹ The task force will run the pilot in coordination with the FAA, U.S. Northern Command and the military services.¹

The effort follows a February incident in which the FAA briefly closed airspace around El Paso's airport after a miscommunication between agencies over Customs and Border Protection's use of a counter-drone laser that was later found to be on loan from the Army.¹ Since then, JIATF-401 has worked with the FAA on a risk assessment during a high-energy-laser demonstration in New Mexico, which found the system "posed a minimal risk to the National Airspace System" and led to a joint agreement for a laser system to help protect the southern border.¹ JIATF-401 plans to hold a vendor "shoot-off" for the pilot program in December, where Ross has said systems that perform well could be bought on the spot; the task force will keep evaluating additional directed-energy systems beyond the four selected Monday.¹

Why it matters: this is the Pentagon's first move to put directed-energy weapons into routine homeland counter-drone use rather than one-off demonstrations, at a time when the military has already run into real airspace-safety friction, the El Paso incident, from fielding lasers near civilian airports.

Footnotes

1. Breaking Defense, "Pentagon picks 4 vendors for counter-drone directed energy pilot program," https://breakingdefense.com/2026/10/pentagon-picks-4-vendors-for-counter-drone-directed-energy-pilot-program/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

2. U.S. Department of War, "Systems Selected for JIATF 401 Directed-Energy Counter-Drone Pilot Program," https://www.war.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/4619430/systems-selected-for-jiatf-401-directed-energy-counter-drone-pilot-program/ ↩ ↩²