Pentagon Demands Mass Production of Laser Weapons: Can Industry Deliver?

The U.S. military has issued a clear demand to America’s directed energy industry: it’s time to build—not just prototypes, but weapons at scale. In a written posture statement submitted to the House Armed Services Committee ahead of a hearing on the U.S. Defense Department’s fiscal year 2027 budget request on April 29, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth outlined plans to purchase “tens to hundreds” of directed energy weapons, including high-energy laser systems, in the coming years.

Hegseth described this as the beginning of a “strong and consistent demand signal” to the U.S. defense industrial base—a signal that, after years of limited production, the military is now committed to fielding these capabilities at scale. The relevant excerpt from his posture statement reads:

Directed Energy (DE) weapons represent a transformative capability, yet the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) is currently postured to produce only a limited number of prototypes. There are significant vulnerabilities and gaps in our DE defense manufacturing capabilities. To address this, the Department must create a strong and consistent demand signal for the production of greater quantities of these weapons, on the order of tens to hundreds of units. This increased demand is essential to enable the DIB’s manufacturing capacity to mature and scale to meet the tactical innovation of the warfighter.

Hegseth emphasized that overcoming the “business as usual” acquisition mindset is critical. The Department must reform procurement processes, warfighting tactics, and policy limitations to “demystify” Directed Energy weapons and integrate them into the force structure. This includes developing new concepts of operation, training programs, and support infrastructure to ensure these advanced weapons can be effectively deployed to warfighters and employed on the battlefield.

The successful integration of Directed Energy weapons, he noted, will require a concerted effort to overcome institutional inertia and embrace a new approach to warfare. The Department’s commitment to creating a demand signal is the first and most critical step in this process.

While senior military and defense officials have previously called for fielding directed energy weapons at scale within 36 months or installing “a laser on every ship,” Hegseth’s statement offers a more pragmatic assessment of the challenges ahead. Observers of the U.S. military’s decades-long laser weapon ambitions point to a familiar issue: the technology has advanced, but the institutional mechanisms to transition mature systems to the field have not kept pace.

The defense industrial base, industry leaders argue, cannot invest in the manufacturing and supply chain capacity required for production at scale without predictable demand. Without clear procurement commitments, promising initiatives risk falling into the so-called “valley of death” between research and development and full-scale procurement.

This concern is not new. A January 2024 report from the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), based on in-depth research and interviews with dozens of industry stakeholders and subject matter experts, highlighted the lack of coordination between the military’s demand signals and the industrial base’s ability to meet them. The report underscored systemic gaps in directed energy weapon supply chains, warning that without urgent reforms, the U.S. risks falling behind in a critical area of modern warfare.