The U.S. military is once again pursuing flying directed energy weapons to counter threats to American airspace.

The Pentagon’s push to field laser weapons has shifted from laboratory curiosity to operational reality, with recent tests showing systems that can track, target, and disable threats in real time.

The LOCUST Laser Weapon System, a 20-kilowatt counter-drone weapon, conducts tests at the Military Institute of Armament Technology in Zielonka, Poland in February 2026. (Photo by STR/NurPhoto via ...

Laser weapons are such an entrenched sci-fi trope that it's easy to forget just how real this tech can be (and is). While we're not exactly close to seeing real-life "Star Wars" space battles, the U.S ...

Despite years of promises, the latest budget shows directed energy systems are still largely confined to development and ...

Artist rendering of the Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High Energy Laser. (Lockheed Martin) Editor’s note: This story originally appeared on Laser Wars, a newsletter about military laser weapons ...

Editor’s note: This story originally appeared on Laser Wars, a newsletter about military laser weapons and other futuristic defense technology. Subscribe here. For decades, the U.S. military’s dream ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. One of the most distinctive features of the U.S. military’s high-energy laser weapon of choice isn’t the system itself—it’s how ...

The Defense Department has been aggressively pursuing laser weapons and defense systems, a push that gained significant attention this week when the use of an anti-drone laser system led to the ...

Ukraine’s military has reported using a domestically developed directed-energy weapon to intercept enemy drones, a disclosure ...

According to Rheinmetall, the German Navy’s directed energy weapon can engage a wide range of targets, including guided missiles, rockets, and drone swarms. The German Navy is getting closer to having ...

Russia's LazerBuzz says its laser counter-drone system has now destroyed a target at about 0.93 miles, in a new Project ...