Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) Mission Technologies division has been chosen by the US Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) to develop a prototype High-Energy Laser (HEL) weapon system.
The development aims to enhance the Army’s defence capabilities against uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) across Groups 1-3 in multi-domain operations.
This system, which will be designed with an open architecture approach, is intended to provide defence for fixed locations as well as having the potential for being mounted on Army vehicles.
The RCCTO has awarded this Other Transaction agreement with the intention of transitioning the project to the US Army’s Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space.
This comes after successful field testing and demonstration of the prototype’s safety and operational suitability.
If the HEL prototype meets its objectives, it is expected to move into low-rate initial production.
Mission Technologies’ Warfare Systems group president Grant Hagen said: “We are proud to provide a critical enabler for the Army, delivering an effective, interoperable, sustainable and scalable system that will meet force protection requirements and support US strategic objectives.
“We look forward to collaborating with the RCCTO on this important effort that will protect the war fighter with an affordable counter-UAS solution.”
HII will also provide data to support the competition of subsystems and components, adhering to the Modular Open Systems Approach architecture.
The data will contribute to the Army’s goals for interoperability, affordability, scalability, supply chain resilience, and rapid innovation.
The system’s flexibility will enable the Army to swap out subsystems and software to adapt to evolving national security demands, notes the company.
This contract follows a previous award in November 2024, where Mission Technologies division received a $197m contract for research and development from the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Ground Vehicle Systems Centre.
It was awarded under the Department of Defence Information Analysis Centre’s multiple-award contract vehicle.
