The Air University Library’s Directed Energy Weapons research guide and the Congressional Research Service’s January 2026 DEW primer together map a fully operational industrial ecosystem. Reaching megawatt-scale directed energy capability is not a distant aspiration. It is a funded, staffed, multi-contractor programme with a documented timeline of 2025-2030 for 500 kW and “thereafter” for 1 MW.
The Research Institutions
AFIT Center for Directed Energy (CDE): The Air Force Institute of Technology’s dedicated DE research centre at Wright-Patterson AFB. Produces graduate-level research and trains USAF officers in DE physics, targeting, and effects assessment. The primary pipeline for DE expertise into the operational Air Force.
Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy: AFRL’s DE directorate operates at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico — the same installation that manages nuclear weapons programmes. DE and nuclear share a campus, a management chain, and a congressional appropriations line. This is not coincidental.
DARPA: Multiple classified and unclassified DE programmes. DARPA’s mandate is to develop capabilities that are 20 years ahead of current deployment. DE programmes at DARPA in 2024 represent capabilities that may be deployable by 2044 — or already are, in classified form.
The Contractors
Boeing’s DE programme focuses on compact laser systems and HPM weapons for drone defeat. Lockheed Martin’s HELIOS is a 60+ kW naval laser weapon system currently deployed on US Navy ships. Honeywell provides DE-adjacent inertial navigation, power systems, and platform integration. The Directed Energy Professional Society (DEPS) at deps.org serves as the professional community for all of these actors — government labs, contractors, and academics — in a single organised forum.
The Power Ladder and What Lies Above It
The CRS report confirms: 100 kW counters drones, 300 kW counters cruise missiles, 1 MW potentially counters ballistic missiles and hypersonic weapons. The documented UAP perform manoeuvres that exceed hypersonic flight profiles. If the power curve that can defeat a 1 MW threat extends upward, the energy systems powering UAP performance sit at the top of that ladder — and their electromagnetic byproduct output exceeds anything in the current human DEW programme by orders of magnitude. The race to 1 megawatt is the race to understand what has been operating above 1 megawatt in controlled airspace since at least 1947.
Sources: Air University Library DEW Research Guide February 2021. CRS IF11882 January 2026. AFRL Directed Energy directorate. AFIT CDE. Lockheed Martin HELIOS programme documentation.