The Navy is Experimenting With AI-Powered Laser Weapons
In the age of drone warfare, speed is everything.
The US Navy is experimenting with integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into high-energy laser weapons to automate critical tracking and targeting functions that previously relied on human operators, the service recently revealed.
In a story published to the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) on February 12, the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) announced that a joint research team of US military and defense industry partners is working to embed AI into laser weapons to enhance their ability to classify drone targets, estimate their orientation, and lock onto their most vulnerable components.
The end goal is to shift US service members and their allies from hands-on manual targeting to purely supervisory roles, allowing them to oversee AI-driven engagements for a faster, smarter, and deadlier defense against drone swarms and, eventually, hypersonic threats.
According to the NPS, a traditional laser engagement is a complex, multi-step process. A radar system detects a drone, feeding the target’s location to the laser weapon. The operator then uses infrared sensors to track the drone, zooming in with a high-energy laser telescope.
But laser weapons aren’t sci-fi death rays that disintegrate their targets on first contact: they need sustained contact to inflict catastrophic damage. If a drone moves erratically (or evasively), the laser beam must be constantly adjusted to focus energy on a single, vulnerable spot in a process known as aimpoint maintenance.
AI ostensibly streamlines this process. Using a dataset of more than 177,000 drone images – created through a mix of real-world data from NPS’ High Energy Laser Beam Control Research Testbed (HBCRT) and synthetic images generated by defense contractor Lockheed Martin – researchers trained neural networks to automate key tracking functions.
That AI model, validated in the lab and now undergoing field testing at Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, now allows tracking systems to:
Automatically classify drones based on their infrared signature.
Estimate their pose (whether they’re approaching, retreating, climbing, or banking).
Identify optimal aimpoints for sustained laser fire.
Maintain lock-on despite movement and atmospheric interference.
To train this AI model without repeated live drone flights, NPS researchers built what they dubbed a "Range-in-a-Box" system – a laboratory setup using 3D-printed drone models and precision optics to simulate real-world conditions. By manipulating the orientation of these models and capturing their infrared images, the team created pose-labeled datasets essential for AI training. (Testing showed that AI models trained on real-world data outperformed those using only synthetic datasets, reinforcing the need for high-fidelity data under varied conditions.)
With the AI model now in Dahlgren’s hands, real-world field testing is underway. According to NPS, the AI-driven system is currently integrated into the tracking framework of the High Energy Laser Expeditionary (HELEX) system, a Humvee-mounted laser weapon demonstrator. In an upcoming live demonstration, HELEX will autonomously track and target drones using radar cues and AI-generated pose estimates.
NPS isn’t the first organization to integrate AI into laser weapons. As I reported in May 2024, among the most crucial elements of the BlueHalo LOCUST Laser Weapon System that’s currently blasting drones out of the sky for the US Army in the Middle East is the system’s sophisticated ‘Wisard’ AI-based acquisition, tracking, and pointing software that maintains a coherent beam on vulnerable target aimpoints. And AI-powered tracking isn’t just for lasers: According to NPS, the Navy sees potential applications across all manner of shipboard defense systems, from missile tracking to automated friend-or-foe identification.
But with adversaries increasingly relying on drone swarms and hypersonic weapons, integrating AI into laser defense could help cut reaction times, reduce cognitive load on sailors, and ensure that US warships stay ahead of the threat curve.
In the age of drone warfare, speed is everything. And as the battlefield gets faster, a marriage of AI and laser weapons could help ensure the Navy can keep up.