Major paradigm shifts in defense do not announce themselves with fanfare. They show up as milestones.
Last week, at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll climbed behind AV’s LOCUST®-powered vehicle and personally tested the Army’s directed-energy capability.
To some, it may have looked like a routine demonstration. For those of us who have spent our careers advancing laser weapon systems, it represents something far more significant: a turning point.
For AV’s LOCUST-powered AMP-HEL system, the event marks another step toward a capability that is operational, deployable, scalable, and increasingly real in the minds of the Army and the American public alike. Lasers are no longer a future concept.
They have arrived.
Around the same time, another milestone at White Sands quietly arrived with far less attention.
On April 10, the FAA and Department of War signed a landmark safety agreement creating a path for counter-drone laser systems to operate in coordination with civil aviation. This agreement followed another LOCUST-powered milestone, when the JIATF-401 tapped AV’s laser weapons system for testing at White Sands to help create the framework for that agreement.
That agreement establishes where lasers can be used, how operators avoid conflicts with aircraft, and how these systems can be deployed safely and predictably.
That might sound bureaucratic. It is not.
Together, those tests at White Sands, both Driscoll’s turn on the X-Box style controller and the FAA agreement, point to something larger: laser weapons are beginning to move from research and development to operational reality in broad daylight and on a wider scale.
And history suggests this moment matters.
America Wins When It Moves Technology Into Use
The United States has always excelled at invention. But invention alone has never been the advantage.
The internet emerged from defense-backed research. The space race created technologies that became foundational to the modern economy, from GPS to satellite communications. In every case, the pattern was the same: innovation mattered because America applied it, tested it, improved it, and scaled it.
Which brings us to lasers.
For years, the biggest obstacle to counter-drone laser systems was not the technology itself. It was the question of how to safely operate these systems in shared airspace.
Since lasers interact directly with the atmosphere, legitimate concerns about aviation safety, sensor interference, and unintended exposure slowed broader operational use.
That is why the FAA agreement matters so much. It represents a shift in the conversation from Can we make this technology work? to Can we deploy and scale it safely?
And that shift is everything.
The Jenny Lesson
History offers a useful comparison.
Most people assume American aviation dominance began with the Wright brothers. In truth, progress stalled after the Wright Flyer and Europe surged ahead.
The turning point was not another invention. It was use.
The Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny,” a relatively simple aircraft, flew real missions during General John J. Pershing’s expedition against Pancho Villa along the Southwest border. It was imperfect, but operational. And because it was operational, the United States gained trained personnel, institutional experience, and the foundation to scale aviation.
By the time World War I arrived, America was no longer starting from zero.
The lesson feels familiar.
America invented the laser and has led directed-energy research for decades, from ABL and THEL to operational systems like LaWS. Yet, widespread deployment has lagged. We have proven concepts, but struggled to transition them into scalable capability. Meanwhile, competitors are moving quickly.
Which is why these two moments at White Sands matter.
When senior leaders are personally testing systems and regulatory frameworks begin to enable operational use, the conversation changes. The milestone is no longer scientific feasibility. It becomes operational adoption.
What comes next is not another science project.
It is demand.
From Experimentation to Production
A clear regulatory framework enables procurement. Procurement enables production. Production drives reliability, lower cost, stronger supply chains, and operational scale.
This is how industries mature.
Small drones are becoming cheaper, more capable, and more common. Homeland security, airspace protection, military installations, and critical infrastructure increasingly need affordable, scalable counter-drone defenses.
Laser systems will not matter because they are novel, but because they become usable, trusted, and deployable.
That is what milestones like White Sands and the FAA agreement may ultimately represent: the beginning of the transition from experimentation to production.
The Window Is Open
The United States still holds a strong position in directed energy, but history offers a warning: inventing a technology does not guarantee leadership in using it.
Leadership comes from recognizing inflection points and acting on them.
Driscoll’s White Sands test was a milestone. The FAA agreement was another.
Neither milestone guarantees success.
But together, they suggest something important: America may finally be building the conditions for laser systems to move from the lab to the field at scale.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aaron Westman is an engineer and leader specializing in counter-UAS and directed energy systems. He has played a key role advancing mobile laser weapon integration and operational deployment, supporting a variety of cross-domain capabilities that improve precision engagement and layered air defense.
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