General Atomics is pushing forward with several new technologies shown at Sea Air Space 2025, including, for the first time, a display of a new podded air-to-air laser system on their MQ-9B platform.
A new airborne laser pod, seen in detail at Sea Air Space, is being pitched as a solution for fleet defense against one-way attack drones. The capability is separate from previous efforts by the Department of Defense to put lasers on aircraft.
The new laser is part of the General Atomics Laser Weapon Systems portfolio, centering around the scalable High Energy Laser (HEL) Weapon System. The laser is in the 25kW class and scalable to 300kW in both pulsed and continuous wave systems, capable of operating in all environments.
“The system’s large optical aperture and efficient cooling offers significant reductions in size and weight to suit air, land and sea-based platforms.”
General Atomics
The General Atomics booth at Sea Air Space featured a display of an MQ-9 with an underwing laser pod firing at several ‘Shahed’ style one-way attack drones approaching a surface warship. The pod holds a 25kW distributed gain laser with a large ram air intake for cooling, alongside an ultra-high power density battery system.
The airborne laser concept uses distributed gain technology to enable airborne operations with tight size, weight, and power (SWaP) constraints. Distributed gain allows for efficient cooling and beam generation that can handle the requirements of flight and constraints that an aircraft poses to onboard systems.
An airborne laser is not new to the General Atomics laser portfolio. Development of an unspecified airborne laser dates back several years. Since 2021, the company has been pitching its laser weapons as efficient and small enough to suit airborne platforms.
A Breaking Defense interview with then-vice president for laser and electro-optic (LEO) systems Michael Perry outlined the company’s intentions for its laser weapons portfolio, mentioning that the company could put lasers on aircraft—with plans to do so in coming years.
In 2025, the podded laser concept is being brought to the MQ-9 family. General Atomics has experience with stabilizing narrow laser beams for its UAS platforms and has demonstrated its capability with the Laser Airborne Communication (LAC)-12 Terminal. LAC-12 is able to transmit and receive laser-delivered communications over long distances with a successful test between two aircraft completed in 2022.
A previous cancelled effort, the Self-protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD) program, had Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman as prime contractors. SHiELD looked to develop and field an airborne laser demonstrator for 4th generation aircraft like the F-16 and F-15. It was cancelled in 2024 without any flight tests. The General Atomics effort shown at Sea Air Space 2025 is unrelated to the SHiELD program.
General Atomics continues to offer its suite of MQ-9 mission modules to the United States and allies, alongside a number of new capabilities developed internally and with partners. Naval News had the opportunity to cover the company’s internally developed Long Range Maneuvering Projectile (LRMP) with Scott Forney, President of General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, at AUSA 2024. Naval News also covered the General Atomics Bullseye missile with Forney at Sea Air Space 2025. Read more about that here.
