These Companies Won $49.9 Million Military Laser System Contract

Recently, a number of companies, including Carahsoft Technology, jointly captured a multi-contract, fixed-price blanket purchase agreement (BPA) worth approximately $145,902,412. The U.S. Department of Defense Enterprise Software Initiative (DOD ESI) bpa will provide Appian with commercial off-the-shelf software and hardware, specialized equipment and maintenance support information technology.
These agreements are issued under the DOD ESI in accordance with the policies and guidelines of the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) Section 208.74. The ordering period is 5 years. The contract was competitively procured through a solicitation advertised on the GSA E-Buy Web site; 990 vendors were solicited, three responses were received, and three were selected for the award. The Pacific Naval Information Warfare Center in San Diego, California, is responsible for the contract activity.
Lt. Gen. Robert Rasch, director of the U.S. Army's Office of Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies, said last week that the U.S. Army plans to select a few teams from a larger pool to compete in early 2025 for the development of its Enduring High Energy Laser (HEL) system for short-range air defense. Laser (HEL) system for close-range air defense.
According to a broad agency announcement posted on Sam.gov, the U.S. Army will lead the design and development of the team and plans to select a winner in the first quarter of fiscal year 2026 to build the Enduring High Energy Laser weapon for short-range air defense.
The U.S. Army held an industry day in July and has been collecting proposals, "and we've seen a lot of strong interest from industry partners, some of which we haven't necessarily been in contact with before," Robert Rasch said at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium here.
"Some teams are working together, others are acting independently. They're watching what other teams are doing and trying to improve ...... That's where innovation happens and that's where we keep our ability to stay ahead of the curve against the enemy."
The U.S. Army has spent years developing lasers for use in a variety of weapon systems and recently deployed four prototypes based on the Directed Energy Maneuver-SHORAD vehicle to the U.S. Central Command area to evaluate the performance of the 50-kilowatt laser in missions against short-range air threats.
The first prototypes were equipped with 50-kilowatt lasers supplied by Raytheon, with Kord Technologies, a KBR company, as the primary integrator.
These prototypes, along with other efforts such as mounting higher-power lasers on palletized weapon systems and smaller lasers on infantry squad vehicles and joint light tactical vehicles, have taught the Army how to find the optimal balance between meeting laser power requirements and other factors that affect the destruction of enemy airborne drones of all sizes, Robert Rasch said.
Robert Rasch's office is currently evaluating 10-kilowatt, 20-kilowatt, 50-kilowatt and 300-kilowatt laser options for a variety of threats and missions. One of the 300-kilowatt lasers is designed for the Indirect Fire Protection Capability (IFPC) system, which will use kinetic energy weapons, lasers and high-powered microwave weapons to destroy threats including rockets, artillery shells, mortars, drones and cruise missiles. The Army expects to receive the laser weapon next year.