US Navy’s Top Admiral Says Lasers Are Key to Countering Cheap Drones

The Navy’s top admiral, Adm. Daryl Caudle, sees laser weapons as a strategic answer to a costly battlefield problem: using expensive interceptor missiles against cheap drones. He called the imbalance of firing multimillion-dollar interceptors at low-cost drones a “defining challenge for the US Navy.” His argument is that directed-energy weapons, especially high-powered lasers, could help shift part of naval defense from finite stored munitions to shipboard electrical power.

Recent conflicts have shown how inexpensive drones and one-way attack aircraft can pressure advanced air and missile defenses. Business Insider reported that Navy warships battling the Iran-backed Houthis from October 2023 to May 2025 routinely relied on missiles to defeat drone threats, while also using top interceptors against ballistic missiles. Caudle warned that a defender may win a single engagement while losing the larger endurance fight if expensive interceptors are consumed against cheaper threats.

Caudle stressed that lasers are not a replacement for high-end interceptor missiles. They are line-of-sight weapons affected by the atmosphere, ocean environment, beam strength, accuracy, power, and cooling needs. Warships must have enough power and the right cooling systems to keep laser weapons from overheating, meaning ship design and weapon design have to be considered together.

The Navy has worked on laser weapons for years, including testing at its Directed Energy Systems Integration Laboratory in California. It installed the Laser Weapon System on USS Ponce in the 2010s and later put a 150kW Solid State Laser Technology Maturation demonstrator on USS Portland in 2019, which destroyed a drone target in May 2020 before being uninstalled in 2023. USS Preble is equipped with Lockheed Martin’s HELIOS system, and Lockheed Martin said HELIOS eliminated four drones during a Navy-operated demonstration last year.

Caudle’s case is incremental: put more manageable, self-contained laser systems on ships rather than waiting for “perfect megawatt-class systems.” He framed those systems as a bridge between promising technology and operational capability the fleet can learn from, improve, and scale. The clearest takeaway is that lasers could become one layer in a broader defensive mix, especially against lower-cost threats that should not drain scarce missile stocks.