Lasers Destroy Drones as Additive Manufacturing Builds Them

Rapidly fielding emerging technologies and prioritizing investments in AI, drones, and counter-drone systems, among other technologies, are key to military modernization.

May 1, 2025

Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA

Left: A Group 1 quadcopter burns after being engaged by Aurelius Systems’ laser weapon system (LWS). Bottom left: Side-by-side comparison of quadcopters with and without laser damage. Right: Modular airframe components of Firestorm Labs’ Tempest drone built by its xCell expeditionary additive manufacturing station. (Image: Dan Linehan)

In February, the Joint Interagency Field Experimentation (JIFX) team at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) executed another highly collaborative week of rapid prototyping and defense demonstrations with dozens of emerging technology companies. Conducted alongside NPS’ operationally experienced warfighter-students, the event is a win-win providing insight to accelerate potential dual-use applications.

Even though downpours from a week of heavy storms made for less-than-ideal flight conditions in the unrestricted airspace available for use during JIFX, a single-day record for sorties flown by uncrewed autonomous systems (UAS) — or drones — was broken. On the third day, 85 sorties were flown by 11 different drones at three different tactical locations — McMillan Airfield, the Combined Arms Collective Training Facility (CACTF), and the Forward Operating Base (FOB).

According to JIFX Director, retired U.S. Army Special Forces Col., Michael Richardson, “This February event was the most engaging experimentation week since before the pandemic. Part of that was the weather. The periodic heavy rain and strong winds gave our participating firms the same challenging conditions their technologies will be expected to perform if part of the fleet or force.

“I’m happy to report that all of them rose to the challenge. Several firms accomplished firsts with their systems and nearly everyone collaborated in an ad-hoc experiment or two that demonstrated their capacity to address operational challenges more effectively together.”

The hard rain and wind did not even deter a laser weapon system (LWS) from zapping a steady stream of static and towed Group 1 UAS. This was the first use of an LWS at JIFX over the course of its nearly two decade-long history. During the week, 23 industry partners conducted experiments with 24 unique technologies that represented the following research areas: Communication and networking; Countering uncrewed systems (including by laser weapon systems); Cyber, cyber security and electronic warfare; Expeditionary operations (including with additive manufacturing); infrastructure and power; Precision strike, non-lethal weapons and information operations; Situational awareness; Uncrewed systems design, deployment, operation, networking and control.

These technologies were evaluated by DOD stakeholders from Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), Army Futures Command (AFC), Department of the Navy Small Business Innovation Research Experimentation Cell (DON-SEC), Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), Navy Special Warfare (NSW), U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) and U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM).

JIFX lowers barriers for emerging technology companies, industry, academia, and researchers to collaborate with the fleet/DOD on solving real-world problems in a DevOps environment with the warfighter.

Lasers vs. Drones, Battlefield Power, and Expeditionary Additive Manufacturing

Perched on a firing range hilltop, an LWS fielded by Aurelius Systems blasted Group 1 quadcopters at ranges of 50 and 110 meters — the longest distance that Aurelius had ever engaged a target.

“We’re demonstrating that if there’s a drone out there, then we can enter a sentry mode, scan an area of the sky or backdrop against the ground or a mountain, identify the drone, continue to track it as it moves around and bring the laser to bear on it,” said Michael Laframboise, Aurelius’ founder and chief executive officer (CEO).

The LWS used near-infrared fiber lasers, and the targeted drones were initially affixed to static mounts then later towed along by a moving target gunnery line.

Aurelius Systems fires a laser during an experiment at the Naval Postgraduate School’s (NPS) quarterly Joint Interagency Field Experimentation (JIFX) event. (Image: Dan Linehan)

JIFX plays an important role in the steps of Aurelius’ LWS development. “It can be difficult to get access to firing ranges if you’re a small company like ours,” added Laframboise. “We can come out here to test and do live destructive firing.”

Aurelius intends to bring their LWS to the next JIFX event in May. Based on their successes this go-around, they’re planning to use more powerful lasers and live fire at free-flying drones.

On that same hilltop, Chariot Defense pulled up in a pickup truck with its advanced high-voltage battery system, which only took up half the space in the pickup’s bed. To reduce the detectability of the LWS’ presence and demonstrate improved portability, the three large, heavy, noisy, inefficient, and high-thermal signature generators running on fossil fuel and powering Aurelius’ LWS were disconnected.

“We provided expeditionary power solutions for a number of different experiments,” said Adam Warmoth, founder and CEO of Chariot. “More and more, on today’s modern battlefield, there’s a demand for power — to power computers for AI, to power sensors, to power electronic warfare equipment. That’s the kind of equipment you need in today’s environment.”

Chariot’s low-signature battery system emitted very little heat and was smaller, quieter, lighter, and more efficient than just one of the three generators used by Aurelius. It not only powered successful shots of the LWS, but it also had enough remaining juice to fire over 1,000 more blasts.

Several miles away, at McMillan Airfield, Firestorm Labs had set up its mobile expeditionary additive manufacturing station called xCell. Within its two, 20-foot-long shipping container-like sections, equipment fabricated the airframe components of Firestorm’s Tempest, a modular Group 2 multimission UAS.

“The idea for xCell came to fruition so that we could manufacture our drone at the edge in a contested logistics environment,” said Bill Buel, Vice President of Hardware at Firestorm. “But during development, we realized there’s also a much broader need for xCell as producer for spare parts and other drones. It doesn’t even have to be our drones. So, we really embrace that.”

The concept of flexibility continued to be exercised with Firestorm’s Tempest. It carries payloads of 10–20 pounds over ranges of 100–675 miles at speeds of 75–150 mph, depending on its variable configuration and plug-and-play engine — turbojet (high speed) or pusher prop (extended range).

“We have taken an operator first approach, and we want to empower the operator to make this truly modular,” Buel continued.

Inside the xCell miniature factory, the interchangeable airframe components piled up — a nosecone with a camera port, fuselage segments for payloads, wing and tail segments. But outside, Chariot arrived on the scene ready to collaborate. A large, bulky generator ran both the printing and assembly sides of xCell.

While the generator could power three to four xCells, the technologists understood that one xCell would require more power output for the complete drone making operations than a single Chariot battery could provide. But Chariot was still able to make a high voltage connection to the assembly side and provide power to run some of its components.

“We were able to power Firestorm’s mobile manufacturing station off our battery, providing increased reliability, decreased fuel usage and the ability to power it at the edge where it matters,” Warmoth added.

This article was written by Dan Linehan for the Naval Postgraduate School. For more information, visit here .