- Capability group
- Energy Technologies
- Domain
- Critical Technology · Hard Power
- Identifier
- factbase.org/cap/6ETBWPAY0D
- Reference
- Directed-energy weapon Wikipedia
Papers
2.4k
2020–2024
Paper growth
+18%
2020–24 on 2015–19
Patent families
2k
2020–2024
Filed abroad
40%
families in more than one office
In the framework
What the capability covers and what it leaves to others, and the indicators it will be measured by.
Bounds
Covers the technology base; employment as a weapon or defeat mechanism belongs to National Security's strike, shield and counter-uncrewed capabilities.
Lineage
Carried from v0.0 with the same identifier; retained in this group on the logic that the binding constraints are energy technologies, power, storage, thermal management and beam control, with the employment seam to National Security stated.
Indicators
- research publication share in directed energyResearch
- demonstrated laser power levelsPending
- directed energy programmes in testPending
Research
Papers classified to the capability, by year and by the nation of their authors' institutions, 2020–2024. Read from the v0.0 research topic Directed energy technologies.
Papers by year
The five leading nations, papers by year
Share of papers, 2020–2024
Of papers with a known author nation; 35% have none and are left out.
- 1United States17.6%361 papers
- 2China16.9%345 papers
- 3Germany9.0%184 papers
- 4United Kingdom6.9%141 papers
- 5Russia5.8%119 papers
- 6India5.0%103 papers
- 7France4.7%96 papers
- 8Japan3.7%76 papers
- 9Czechia3.2%66 papers
- 10Italy3.2%65 papers
Leading institutions, 2020–2024
By fractional count: each paper divided among its authors' institutions.
- 1Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory45fractional papers
- 2Lovely Professional University26fractional papers
- 3Los Alamos National Laboratory17fractional papers
- 4Shanghai Jiao Tong University15fractional papers
- 5Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics14fractional papers
- 6Chinese Academy of Sciences14fractional papers
- 7China Academy of Engineering Physics13fractional papers
- 8University of California, San Diego12fractional papers
- 9Sandia National Laboratories12fractional papers
- 10P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences10fractional papers
Patents
Patent families by the nation of origin of their applicants and their earliest priority year, from the CPC and IPC classes the capability is read from. 2025 onwards is incomplete: families are published 18 months after priority.
Families by priority year
The five leading origins, families by year
1,184 applicants filed here in 2015–2024; the five largest held 12% of families (HHI 60 of 10,000: unconcentrated).
Share of families by origin, 2020–2024
- 1China49.2%1,005 families
- 2United States17.4%356 families
- 3Japan8.5%173 families
- 4Germany7.5%154 families
- 5South Korea4.9%100 families
- 6United Kingdom2.8%58 families
- 7France1.8%37 families
- 8Israel1.8%37 families
- 9Netherlands1.2%24 families
- 10Canada0.6%13 families
Applicants filing most internationally, 2015–2024
Families filed in more than one office, by applicant as the offices name them.
- 1GIGAPHOTON INC125international families
- 2Cymer LLC72international families
- 3RAYTHEON CO46international families
- 4ASML NETHERLANDS BV37international families
- 5BAE SYSTEMS PLC34international families
- 6TRUMPF LASER GMBH33international families
- 7CYMER INC31international families
- 8FUJIKURA LTD31international families
- 9HUAWEI TECH CO LTD30international families
- 10NEC CORP27international families
Classification read
- F41H13/0043 Directed-energy weapons: laser, microwave, radio-frequency beams · 5.8k documents
- F41H13/0093 Electromagnetic pulse devices · 438 documents
- H01S3/23 Combined and amplified multi-laser arrangements for high power · 29.1k documents
- H01J25/00 High-power microwave tubes: klystrons, magnetrons, travelling-wave tubes · 20k documents
Shares inventions with
Capabilities whose classes the same families also fall in, by overlap (Jaccard).
- Superconducting, Magnetic & Photonic Materials411 families · 0.029
- Advanced Optical Communication & Photonics726 families · 0.014
Companies
50 companies in this capability, across 6 regions. The leading 12:
- 1Lockheed MartinBuilds the US Army's 300 kW-class IFPC-HEL and the Navy's 60 kW HELIOS shipboard laser, using spectral beam combining of fiber lasers.Integration
- 2RTXIts Raytheon business fielded the first operational US Army laser (DE M-SHORAD / H4 HELWS) and the Phaser and CHIMERA high-power microwave counter-drone systems, and has exported HELWS to the UAE.Integration
- 3Rafael Advanced Defense SystemsDeveloped Iron Beam, a 100 kW-class high-energy laser air defence system that Israel declared operational in 2025, along with the lighter Lite Beam and Iron Beam M variants.Integration
- 4Northrop GrummanPioneered megawatt-class chemical lasers and the Joint High Power Solid-State Laser, and supplies beam control, high-energy laser sources and the Navy's Laser Weapon System Demonstrator.Design
- 5BoeingBoeing built the Airborne Laser and the CLAWS/Compact Laser Weapon System, and makes beam directors through its Boeing Directed Energy Systems unit.Integration
- 6MBDALeads the UK DragonFire laser weapon consortium, develops a laser effector with Rheinmetall for the German Navy, and co-owns French laser specialist CILAS (HELMA-P).Integration
- 7General AtomicsIts Electromagnetic Systems unit develops distributed-gain high-energy lasers of 250-300 kW and directed energy power and thermal subsystems.Design
- 8nLIGHTUS maker of semiconductor and fiber lasers that builds coherently combined high-energy laser sources for US DoD programmes, including a 70 kW laser weapon it showed at Eurosatory 2026.Manufacture
- 9RheinmetallDeveloped the laser weapon demonstrator trialled with MBDA on the German frigate Sachsen and builds high-energy laser weapon stations for ground air defence.Integration
- 10BAE SystemsA major directed energy patent applicant that supplies beam director and pointing work for laser weapons and RF directed energy research in the UK and US.Integration
- 11China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC)State aerospace group whose institutes developed the LW-30 vehicle-mounted laser air defence system and other Chinese high-energy laser programmes.Integration
- 12Coherent Corp.Supplies laser gain materials, high-power optics, diode pumps and fiber laser components to high-energy laser builders.Equipment & materials