RDT&E Project · President's Budget PB2027

Surface Navy Laser Weapon System (SNLWS)

FY2027 Request
$79.8M
◆ Restart — nothing in FY2026
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Project 3402 — Surface Navy Laser Weapon System (SNLWS) requests $79.8M in FY2027, 84% of the $94.8M requested for program element 0603925N — a restart: funded in FY2025, zeroed in FY2026, funded again now. 3 R-2A activities decompose the request, 1 new and 1 restarted this cycle. Other Transaction Authority (OTA) #2 is the largest named R-3 performer at $34.0M, 43% of the project's FY2027 R-3 total.

Restart

This project was funded in FY2025 ($5.7M), zeroed in FY2026, and requests $79.8M again in FY2027. A restart has an incumbent and a new start does not; with a zero current year there is no percentage to quote, which is why it appears in no growth ranking.

MarketDirected Energy

Matched on this project's title. A title match, not a curated taxonomy — narrative-only matches are not shown at all rather than shown with a caveat nobody reads. No market size is quoted here: a market spans appropriations far beyond this program element.

FY2027 Request
$79.8M
No FY2026 funding
FY2026 Enacted
$0.0M
▼ 100% vs FY2025
FY2025 Actual
$5.7M
Prior year
Project detail

What project 3402 buys

Project 3402 - Surface Navy Laser Weapon System (SNLWS): Program supports the National Defense Strategy (NDS) of building a more lethal force by leveraging maturing technology to deliver proven laser weapon capability to the Fleet. The Mk 5 Mod 0 High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-Dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) system, as installed in the forward deployed combatant, provides a low cost-per-shot capability to address Anti-Surface Warfare and Counter-Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C-ISR) gaps with the ability to dazzle and destroy Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and defeat Fast Inshore Attack Craft (FIAC) while integrated into the AEGIS Combat System on a Flt IIA Destroyer. SNLWS/HELIOS, as a Non-Program of Record (POR) Research & Development (R&D) asset, provided an industry-developed and government integrated capability to the Fleet in as short a timeframe as possible, thereby addressing the NDS direction to foster a culture of innovation. HELIOS included the development of a laser weapon system in the 60 kW class. The FY 2027 budget request supports the Research & Development (R&D) asset of HELIOS on DDG 88 by providing In Service Engineering Agent (ISEA) and Software Support Activity (SSA) technical product support, component repair and/or replacement, grooming, and testing after the availability and during the operational period; and to begin development of a containerized 150kW Joint Laser Weapon System (JLWS) for cruise missile defense by incrementally providing at least 300kW of power building on existing laser scaling efforts; development of the Joint Beam Control System (JBCS) technology capable of supporting a 300-500kW laser weapon system; and conduct upgrades to the High Energy Laser Counter Anti-Ship Cruise Missile Project (HELCAP) testbed as appropriate to support JLWS testing. In coordination with the military services and the Missile Defense Agency, begin development of a consolidated implementation plan for all Golden Dome Directed Energy projects, leveraging synergy and common weapon architectures between these efforts where possible.

R-3 lines of work
  • Product Development
  • Support
  • Test and Evaluation
  • Management Services
Funding trajectory

Project 3402 funding, FY2025–FY2031

Prior years are actuals, the budget year is the request, and the outyears are the FYDP plan. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure. Projects carry the full five-year plan; the activities inside them stop at the budget year.

25507505.7FY25ACTUAL0.0FY26ENACTED79.8FY27REQUEST84.6FY2875.0FY2937.3FY3033.5FY31
Actual Enacted Request Outyear (FYDP)
Fiscal YearEstimate TypeAmount ($M)
FY2025Actual5.7
FY2026Enacted0.0
FY2027Request79.8
FY2028Outyear84.6
FY2029Outyear75.0
FY2030Outyear37.3
FY2031Outyear33.5
Inside the project

3 accomplishments / planned programs

The R-2A exhibit — the only level of the budget that describes work that has not happened yet. Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only, no five-year plan. 1 of them describes FY2027 work in enough detail to have its own page; the rest are shown here in full. Coverage is partial across the corpus, so count activities, never total them.

FY2025 actual$0.0M
FY2026 enacted$0.0M
FY2027 request$75.6M

JLWS N-150-X (Containerized) - Initiate Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE) and incremental procurement of 150 kW class Containerized Laser Weapon System (LWS) - Provide programmatic and technical oversight of contract - Initiate systems engineering, ship and combat system integration requirements development - Initiate development of Ship…

Read the FY2027 plan →
SNLWS Government and Support Engineering ServicesRESTART
FY2025 actual$3.9M
FY2026 enacted$0.0M
FY2027 request$4.2M

FY2027 planned work - Provide sustainment support so that the system installed on the DDG 88 remains operational. - Provide shipboard technical support by monitoring system throughout operation as the In-Service Engineering Agent (ISEA). - Provide Software Support Activity (SSA) software and cybersecurity support. - Provide minimal testing and engineering support, utilizing ship test events and windows of opportunity to inform tactical employment. - Provide training updates, maintenance requirements updates and shipboard allowance documentation. - Provide minimal programmatic and engineering support to Integrated Product Teams (IPTs) and Working Groups (WGs).

FY2026 to FY2027 change The FY 2026 to FY 2027 increase is the partial reinstatement of sustainment funding for the Mk 5 Mod 0 HELIOS system installed on the USS PREBLE, DDG 88.

SNLWS Prime Contractor Efforts
FY2025 actual$1.8M
FY2026 enacted$0.0M
FY2027 request$0.0M
Who's building it

Named performers on project 3402

Performers named in the R-3 exhibit under this project. Share is of the project's whole FY2027 R-3 total — the same denominator the program-element split uses, so the two read on one scale and will not sum to 100% when unnamed or government work is in the mix. Budget-justification contract funding, not obligations.

Other Transaction Authority (OTA) #2
$34.0M · 43%
PSU EOC
$5.7M · 7.1%
SPA
$0.7M · 0.9%
PSS
$0.7M · 0.8%