US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Pentagon technical director…

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Pentagon technical director Emily Michael visited a demonstration of laser and microwave weapons in New Mexico.

Consensus

The U.S. Pentagon conducted a high-level demonstration of laser and microwave weapons in New Mexico.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Pentagon technical director Emil Michael attended the demonstration.
A 20-kW mobile directed energy system from AeroVironment (LOCUST) was tested.
The system has previously been used to down drones from the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush.
The U.S. budget for 2027 includes over $2 billion for research and development in directed energy weapons.
Directed energy weapons are considered a relatively low-cost solution for countering drones.

This was the first known instance in which a sitting U.S. Secretary of Defense personally observed live-fire testing of directed energy weapons. — vedomosti
On June 23, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that American auto companies would begin producing weapons, with General Motors expressing interest and planning to convert factories to new technologies. — vedomosti
On June 18, Bloomberg reported that Trump wanted to propose licensing U.S. defense companies to produce weapons in Europe and Ukraine. — vedomosti
The Russian LazerBuzz (project 'Scepter') system successfully shot down a drone at a distance of 1.5 kilometers using a laser. — m24
The LazerBuzz system was tested against FPV drones and was able to down a plane-type UAV during experiments. — m24