Bid document

Notice of Intent to Review Marketplace Solutions
ERIS Shopping Notice: High Duty Cycle High-Energy Lasers (HEL) for SWaP-Constrained Systems

SHOPPING NOTICE: DARPA-SN-26-82

MARKETPLACE: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Expedited Research Innovation System (ERIS)
REQUIRING ACTIVITY: DARPA, Strategic Technologies Office (STO) NOTICE DATES: June 4, 2026 - November 30, 2026
TOPIC AREA: Developing advanced technologies for improved resilience, efficiency, and effectiveness of strategic systems. This topic area supports technologies for critical infrastructure and military command-andcontrol systems (networks and applications across strategic, command, operational, and tactical edges).

1.0 PURPOSE

Between the dates listed above, DARPA STO will be actively “shopping” the ERIS Marketplace for innovative, post-competitive, awardable solutions that address the need for moderate power (100W-20 kW) high-energy lasers that can be operated at high duty cycle in SWaP-constrained systems such as armored personnel carriers or unmanned aerial vehicles.
This is an active and immediate search for solutions. Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis in accordance with the procedures set forth in DARPA-PS-25-05.

2.0 PROBLEM & SCOPE

There is a collection of use cases for high energy lasers that do not require maximizing output power – applications such as counter-UAV/counter-rocket weapons, or aircraft self-protection weapons. Much of the focus on modern high-energy laser systems is on maximizing output power to increase range; however, this notice is interested in maximizing duty cycle to allow the laser to be fired in succession many times for long durations. DARPA is exploring the development of new approaches to generating/amplifying high-energy lasers in the 100W20kW power regime. 

Current obstacles: Current high-energy laser systems generate a large amount of heat that needs to be rapidly exhausted to maintain a high duty cycle and achieve the promised infinite magazine depth of highenergy laser systems.

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Desired research focus: Potential awardees will generate engineering designs for novel high-energy laser approaches that address the cooling challenges posed by continuous operation. Key research and innovations are expected to focus on heat exhaust and transport and returning the laser to a steady state for operations while maintaining beam coherence and other traditional metrics of laser quality. Solutions should allow phase control of the laser for purposes of beam tuning in a larger system.