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White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico – In what could signal a transformative moment in military energy logistics, DARPA recently achieved a striking demonstration: beaming 800 watts of laser energy over a distance of 5.3 miles, converting it back into electricity on the other side—and using it to pop a bag of popcorn. While lighthearted in execution, the underlying achievement represents a profound proof-of-concept for optical wireless power beaming. With it, DARPA has taken a major step toward decoupling energy delivery from traditional fuel supply chains.
That momentum accelerated on July 3, 2025, when DARPA issued Solicitation DARPA-PS-24-25 for the POWER Receiver Array Demonstration (PRAD). This new initiative is part of the Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay (POWER) program—a visionary effort to build a wireless “energy web” capable of delivering power on-demand across battlefields and disaster zones, eliminating the need for vulnerable fuel convoys or fixed infrastructure.
Cutting the Fuel Lifeline: A New Logistics Paradigm
Modern military forces remain tethered to one of their oldest constraints: liquid fuel. Despite high-tech platforms and digital command systems, more than 70% of battlefield tonnage still consists of petroleum-based supplies. These convoys are not only logistically burdensome but also extremely vulnerable to attack, as decades of conflict have shown. The POWER program seeks to upend this dependency by replacing fuel transport with beamed energy relays.
Rather than relying on single-point generation, DARPA envisions a distributed energy network where optical power is routed much like internet traffic—through relays that intelligently navigate around obstacles or damage. If one node goes offline due to combat or environmental conditions, energy flow is automatically re-routed through alternate paths. The implications are profound: drones receiving mid-air laser power could remain airborne for weeks, forward bases could receive energy within minutes, and damaged or isolated units could regain capability without waiting for resupply.
DARPA emphasizes that this approach would enable “graceful degradation” under attack—ensuring continuity even when individual nodes fail. Instead of taking days to restore power through physical repairs, mobile receivers and airborne relays could be rapidly repositioned to resume operations in minutes.
Inside PRAD: Engineering the Power Receiver of the Future
At the core of DARPA’s groundbreaking PRAD (POWER Receiver Array Demonstration) initiative lies the development of advanced receiver arrays—systems designed to capture high-energy laser beams and convert them into usable electricity with unprecedented efficiency, accuracy, and resilience. These receivers are not mere laboratory curiosities; they are envisioned as the final, critical link in DARPA’s emerging “energy web,” delivering power from airborne relays or satellites directly to warfighters, unmanned systems, and remote infrastructure. The challenge is immense: build a scalable receiver that can handle power loads ranging from 10 kilowatts to 100 kilowatts, while withstanding rugged environmental conditions, from desert dust storms to battlefield chaos.
The PRAD receivers must also overcome one of optical power transmission’s greatest limitations—atmospheric distortion. Turbulence, dust, humidity, and particulate matter can bend, scatter, or defocus laser beams, degrading conversion efficiency. To counter this, engineers are developing adaptive optical systems that include parabolic reflectors and beam-steering mechanisms, which concentrate the incoming beam onto next-generation photovoltaic materials specifically tuned for high-intensity light. In a recent field test at White Sands Missile Range, this configuration achieved more than 20% beam-to-electricity conversion efficiency—a new benchmark for real-world, ground-based wireless power beaming.
In addition to optical precision, PRAD systems must be designed for rapid deployment and battlefield portability. This requires innovation in both form and function. Engineers are exploring lightweight composite materials, modular designs, and compact optics to create receiver arrays that can be transported in standard military vehicles and set up within hours. Moreover, the arrays must be resilient against dynamic threats, incorporating real-time alignment and beam-tracking capabilities to ensure continuous power flow even during mobility or under adversarial disruption.
Ultimately, DARPA’s vision is a self-aligning, autonomous receiver platform—a smart energy node that plugs into a larger distributed network. It should not only receive and convert power but also communicate with upstream relays, monitor environmental conditions, and dynamically adjust its optical aperture to maintain high throughput. In this future battlefield energy architecture, the receiver array is more than a passive converter—it becomes a digital interface between light and logistics, one that could redefine how power is projected across vast distances without the vulnerabilities of fuel convoys or fixed infrastructure.
Raytheon: Adapting Laser Weapons for the Energy Web
A key industry partner in this initiative is Raytheon Technologies, which received a $10 million DARPA contract to contribute its expertise from laser weapons systems to the POWER program. Raytheon has developed compact, palletized high-energy lasers (HELs), such as the “H4” laser system, that fit into the bed of a standard pickup truck. These platforms demonstrate the size and mobility requirements necessary for fieldable energy receivers.
What sets Raytheon apart is its precision beam control technology, originally developed for missile defense. As Raytheon program director Michael Hofle explains, the challenge isn’t just generating powerful laser energy—it’s delivering that energy with pinpoint accuracy across shifting, unpredictable terrain. This skillset directly translates to POWER’s demands for multi-node energy beaming in contested environments.
Moreover, Raytheon’s systems are already designed to integrate with existing military command and control networks, making them inherently compatible with DARPA’s vision of a networked, modular energy web. Their work on relay-ready architectures could serve as the backbone for linking airborne drones, satellites, and ground-based receiver units into a seamless energy transmission system.
Ground Before Orbit: Why Earth-Based Tests Come First
Although space-based solar power often garners headlines, DARPA maintains that ground-level systems offer the most immediate and impactful applications. Testing laser transmission at low altitudes introduces greater atmospheric complexity, making it a more rigorous proving ground for system resilience. Successfully transmitting power through dusty, turbulent desert air is far more difficult than in the vacuum of space—and thus a more credible milestone.
There’s also a compelling tactical advantage to airborne relays over satellites. Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) and high-altitude balloons can be repositioned in real time to respond to mission needs, whereas satellites remain locked in orbit. This flexibility allows for faster power delivery, especially to dynamic or rapidly changing operational environments.
Furthermore, the technology offers immense civilian dual-use potential. In disaster response scenarios—such as earthquakes, hurricanes, or wars—pop-up receiver arrays could deliver power to hospitals, water treatment plants, or shelters within hours, bypassing the need for repaired electrical grids. Companies like PowerLight Technologies are already exploring these humanitarian applications.
From Military Experiment to Civilian Infrastructure
By 2030, DARPA envisions a mature, militarized energy relay system capable of sustaining continuous operations in the most challenging environments. Prototype demonstrations are already progressing toward delivering 10 kilowatts of power via airborne relays from 50-kilowatt sources, enabling drones, sensors, and communication nodes to operate without interruption across hostile terrain.
But the ripple effect won’t stop with the military. Civilian sectors are already eyeing POWER’s capabilities to support 5G/6G infrastructure in remote areas, create autonomous mining operations, and even power off-world exploration. The same technology used to beam energy across deserts could one day transmit solar energy from lunar orbit to Moon bases or Martian outposts.
As DARPA program manager Paul Jaffe noted, the popcorn demo may have seemed whimsical, but it served a serious purpose: shattering long-standing doubts about the feasibility of practical, high-volume wireless power beaming. The technical barriers are falling—and the commercial imagination is surging forward.
Conclusion: The Wireless Energy Internet Has Arrived
DARPA’s POWER initiative represents more than just a breakthrough in defense logistics—it’s the blueprint for an energy internet, a network that transmits electricity like data: fast, flexible, and resilient. With the PRAD receiver program now underway, the pieces are rapidly falling into place. Beam alignment, conversion efficiency, relay integration—each solved challenge brings us closer to a world where energy is as mobile as information.
As the military invests in battle-ready systems and industry explores humanitarian and commercial applications, the stage is set for a seismic shift in global energy infrastructure. The bag of popcorn was only the beginning. The main course? A wireless revolution in how we generate, deliver, and secure power—from battlefield to boardroom, from Earth to orbit.
