The Air Force’s newest combat rescue helicopter may soon carry a laser on board, not as a weapon, but as a shield against heat-seeking missiles that pose a growing threat to low-flying crews in contested airspace.
Federal procurement records posted on SAM.gov show the service is soliciting industry proposals for a directed-energy survivability system tailored specifically to the HH-60W Jolly Green II. The solicitation, reviewed in May 2026, outlines the Air Force’s interest in technology that can defeat infrared-guided missiles targeting rotary-wing aircraft. A related video published through the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service provides additional context on the service’s helicopter survivability research, including footage of defensive system testing.
Together, the two records confirm that the Air Force has moved beyond internal discussion and is actively engaging the defense industry on laser-based protection for its primary combat search-and-rescue platform.
Why the Jolly Green II is the focus
The HH-60W was designed to fly deep behind enemy lines, locate downed pilots or isolated personnel, and bring them home. It replaced the aging HH-60G Pave Hawk, which served for more than three decades but lacked the range, fuel capacity, and defensive architecture needed for the high-threat environments the Pentagon now anticipates.
The helicopter’s mission profile is precisely what makes it vulnerable. Rescue crews routinely fly at low altitudes and reduced speeds while searching for survivors or hovering during extraction. That flight envelope is the sweet spot for man-portable air-defense systems, the shoulder-fired missiles known as MANPADS that have proliferated across conflict zones. Their infrared seekers have grown more resistant to traditional decoys.
The Jolly Green II currently carries defensive tools common across the H-60 family, including countermeasure dispensers that eject flares to lure heat-seeking missiles away from the aircraft. Flares work, but they are finite. A helicopter on a long-duration rescue mission, potentially loitering for hours near a contested front line, can exhaust its flare supply and have nothing left for the flight home. That limitation is at the heart of the Air Force’s interest in a fundamentally different approach.
How laser countermeasures differ
A directed-energy infrared countermeasure, or DIRCM, works by detecting an inbound missile’s launch, tracking its seeker head, and projecting a precisely aimed laser beam that overwhelms or confuses the guidance system. The missile loses its lock and veers off course. Unlike a flare, which burns once and is gone, a laser system can re-engage repeatedly as long as it has electrical power, giving crews a theoretically unlimited magazine.
The concept is not new. The U.S. military already fields laser-based missile defense on several aircraft types. Existing programs have demonstrated that directed-energy countermeasures can be packaged for rotary-wing platforms, though each airframe presents distinct integration challenges related to size, power, and vibration.
That raises an obvious question: why not simply adopt an existing system for the HH-60W? The procurement solicitation does not address this directly, and no Air Force official has publicly explained the rationale. One possibility is that the service wants a system optimized for the Jolly Green II’s unique mission equipment and power architecture. Another is that the Air Force is looking beyond current capabilities toward a next-generation system with greater range or effectiveness against more advanced seekers. Without official comment, the reasoning remains unclear.
Technical and logistical hurdles
Fitting a laser countermeasure onto a medium-lift helicopter is not a simple bolt-on job. The system needs a reliable power source, active cooling to prevent overheating, and a precision tracking gimbal that can slew fast enough to follow a missile traveling at supersonic speed. All of that adds weight and draws electricity from the helicopter’s generators.
For the HH-60W, every kilogram matters. The aircraft’s value lies in its ability to carry fuel for long-range penetration, medical equipment for treating casualties in flight, and enough cabin space to extract multiple survivors. A heavy defensive system trades directly against those priorities. The procurement solicitation does not publish weight or power budgets, so outside analysts cannot yet calculate how much capability the helicopter would have to sacrifice to gain laser protection.
Vibration and the rotor-wash environment present additional engineering challenges that fixed-wing laser installations do not face. Dust, sand, and debris kicked up during low-altitude hover can degrade optical components, and the constant vibration of a helicopter airframe demands ruggedized hardware that can maintain beam accuracy under stress. These are solvable problems, but they require careful integration work specific to each airframe.
Where the effort stands
As of May 2026, the publicly available evidence places this initiative at an early stage. The SAM.gov solicitation confirms the Air Force has committed staff time and acquisition resources to evaluating proposals, but no follow-on contract award, prototype delivery, or flight test has been announced. No named program official has described a timeline, and the effort does not yet appear as a distinct line item in Air Force budget justification documents submitted to Congress. No official, analyst, or industry source has provided public comment on the solicitation, leaving the public record limited to the procurement filing and the associated military video.
The solicitation’s notice number and original posting date are not specified in the publicly reviewed materials. Independent verification is possible through the SAM.gov link above, which provides the full text of the opportunity as posted by the contracting office.
That does not mean the work is trivial. A formal solicitation on the federal procurement portal carries legal and administrative weight. It signals that the requirement has been vetted through acquisition channels and that the service is prepared to evaluate industry responses against defined criteria. The step from market research to a request for proposals or a prototype contract would mark a significant escalation in commitment.
For now, the clearest reading is that the Air Force has identified directed-energy missile defense as a serious option for its rescue fleet and is gathering the information it needs to decide whether to move forward. The next milestones to watch are a follow-on procurement notice, any mention of directed-energy funding in future Air Force budget requests, or an official statement confirming the program’s scope.
What is already clear is the operational logic driving the effort. As infrared-guided missiles grow cheaper, smarter, and more widely available, the crews who fly into danger to bring people home need defenses that do not run out. A laser that resets after every shot could be the answer, if the Air Force can make the engineering and the budget work.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
