Laser Weapons Are Real Now -- and You Can Invest in Them With AeroVironment Stock

For nearly as long as I've been writing for The Motley Fool, the U.S. Pentagon has wanted a laser gun. As far back as 2004 , I wrote about a Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) project to load a chemical oxygen iodine laser onto a Boeing (NYSE: BA) 747 and use it to shoot missiles out of the sky.

Nothing ever came of that particular project.

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But something might come of this next one.

Earlier this month, defense company AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV) -- best known as a manufacturer of military drones -- said that the U.S. Army is paying it $464.8 million to produce laser weapons under the Enduring-High Energy Laser (E-HEL) program.

Calling it a "landmark contract," the company, often referred to as AV, said that "this award represents the first-ever production contract for directed energy systems in United States history."

And it's true! Over the years, I've covered multiple contracts awarded to multiple defense contractors for laser weapons of all shapes, sizes, and acronyms: Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) got the High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI). Kratos Defense & Security (NASDAQ: KTOS) built the 30-kilowatt AN/SEQ-3 Laser Weapon System (LAWS). Northrop Grumman, recovering from its airborne laser fiasco, went on to win a contract to build a 150-kilowatt Laser Weapon System Demonstrator (LWSD).

Up to now, however, every laser weapons contract awarded has been for research and development , building and testing a few prototypes at a time. But AeroVironment's contract is for laser weapon production -- and that's something never before seen .

AV Chief Executive Officer Wahid Nawabi calls this "a defining moment not only for AV, but for the future of modern defense" and is promising to execute AV's contract to produce "scalable, modular, and cost-effective defense solutions," producing dozens of 30-kilowatt LOCUST X3 laser weapon systems during the next few years that are capable of taking down even half-ton Group 3 military drones.

Without a firm number on the number of lasers called for in the E-HEL contract, it's hard to say precisely how much the new counter-drone laser weapon will cost -- or how much money AeroVironment might end up making on this contract. But working off the assumption that if there were even just 200 weapons on order, AV would describe its contracted output in the "hundreds," not "dozens," let's pick a number out of a hat: 144 laser weapons -- or a dozen dozen.