Attalon and AeroVironment Execute Long-Term Agreement Supporting Production of Mission-Ready High-Energy Laser Systems

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 15, 2026--

As demand for mission-ready directed energy capabilities continues to accelerate, AeroVironment executed a long-term agreement (LTA) with Attalon for the delivery of Attalon's Valaris high-energy laser platform across AeroVironment's expanding portfolio of high-energy laser programs.

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The long-term agreement supports AeroVironment's LOCUST® and broader high-energy laser product line as demand for deployable directed energy capabilities continues to grow. Attalon delivers the mission-ready laser subsystems needed to help AeroVironment scale high-energy laser systems from development and demonstration into sustained operational use. Backed by field-proven technologies, scalable U.S. manufacturing, and innovations like kWIC Disconnect, Attalon is helping enable the reliability, maintainability, and production readiness required to field high-energy laser capabilities at scale.

“Through this LTA, AV is proactively scaling our LOCUST production capabilities ahead of immediate demand, ensuring our defensive technologies are ready before the need arises,” said Mary Clum, AV’s president of Space, Cyber, and Directed Energy. “Attalon’s Valaris S beam-combining laser subsystem is central to this effort, supporting robust manufacturing as we advance a sophisticated new class of defense capabilities. This technology is strategically engineered to neutralize today’s pressing drone threats while maintaining the inherent flexibility required to adapt to tomorrow’s complex missions."

To support the long-term agreement and AeroVironment's growing high-energy laser product line, Attalon is investing $15 million to expand production capacity, grow its skilled workforce, and add capital equipment. The investment is designed to increase manufacturing readiness and throughput as demand for fielded high-energy laser systems continues to scale.

"Every defense technology reaches a moment where breakthrough performance alone is no longer enough," said John Bergeron, Chief Executive Officer of Attalon. "The defining challenge becomes delivering that capability at production scale while ensuring it can be sustained throughout its service life. Directed energy has reached that moment. That conviction is what drives Valaris—a platform built on field-proven beam combining laser technologies and engineered to help customers transition from development to production with confidence."

Built to meet the operational demands of the modern warfighter, Attalon's Valaris high-energy laser platform brings together field-proven laser technologies with the manufacturing scalability, maintainability, and mission-ready performance required for production high-energy laser systems. Incorporating innovations such as kWIC Disconnect, Valaris is engineered to enable faster sustainment, greater operational availability, and the reliable laser capability demanded by today's evolving battlefield.

The agreement reinforces Attalon's role in delivering mission-ready laser subsystems for advanced directed energy platforms, including AeroVironment's LOCUST® and high-energy laser product line. By combining field-proven laser technologies with scalable U.S. manufacturing and continuous innovation, Attalon is helping accelerate the fielding of production-ready directed energy capabilities while strengthening the U.S. defense industrial base and delivering the performance, resilience, and sustainment today's warfighter demands.

About Attalon

Attalon is a leading technology partner to the global aerospace and defense industry, specializing in the physics of light and heat. With more than 500 employees across the United States, Attalon engineers advanced photonics, precision optics, optical coatings, and mission-ready laser subsystems that enable systems to see farther, target faster, and perform in the world's most demanding environments. From directed energy and precision weapons to space, ISR, and advanced defense platforms, Attalon delivers the capabilities that strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base and support the modern warfighter.

Valaris brings high-power laser capability to the mission at production scale. Designed for reliability and maintainability, Valaris delivers the mission-ready capability required to meet the evolving demands of modern defense.

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina requested a new passport Monday to facilitate her return from exile two years after she was ousted in a mass uprising.

The government has been seeking her extradition from India and earlier dismissed suggestions she needed new identification documents to return home. Hasina told The Associated Press in an interview this month that she would return to Bangladesh in December at any cost.

In a letter seen by The Associated Press that was emailed to Bangladesh's diplomatic mission in New Delhi, a counsel of Hasina urged the top diplomat to take necessary action to provide her a passport and national identity card.

The letter, sent by London-based law firm Matrix Chambers, asked the mission for the application to be processed “expeditiously” on the basis of Hasina's Bangladeshi nationality and in accordance with “obligations arising under international human rights instruments."

“This is a significant step toward her homecoming. Having had her documents revoked by the previous regime, Her Excellency looks forward to reclaiming her fundamental rights as a Bangladeshi citizen and receiving the necessary documents,” Abu Obaidha Arin, an aide to Hasina, told the AP.

“She is determined to return to Bangladesh by December, and she will undoubtedly return home,” he said.

It was not immediately possible to obtain comment from the Bangladesh government.

On Thursday, Junior Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir said Bangladesh wants Hasina to be handed over under an extradition treaty with India. India has declined to hand her over.

“We want Hasina to be handed over. She will be handed over. She is a terrorist. She is a fugitive. There is an active extradition treaty between Bangladesh and India,” he told reporters in Dhaka.

Bangladesh's military sent Hasina to India after student-led protests forced her from power on Aug. 5, 2024. A special tribunal in 2025 sentenced her to death for crimes against humanity, ruling that she was responsible for ordering the crackdown, which left hundreds of people dead and thousands of others injured.

The United Nations has said nearly 1,400 people were killed. Hasina denies any wrongdoing. She also has rejected the tribunal’s verdict and challenged the legitimacy of the trial.

An interim government, headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, led Bangladesh after Hasina's ouster and held an election in February that Hasina’s Awami League party was barred from contesting.

Tarique Rahman, the son of a longtime archrival of Hasina, came to power in a landslide.

FILE - Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina arrives to attend The Queen's Dinner during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) at Buckingham Palace in London on April 19, 2018. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/Pool Photo via AP, File)