Army green lights first production drone-killer laser weapon

The Army awarded a $464.8 million contract on Wednesday to buy the first production models of a drone-killing laser weapon.

The LOCUST X3 was selected as an Enduring-High Energy Laser (E-HEL) to be fielded by the Army. Built by AeroVironment, based in Albuquerque, N.M., it’s the service’s first purchase beyond prototypes.

Army officials did not say how many systems the contract would buy, but a news release from AeroVironment said the contract would allow the company to provide dozens of the weapons over multiple years.

Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the vice chief of staff of the Army, said high-energy lasers such as LOCUST X3 would ensure the Army will outpace adversaries on the battlefield.

“This first-of-its-kind directed-energy program will enable our formations to defeat unmanned systems and dominate from the outset,” LaNeve said in a statement.

A photo illustration of the LOCUST X3 laser shooting at a small drone. (AeroVironment, Inc.)

The LOCUST X3 laser is a spectrum beam-combined system, in which multiple smaller beams at different wavelengths within the infrared spectrum are combined using optics into a single beam of up to 30 kilowatts of directed energy. It uses AV_Halo, an artificial intelligence system, to aid targeting accuracy.

By striking even a small part of the drone, the beam can burn out electronics, motors and wing structure, causing the drone to crash short of its target.

The E-HEL program is meant to procure weapons that can counter unmanned aerial systems (UAS) “while offering a low cost-per-shot and a magazine that regenerates with the system’s power supply,” according to the Army statement.

The Army said the LOCUST X3 is a modular system, allowing it to be mounted on fixed bases, set up in the field or mounted on different vehicles.

The E-HEL program is meant to field weapons that can destroy or disable drones up to the Group 3 level — larger than small tactical drones but smaller than large, long-range armed drones such as the American MQ-9 Reaper.

“LOCUST X3 is intended to be the Group 3 killer,” John Garrity, AeroVironment’s Vice President of Directed Energy Systems, told a media roundtable on Aug. 7.

Under the U.S. Department of Defense classification system, Group 3-class drones are large reconnaissance and strike drones that weigh up to 1,320 pounds and fly below 18,000 feet at speeds under 250 knots (about 287 mph). The drones can be used as a one-way platform that crashes into their targets, or they can carry guided munitions that can be released at a target.

Iran uses Group 3 drones such as the Shahed-136, Shahed-129 and Mohajer-6. Other U.S. military adversaries use Group 3 drones, including Russia’s Geran-2 and China’s ASN-209 Silver Eagle.

American equivalents include the RQ-7B Shadow and RQ-15 Neptune. The LUCAS drone, a reverse-engineered version of the Shahed-136, is also considered Group 3.

Directed-energy weapons, such as LOCUST X3, can be used to take out drones at a much lower cost than using more expensive kinetic weapons such as missiles, according to the Army. Several reports have put the cost of the Shahed-136 at about $35,000 each. The U.S. has used air defense systems such as variants of the PAC-3 Patriot or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) that cost from $4 million to $12 million per missile.

The laser weapons are meant to deter attacks by drones so the missile defenses can be saved to be used to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles.

“The key to successfully countering all levels of drones is a layered defense of sensors and effectors,” said Mike Obadal, under secretary of the Army. “We are proud to give our soldiers a decisive edge against drone threats.”

Lyle Goldstein, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University who specializes in China policy, said that in addition to developing a large fleet of various drones, China is working on laser weapons.

“China has been methodically studying laser applications for military use for over two decades,” Goldstein said. “It is not a crash program or simply an effort to mimic Western research.”

Goldstein said China revealed the LY-1 laser weapons system for its ground forces at an October 2025 military parade.

“Superpowers are highly motivated to accelerate this field of military development,” Goldstein said. While China does not have an “obvious lead” in laser weapons compared with the United States, Goldstein said American adversaries are likely working in tandem, as they have done on drone technology.

“It would also not surprise me at all if China and Russia might be cooperating on developing this (laser) technology,” he said.

Group I Black Widow drone manned by an Indiana National Guard Soldier, assigned to 1st Battalion, 293rd Infantry Regiment, during a Combat Readiness Exercise at Muscatatuck Training Center, near Butlerville, Ind., July 24, 2026. (Hector Tinoco/Indiana National Guard)

A Group 2 ScanEagle drone, flying near Camp Taji, Iraq, in 2011. (Darriel Swatts/U.S. Army)

Group 3 Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS) drones are positioned on the tarmac at a base in the U.S. Central Command operating area, Nov. 23, 2025. (U.S. Central Command)

Group 4 MQ-5B Hunter unmanned aircraft is moved into its static position on the tarmac at Michael Army Airfield, Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah, Sept. 16, 2011. (Latoya Wiggins/U.S. Army)

Group 5 MQ-9 Reaper assigned to the 29th Attack Squadron takes off at Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, Michigan, July 20, 2026. (Bob Teichmann/U.S. Air Force)

Department of Defense UAS classification

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Sources: CRS report “Defense Primer: Categories of Uncrewed Aircraft Systems,” October 25, 2024; Department of Defense Defense; Primer: Categories of Uncrewed Aircraft Systems