Army Awards $465M Contract for LOCUST X3 Anti-Drone Laser Weapon
The Army's $464.8M award to AeroVironment for the LOCUST X3 laser marks a decisive move toward directed-energy weapons as a frontline answer to the Group 3 drone threat.
In This Dispatch
The U.S. Army has awarded a $464.8 million contract to AeroVironment, Inc. for the LOCUST X3 — a 30-kilowatt directed-energy laser weapon system purpose-built to shoot down the kind of mid-sized drones U.S. troops have faced in the Middle East since the Iran war began more than five months ago.
The Drone Problem the Army Is Trying to Solve
The threat is not new, but the scale has accelerated sharply. Iran has deployed hundreds of Shahed-136 one-way attack drones against U.S. and partner forces in the region — low-cost, mass-deployed systems designed to overwhelm existing air defenses by sheer volume. The same challenge has played out at scale in Ukraine, where Group 3 drones have become a primary strike weapon. The Army's existing ground-based missile interceptors have been consumed so heavily that experts estimate it will take years to replenish the inventory. Enter directed energy.
What LOCUST X3 Does
The LOCUST X3 is a vehicle-mounted 30-kilowatt laser designed to close the gap between the short-range, inexpensive end of the drone threat and the high-tier missile defenses that are too costly to fire at every incoming aircraft. It operates at the speed of light, can defeat targets in single-digit seconds, and can rapidly re-target between multiple drones in a swarm. Those attributes make it specifically suited to the layered air defense concept the Army is building around it — the laser as the first cut, thinning out large numbers of drones so that pricier interceptors are preserved for the threats that matter most.
"Its job is to really thin the herd — to kill high volumes of threats," said Aaron Westman, AeroVironment's senior director for business development. "As long as you can see something, you can hit it." Earlier LOCUST variants have already been deployed domestically within the continental United States, and the company uses an Xbox controller as the operator interface — a deliberate design choice meant to leverage the familiarity younger soldiers already have with gaming systems.
Industry Impact: Directed Energy Moves From Lab to Fleet
The contract represents one of the largest commitments to a directed-energy anti-drone system to date, and it signals a material shift in how the Army is approaching the economics of air defense. Missile interceptors cost tens of thousands of dollars per shot, can miss, and cannot be replenished fast enough for high-tempo drone operations. A laser weapon costs a fraction of that per engagement and does not miss in the conventional sense. If fielded as planned, LOCUST X3 would become the Army's first directed-energy program of record — not a testbed, but an actual system entering the force structure.
What Comes Next
AeroVironment will deliver dozens of LOCUST X3 systems over the next several years. The laser is being integrated onto the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, with evaluation ongoing for the Infantry Squad Vehicle as well. The company expects to field higher-power variants over time. The broader lesson from the Iran conflict appears to be taking hold: the Army is actively building a layered air defense architecture that treats drones — across all size classes — as the primary threat it needs to defeat at scale, not as an afterthought.
Source: Task & Purpose
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Group 3 drone?
Group 3 is the U.S. military's classification for mid-sized unmanned aerial systems — aircraft typically weighing between 55 and 1,320 pounds and operating at altitudes up to around 18,000 feet. Iran's Shahed-136 one-way attack drone falls into this category and has been widely used in both the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Why does the Army need a laser instead of more missiles?
Missiles are expensive and slow to replenish. A laser weapon costs a fraction per shot, can engage multiple targets in seconds, and does not require a physical interceptor to be manufactured and stored. As missile inventories remain depleted from the ongoing Iran conflict, directed-energy systems offer a way to restore layered air defense capacity without waiting years for the defense industrial base to catch up.
When will LOCUST X3 be operational?
Deliveries are underway under the $464.8 million contract, with dozens of systems expected to be delivered over the next several years. The system is currently being integrated onto Army vehicles, with fielding decisions expected to follow once testing and evaluation are complete.
Sources: Task & Purpose
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