AeroVironment has announced that its palletized LOCUST Laser Weapon System successfully tracked, engaged, and neutralized multiple target drones during a live-fire demonstration aboard the USS George H.W. Bush in October 2025, conducted in collaboration with the U.S. Navy and the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office.

The demonstration validated the system’s roll-on, roll-off shipboard integration without requiring permanent ship modifications — the operational case AV has been building for the Palletized High Energy Laser architecture. The system can run off ship’s power or its own battery bank, which the company frames as combining an effectively unlimited directed energy magazine with an essentially unlimited power source in a maritime context.

The carrier demonstration extends a platform record that already includes fixed sites and land-based mobile vehicles including the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and Infantry Squad Vehicle. AV characterizes the LOCUST architecture as platform-agnostic, with open interfaces designed to fulfill requirements across multiple services from a common system baseline.

LOCUST sits within AV’s broader layered C-UAS stack alongside the RF-based Titan family and the Freedom Eagle kinetic missile, all operating under the AV_Halo open architecture software platform. AV unveiled a third-generation variant, the LOCUST X3, in March 2026.