100-Percent: LOCUST’s First Day at Sea

When most people picture a shipboard laser weapon, they likely imagine a massive, bulky system-welded into the hull and fixed in place.

That's not what we brought aboard USS George H.W. Bush.

For a single day at sea, AV's palletized LOCUST® laser weapon system was forklifted onto the flight deck, enabling a live-fire exercise that demonstrated its performance in real-world operational conditions. The system was powered from the ship, operated by sailors with less than an hour of training, and engaged every target presented. Every single target was destroyed. 100 percent success.

For the Navy, it was a first look at what our containerized, "roll-on/roll-off" laser weapon, LOCUST, can really do. For us, it was the payoff from years of work in directed energy-and a hint of where this technology is going.

From Bolted-In Experiments to Roll-On Capability

The Navy's early laser efforts focused on high-power systems integrated into the ship, hard-wired into the hull and power system. Those programs taught us a lot, but they also revealed constraints: if the ship goes into maintenance, the weapon does too; if the laser needs upgrades, you work around the ship; moving capability between hulls is slow and costly.

Meanwhile, counter-UAS was becoming a daily operational problem. The Army had proven that palletized, truck-mounted lasers could consistently defeat small drones in harsh environments. The natural question was: could that same modular, field-ready architecture work at sea?

AV's mission? Prove it viable at sea.

Turning a Land System into a Sea System

On paper, we took a standard palletized LOCUST system-the same basic architecture used on land-and operated it from a carrier. In reality, we had to solve three sets of problems.

First, marinization. The LOCUST variant used on USS Bush was built on our Army fielded design, but carrier life demands more:

• Hardened electronics for salt fog, humidity, vibration, and long deployments
• Stabilization hardware to manage ship motion
• Sealing and environmental protection so the system would be ready whenever it was needed
• A laser weapon system that delivers precise, low-collateral effects-enhancing ship self-defense while minimizing risk to nearby personnel, platforms, and flight operations.

We implemented a series of hardware upgrades focused on these issues. Our software and tracking heritage, including work on the Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy, or ODIN, meant the control stack already reflected decades of naval experience. The emphasis here was making a proven laser weapon reliable at sea, not reinventing it.

Second, roll-on/roll-off. The Navy has been clear: it wants containerized, movable weapons. On USS Bush, LOCUST was:

• Forklifted onto the flight deck in palletized form
• Positioned in a location that required pausing normal flight operations during the test window
• Forklifted back off once the demonstration ended so the carrier could resume its standard tempo

We wanted to show that a high-energy laser could arrive as a containerized asset, fight, and then get out of the way. That flexibility-roll on, roll off-is exactly what the Navy has been signaling in its public comments on containerized systems.

Third, safety and integration. However, bringing a laser weapon onto a carrier isn't just a technical question. The Navy reviewed how the system would be brought aboard, powered, and operated safely alongside flight deck activity and other systems. Working through that set of questions created a path not just for this event, but for future containerized deployments.

One Day, 100 Percent Successful Engagements

The test window aboard USS Bush lasted one day. Within that day, three things mattered most: effectiveness, repeatability, and usability.

Effectiveness was straightforward. LOCUST targeted, tracked and defeated every single small unmanned aircraft target and defeated all threats flown. 100 percent success. For any counter-UAS system, kinetic or non-kinetic, a 100 percent success rate in live testing is notable. For a palletized laser operating from a carrier, it was a clear signal: the technology is ready.

Repeatability came from the laser's basic economics. Every engagement consumed electricity, not interceptors. In a kinetic system, these defeats would have meant that dozens of interceptors would have been expended, with all the associated production, storage, and resupply burden. With LOCUST, the system drew power from the ship, recharged, and was ready for the next shot. On a nuclear-powered carrier, that's a natural fit: high-volume defense without an exponential logistics tail.

The most important part, though, was usability. Roughly half the engagements were executed by sailors-from enlisted operators up through senior officers, including flag leadership. Training time was measured in tens of minutes.

Within about an hour of using the system, sailors who had never fired a laser weapon before were acquiring targets, working the interface, and making successful engagements. That's what it looks like when directed energy stops being a lab project and becomes a practical tool.

What It Meant for the Navy-and for Us

For the Navy, the USS Bush demonstration answered key questions that need to be addressed as technology transitions from labs to the field. Most important of all, the demo showed that a containerized laser weapon can operate effectively from a carrier without being permanently integrated into the ship. The demo also showed the Navy that training for these new systems can be straight forward and quickly implemented for sailors.

For AV, this demo validated a design philosophy that has been guiding this program over the last five years: Start with a modular, platform-agnostic architecture and leverage decades of naval tracking and control experience to harden the system for the environment and let real operators use it. In working with the Navy during this demonstration, valuable lessons learned were gained of how to make the next generation of LOCUST Laser Weapon Systems tailored for the Navy. It also underscored where the technology is going. Across the services, modalities, and environments, interest in directed energy-especially for counter-UAS-is now reflected in budgets, not just briefings. The center of gravity is shifting from one-off demos to production and fielding.

Looking forward, we are laser-focused (pun intended) on scaling LOCUST production to meet the needs while continuing ruggedization and spiral upgrades for long-duration maritime deployments. This should help us to provide evolving containerized variants tailored for the Navy and partners in maritime environments.

Lasers in the Layered Defense

Directed energy won't replace every other effector, and it shouldn't. RF systems, guns, and kinetic interceptors are all essential parts of a layered defense and sea deployments are no exception.

But against high volumes of small, inexpensive unmanned systems at sea, a containerized, ship-powered laser offers something unique: very low marginal cost per shot, effectively bottomless "magazine" tied to ship power, modular deployment across platforms, and rapid usability by sailors.

On USS George H.W. Bush, that combination translated into a simple outcome: a laser weapon rolled onto the flight deck, powered up, trained its first Navy operators, hit 100-percent of the targets, and rolled back off.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Garrity is an engineer and defense technology leader specializing in directed energy and counter-UAS systems. He has helped advance high-energy laser integration, fielding scalable solutions that enhance precision engagement, air defense, and layered protection across complex operational environments.

Mary Clum is a defense technology executive leading space, cyber, and directed energy initiatives. With more than 25 years of experience across AV, BlueHalo, and Raytheon, she has driven the development and deployment of advanced mission systems, guiding highly technical programs from innovation through operational fielding in support of national security.

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