Army SMDC’s Laser Technology Program to Draw Lessons from BlueHalo’s Locust Weapon System

BlueHalo will leverage learnings from the deployments of its Locust Laser Weapon System in a $95.4 million contract for advanced directed energy prototype development that it won under the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s Laser Technology Research Development and Optimization program. According to the company, its tasks will focus on advancing the performance and durability of the system and boosting its deadliness against small unmanned aerial systems.

The contract was secured through the Aviation & Missile Technology Consortium, an industry organization composed of companies collaborating to boost the development of guided missile and aviation technologies, BlueHalo said Tuesday.

Locust will bring into the directed energy prototyping job its combined optical and laser hardware with advanced software and artificial intelligence to enable tracking, identification and engagement of various targets. 

Trip Ferguson, BlueHalo chief operating officer, pointed out that the Locust laser systems deployed overseas already provide “multi-domain mission success in UAS threat elimination and force protection.”  

BlueHalo earlier provided the U.S. Army with its Palletized High Energy Laser system equipped with the Locust platform and has secured a four-year logistics support contract for its preventative and corrective maintenance. In November 2023, the U.S. Navy also awarded BlueHalo a contract to modify its Locust Laser Weapon System for integration into the U.S. Marine Corps’ Joint Light Tactical Vehicle.