18APR

AeroVironment delivers four LOCUST X3 lasers to RCCTO for EHEL

3 min read

13:54UTC

Two laser systems mounted on Infantry Squad Vehicles and two on JLTVs arrived at the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office for evaluation.

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Key takeaway

LOCUST X3 hardware now sits at RCCTO, setting pace for the Western counter-drone laser contest.

AeroVironment delivered four LOCUST X3 laser systems to the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office on 15 April, for EHEL programme evaluation. Two units are mounted on Infantry Squad Vehicles and two on the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle chassis, a deliberate split that allows RCCTO to evaluate the same weapon across light-mobility and protected-mobility carriers. The delivery is the first publicly-confirmed hardware arrival from any EHEL bidder at the evaluation authority.

AeroVironment unveiled the LOCUST X3 at AUSA in March and quoted a $5 per-engagement cost against Group 1-3 drones, the category that includes quadcopter-class FPV threats and small-to-medium fixed-wing reconnaissance drones. Delivery to RCCTO moves the programme from exhibition claim to evaluation test article.

AeroVironment's vehicle-integration choice carries a clear signal. Two on ISV and two on JLTV confirms the firm wants EHEL judged as a platform-agnostic counter-drone weapon rather than a single-carrier system, which is consistent with a procurement strategy aimed at multiple services and multiple force-package tiers. If the laser performs similarly well on both chassis the commercial envelope widens considerably.

RCCTO delivery also anchors the schedule for every directed-energy bidder watching EHEL timing. RCCTO evaluations do not yield programme-of-record selection by themselves, but they set the pace at which one or more EHEL bidders can present complete evidence for Army review. AeroVironment has now put hardware on the range. Competing bidders who have not done so yet will need to close that gap, and allied defence ministries watching the category for export-capable options will weight early-delivery vendors accordingly.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

AeroVironment is an American defence company that makes a laser weapon called LOCUST X3. Unlike a missile or a bullet, a laser can fire multiple times per second without running out of ammunition, and AeroVironment claims each shot costs about $5, far cheaper than any kinetic interceptor. The US Army runs a competition called EHEL (the Army laser counter-drone evaluation programme) to find the best counter-drone laser weapon. AeroVironment delivered four LOCUST X3 systems to the Army's evaluation authority for testing. Two were mounted on a light vehicle called the Infantry Squad Vehicle, and two on a heavier vehicle called the JLTV. Delivering on both types shows the weapon can work on different platforms. The Army will now test whether the laser performs as well in evaluation as AeroVironment's exhibition claims suggested.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

AeroVironment's RCCTO delivery reflects the same two-platform hedge strategy that characterises the firm's approach to counter-drone markets more broadly: by delivering on both Infantry Squad Vehicles and JLTVs simultaneously, AeroVironment avoids being locked into a single vehicle-integration path at the earliest evaluation stage.

What could happen next?

Consequence
Competing directed-energy bidders who have not yet delivered hardware to RCCTO will face an accumulated evaluation-data disadvantage as AeroVironment gathers performance records over the extended Q4 FY26 timeline.

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources from United Kingdom

United Kingdom

Primary parallel: Boeing's High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator delivered hardware to the Army for RCCTO predecessor evaluation in 2012, demonstrated 100% intercept rates against mortar rounds in controlled tests, and then stalled on a decade-long path to any programme of record due to power-supply, thermal management and operator training constraints.

AeroVironment's LOCUST X3 delivery follows the same early-evaluation trajectory that HEL-MD followed before those constraints became apparent.

Counter-parallel: Northrop Grumman's VIPER laser achieved RCCTO evaluation completion within 18 months in the 2022-2023 cycle and progressed to an extended operational assessment, demonstrating that the evaluation-to-assessment pathway can run faster than the HEL-MD precedent if power and thermal design specifications are met at first hardware delivery.

Consensus view: Defense News technology correspondent Sydney Freedberg Jr. has noted that RCCTO deliveries mark the transition from vendor claim to Army evaluation record: a $5 per-engagement cost figure quoted at an exhibition means nothing until RCCTO measures it against actual engagement attempts under evaluation conditions, and the delivery of hardware is the precondition for that measurement.

Counter-view: Breaking Defense analyst Theresa Hitchens argues that directed-energy systems have a long history of performing well in controlled evaluations and poorly in field conditions, citing the Army's High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL-MD) which achieved a 100% hit rate in 2013 evaluations but required a power infrastructure that field logistics could not sustain. Hitchens treats RCCTO delivery as an early indicator, not a capability confirmation.

Key tension: Whether the LOCUST X3's vehicle-platform-agnostic delivery across ISV and JLTV chassis demonstrates genuine operational flexibility, or whether the evaluation environment will surface power-supply and thermal management constraints that the exhibition claim suppressed.

Sources:Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)·Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)

Mentions:RCCTO →Enduring High Energy Laser →LOCUST X3 →US Army →Northrop Grumman →Prima →FPV →Boeing →AeroVironment →

First Reported In

Update #6 · Britain's £752M Ukraine drone package

Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)· 18 Apr 2026

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Causes and effects

This Event

AeroVironment delivers four LOCUST X3 lasers to RCCTO for EHEL

LOCUST X3 is AeroVironment's entry into the Army's directed-energy counter-drone competition, and physical delivery to RCCTO is the step that moves the firm from announced bidder to formal entrant. For the drone-industry beat this delivery is the earliest practical indicator of how a credible Western industrial counter-drone laser product behaves under Army evaluation and at what integration tier it can sit across wheeled and tracked platforms.

Led to

RTX demos reusable Coyote against swarms

AeroVironment's LOCUST X3 $5-per-engagement benchmark delivery to RCCTO in April set the cost target RTX's reusable Coyote now competes against.

Occurred 21 Apr 2026

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Different Perspectives

Denmark (host nation)

Denmark accepted Fire Point's Skrydstrup plant after committing to bilateral defence co-production at the B9 Nordic summit in May; the facility sits beside a Danish F-35 base, sharing security perimeters. NATO has published no legal guidance on whether hosting Ukrainian weapons production converts Denmark into a co-belligerent, leaving the host-state obligation unresolved.

Russian Ministry of Defence

Russia's 117% YoY drone-output rise in April, accelerating from a 68% full-year 2025 baseline, validates the FPV mass-production doctrine and hands Moscow a cleaner targeting argument for the Skrydstrup plant than any hidden production line offered; a Ukrainian weapons facility on NATO sovereign territory is a legitimate military target under the laws of armed conflict.

Baltic NATO states (Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania)

Latvia deployed mobile drone-intercept teams on 29 May using domestic Origin Robotics and Eraser interceptors, the first kinetic Baltic border response to Russia's 117% output surge. The Baltic states are the primary target market for Ukraine's ten EU export offices, giving them direct commercial access to combat-tested interceptors their own manufacturers have not yet matched.

Pentagon / Joint Interagency Task Force 401

Two Ukrainian entrants in Drone Dominance Phase 2 and Red Cat's SEC-filed STE partnership bring combat-iterated Ukrainian designs into US procurement without triggering Foreign Military Sale approvals; the programme's performance-scoring methodology does not require US-origin hardware. Northrop holding the Common UAS Payload standard means a heritage prime captures interface revenue regardless of which startup airframe wins.

Ukrainian defence industry (Fire Point / Spetstechnoexport)

Fire Point's Skrydstrup construction start and Spetstechnoexport's Red Cat partnership execute Zelensky's 13 May Bucharest proposal: converting wartime production surplus into a state export apparatus, independent of US approval chains. For Ukraine, embedded manufacturing on NATO soil protects propellant supply from Russian strikes while generating hard currency the war effort needs.

Chinese drone manufacturers (DJI, Autel)

Autel's Ralls Corp Fifth Amendment filing and DJI's Ninth Circuit quantification of USD 1.56 billion in 2026 losses are parallel constitutional attacks on a classified-evidence exclusion mechanism; neither company can contest the intelligence allegations directly, so both are betting on due-process doctrine to reopen the FCC authorisation route.