One of the two supercarriers of the U.S. Navy has been testing advanced anti-drone laser weaponry. In a blog post this week, AeroVironment (AV) says that its LOCUST Laser Weapon System (LWS) was put aboard the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) in October 2025. It was successfully demonstrated in a live-fire event where it “tracked, engaged, and neutralized multiple target drones.”

We aren’t sure if the LOCUST is still on board the USS George H.W. Bush, but it might be a useful extra layer of protection, as it was announced today that it is one of the three aircraft carriers operating in the Middle East right now – for the first time in decades.

AV’s VP of Directed Energy Systems, John Garrity, was effervescent about this latest collaborative venture. “LOCUST delivers effective, all-domain protection against emerging drone threats at the speed of light—on any platform, in any domain, for any mission,” said Garrity. “Rolling LOCUST onto a ship and quickly initiating operations facilitates the expanded use of high-energy lasers across the Fleet without the need for costly, time-consuming ship modifications,” he explained. Moreover, Garrity went as far as describing this successful demo as “a game-changer for the Navy and for our national security.”

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We’ve covered LOCUST before. In January, we noted that it had been upgraded with “a larger aperture beam director, improving lethality performance.” That may have happened after the demo on the USS George H.W. Bush, as AV reveals the supercarrier hosted the LOCUST back in October 2025.

According to AV, shipboard deployments of LOCUST are a great fit for the tech as the LWS can roll on and off as needed, and run fully off a ship’s power. That gives the vessel “an unlimited DE magazine with an essentially unlimited power source.”

Drones everywhere

Drones are already well established in modern warfare, with thousands of them deployed by both sides in the Russia-Ukraine war. It wasn’t a surprise that Iran also unleashed its Shahed air terror tech against what it saw as U.S. Gulf state allies, plus the infrastructure of U.S. and Israeli businesses, following the strikes on its government, military, and supporting systems.

We also don’t see why a US-made mobile drone swarm killer like the Leonidas AGV with its high-power microwave platform can’t be easily positioned on large Navy vessels.

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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.