The Future of Warfare: Analyzing the Locust Laser Weapon System

Introduction to the Locust Laser Weapon System

In the quickly changing stage of contemporary war, drones are the true revolutionaries. These devices carry the dependable power to destroy. They do not pack a punch but do deliver a serious hit. And what they do have is a cost that can’t be reused. CNN’s Forces of Change examined the escalating impact of drone technology and introduced a new player: the laser. The cost-effective weapon doesn’t hover over the battlefield but deploys a beam that continues to the target. The program turned to experts to answer the question: Is America ready for laser warfare?

This piece will contend that although laser armaments such as the BlueHalo Locust offer a budget-friendly way to deal with the drone threat, they also present some sticking problems that have to be solved before they can become standard issue for the military. And even those problems aren’t the half of it; what adopting this kind of technology might mean for the military, for international relations, for defense budgets, and for the whole ethics of fighting a war is the real story.

Challenges of Laser Weapons Compared to Traditional Arms

We cannot underestimate the importance of weapons that use lasers. According to estimates, a single shot from the military’s most powerful laser is projected to cost just $3—about the same as a flash from a flashlight—but the current bullet price is effectively a giveaway to the laser weapon’s developers and manufacturers. That’s because the Pentagon has so far avoided tallying significant expenses for any laser energy weapons it has fielded. The absurdly low figure for the laser weapon’s operating cost, for now, is just the price of the electricity to run it. Analysts seeing the lights of the laser revolution ahead can’t be allowed to get too far ahead of themselves, because what matters in the end is not the cost of the operating flash but the cost of the operating system itself.

Since their development in the 1960s, laser weapons have attracted the interest of military strategists. They have begun to emerge as clout players in the modern military arsenal, with their use becoming more pronounced in the recent past. The BlueHalo Locust is a laser weapon designed to fit onto large Army vehicles. Its light weight and compact dimensions make it a flexible addition to military operations. A key part of the research and development of the Locust has been focused on its best asset: the artificial intelligence that drives it. The Locust’s AI can quickly assess the combat environment—especially in terms of identifying which aerial targets are drones. Though they may be identified as such under R&D conditions, quite a few Army analysts see lasers as problematic in light of several key performance factors.

Operational Mechanics and Cost-Effectiveness of the Locust

The laser weapon’s cost-effectiveness is beyond dispute, but its reliability in combat is not established. The military can have little confidence in fully integrating lasers into their operational framework when the technology is this young and unchallenged. Call it a design flaw, but laser systems have serious logistical problems. One is connoted by the Army’s description of using a laser as a “mountain-top” weapon. Even after a source of water is found, the system will have to be carried 3-5 km in the face of opposition. Roughly half of the water is needed to energize the personnel carrying the laser, and the other half is to maintain the hydraulic system that moves the beam across the path taken by the enemy. If the enemy is operating in remote terrain, the Army had better have a remote support system in place. Oh, and if the ambient temperature is above 38°C, the laser will quite possibly fail anyhow.

Future Developments and Concerns in Laser Technology

As with all weapon systems, lasers will require ethical oversight to ensure that they are used responsibly. Advocates of the systems argue that their power and efficiency will enable forces to fight more cheaply and, because of their precision, more ethically than at present. But there are significant questions to be raised, not just about the ethics of using weapons that inflict death and destruction, but also about the systems’ overall effectiveness and reliability. Serious consideration must also be given to the reason for using lasers in the first place. Will they help achieve the military’s stated goal of overcoming the revolutionary problem posed by insurgents? Will they reduce collateral damage and “innocent mistakes”? Or will they make possible the sorts of acts that a weapon in the hands of a repressive regime always has?

For most average people, the development of laser weapons signifies an important shift in the kinds of tools we will use for military engagements. The high-energy devices we have developed thus far have been effective for only short-range encounters. But our investment in this area suggests that we could in the future have a military capable of making long-range laser strikes and hitting targets with extraordinary precision. Would this in any way change the balance of power among nations? Would it risk shifting us into a new form of technologically driven competition? And what of the prospect for human life in all of this?

Laser weapons like the BlueHalo Locust could revolutionize warfare. They are cost-effective and precise to the point of being “militarily useful,” claims one wargame consultant, who also calls them a “strategy-redefining technology.” Yet the advantages and promises of a new technology always come with a set of not-so-easy problems to solve. And in this case, those problems shouldn’t be underestimated if we want to avoid what’s sometimes called the “reliability, ethics, and global stability” risks of a new system.

As we teeter on the edge of a new epoch in armed conflict, we must adopt an even keel when integrating laser weapons into the military. These high-tech devices seem straightforward enough: they go in, they do their work, and they come out again. Implicit in this scenario is a twofold promise: that the sophisticated gizmos of tomorrow will be so good at what they do that they will not be used in ways that are bad for people and that using them will not create conditions conducive to using them inappropriately.