Marine Corps Arms JLTV With AI-Enabled Drone-Incinerating Laser

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

The Marine Corps is arming its Joint Light Tactical Vehicle with an AI-enabled, drone-killing laser weapon engineered to find, track and incinerate enemy threats in the air with what the Corps hopes is paradigm-changing speed, precision and ground-to-air fire.

The office of Naval Research and the Naval Surface Warfare Center have awarded a deal to a weapons maker called “BlueHalo” to integrate its LOCUST HEL High-Energy-Laser onto the JLTV to bring mobile counter-UAS to the Corps in an unprecedented way. The laser is a key part of an integrated Corps ground-defense system called Marine Air Defense Integrated Systems (MADIS).

“The LOCUST system combines precision optical and laser hardware with advanced software, artificial intelligence (AI), and processing to enable and enhance the directed energy “kill chain”, which includes tracking, identifying, and engaging a wide variety of targets with its hard-kill HEL,” a published essay from BlueHalo says.

The mention of AI is significant here, as emerging AI-capable systems can gather threat data, perform advanced analytics and choose or recommend an optimal attack solution in milliseconds. As part of this, an AI-capable system can receive incoming sensor data related to potential threats, bounce it off of a seemingly limitless database to discern the make, type, speed and severity of a potential threat by performing analytics in near real-time. Once a threat is identified by an AI-system, after bouncing new information off of a vast data library to make an accurate determination, an AI-capable targeting and fire control system can quickly “pair,” “optimize” or “scale” the type of laser countermeasure to be used for that particular threat scenario.

This aligns with some of the key tactical advantages known to accompany the integration of laser weapons, as not only are they able to fire quietly at the speed of light but they can also be “scaled.” This capability means a vehicle-mounted laser system, particularly if enabled by AI, can quickly stun, disable, slow down or completely incinerate and destroy enemy targets such as drones, helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and even ground targets should the weapon adjust to a linear or horizontal firing trajectory.

Lasers also give commanders critical tactical options as they can destroy or disable a target while causing less debris, explosions and fragmentation, something which introduces advantages in places where there may be a high concentration of civilians or a need to minimize explosions.