Jane Edwards
BlueHalo has announced the delivery of its laser weapon platform, LOCUST, to the U.S. Army for integration into the service’s Palletized High Energy Laser system.
The P-HEL program launched by the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office seeks to address the increasing threat posed by small unmanned aircraft systems through the development of counter-sUAS prototypes, BlueHalo said Wednesday.
The LOCUST system is part of BlueHalo’s family of C-sUAS mission platforms and enables the directed energy kill chain by combining advanced software and algorithms with precision optical and laser hardware.
The BlueHalo platform was recently evaluated as part of the P-HEL C-UAS system during a risk reduction event.
Jonathan Moneymaker, CEO of BlueHalo and a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, said the LOCUST system is designed to provide precision electro-optic/infrared tracking, pointing, identification and hard kill against various UAS while serving as a discrimination asset and as a platform for collecting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data.
The Army’s Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office plans to assess the P-HEL system by spring at Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona.
