LOCUST X3 and the Unverified Border Laser Claim | Sep 09, 2026

Directed energy weapons went operational this week — and the numbers being used to sell that story don't hold up to scrutiny.

Marcus and Sam break down the Army's $464.8 million production contract with AeroVironment for the LOCUST X3, the first laser weapon production contract in US military history, and the same week's claim that a related border laser cut cartel drone flights over the Rio Grande Valley by 75 percent — a figure with no published baseline, from a program that shut down El Paso International Airport and shot down a CBP drone earlier this year. They dig into the real economics behind AeroVironment's "$3-a-shot" pitch, the destroy-versus-jam tactical shift, and what the FAA still hasn't disclosed. Then it's on to Ukraine, where the AI-guided Khyzhak gun turret has jumped from ground vehicles to helicopters to hunt Shahed drones, and the homegrown Koral surface-to-air missile — a decade in development — made its public debut at Poland's MSPO expo as an indigenous answer to ballistic threats.

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