Army-type LOCUST laser appears among air defenses at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate
A counter-drone laser made by AeroVironment, called LOCUST, has joined the protective systems around President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, according to DroneXL. A Getty photographer captured it on October 31, parked behind two Avenger missile launchers set up on a platform floating in Lake Worth Lagoon.
NORAD and U.S. Northern Command confirmed they placed ground-based air defense and counter-drone equipment near the estate after a request from the U.S. Secret Service. "Due to operational security, we are unable to provide additional details," the commands said, directing other questions to the Secret Service.
The Secret Service described a heightened threat environment and said its protective operations are continuously adjusted. It named neither a weapon nor a threat, and DroneXL reported that neither agency has linked the laser to any specific danger.
Which laser is it?
The vehicle is a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle with a beam director on its roof, matching the 20-kilowatt Army Multi-Purpose High Energy Laser, DroneXL said. It reported that The War Zone covered the laser on November 2 after Jared Keller's Laser Wars newsletter spotted it in the photo.
Two soldiers in camouflage climb onto a tan JLTV carrying a roof-mounted laser beam director at night. Photo: DroneXL
NewsBytes labeled the unit a 30 kW LOCUST X3, but DroneXL said neither NORAD nor AeroVironment has confirmed the variant. It said AeroVironment delivered two JLTV-mounted 20 kW-class lasers to the Army in December 2025, and argued that the hardware in the photo matches those.
Airspace restrictions
A flight restriction issued on October 18, 2026, bars drones from a circle one nautical mile wide in radius around Mar-a-Lago, up to 2,000 feet above ground, until October 20, 2027, DroneXL reported. Drone operators are warned that federal agencies may take action leading to the "seizure, damaging, or destruction" of their aircraft.
The restriction extends one in force since October 20, 2025. In an August 11 court filing, the FAA tallied over 160 aircraft and drones that had entered the restricted airspace, a figure The War Zone attributed to the filing, according to DroneXL. The FAA proposed on September 2 to make the restriction permanent.
DroneXL noted that the same 20 kW laser family destroyed a Customs and Border Protection drone near Fort Hancock in February, and that the FAA and the Pentagon signed a safety agreement on April 10 clearing the lasers for U.S. airspace. The outlet said the Mar-a-Lago site is in a residential town about three miles (4.8 kilometers) from a commercial runway.
