AeroVironment LOCUST Counter-Drone Laser Spotted at Mar-a-Lago as NORAD Confirms Air Defense Deployment

An AeroVironment LOCUST counter-drone laser is now part of the air defenses around President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Getty photographer Andrew Harnik photographed it on October 31, mounted on a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and parked between two palm trees behind a pair of Avenger missile launchers on a floating platform in Lake Worth Lagoon. NORAD and U.S. Northern Command confirmed that they deployed ground-based air defense and counter-drone systems around Mar-a-Lago at the request of the U.S. Secret Service. The vehicle and the beam director on its roof match the 20-kilowatt Army Multi-Purpose High Energy Laser, the system family behind the February test that led the FAA to shut down El Paso's airspace and the destruction of a Customs and Border Protection drone near Fort Hancock two weeks later. Those shots took place over a military range and a border strip; this system sits in a residential town.

NORAD and U.S. Northern Command said, "Due to operational security, we are unable to provide additional details," and referred further questions to the Secret Service. The Secret Service said it is operating in a heightened threat environment and continuously adapts its protective operations, without naming a weapon or a threat. Neither agency has tied the laser to a specific threat. The Secret Service's late-October statement to CBS12 did name one item: NORTHCOM's counter-small Unmanned Aircraft System Fly-Away Kits. The Avenger launchers came first: NurPhoto's Christopher Beckett photographed them on the shoreline on October 16 and on the ramp at Donald J. Trump International Airport the day before. In August, Avengers covered Trump's Bedminster club during the LIV Golf final, and NORAD said then that the 263rd Army Air and Missile Defense Command runs them for the Secret Service; the command would not say whether that is the case in Palm Beach.

The JLTV points to the 20 kW LOCUST rather than the newer X3. AeroVironment delivered two JLTV-mounted LOCUST lasers to the Army in December 2025 under the AMP-HEL program, and its release describes the system as the same 20kW-class LOCUST LWS as the Infantry Squad Vehicle version. The 30 kW LOCUST X3 won its first production contract, worth $464.8 million, in September. NewsBytes labeled the Mar-a-Lago unit an X3, but neither NORAD nor AeroVironment has confirmed the variant. On February 10, CBP officials fired a Pentagon-owned LOCUST at what turned out to be Mylar balloons near Fort Bliss, and the FAA closed El Paso's airspace over the test. On February 26, soldiers used the same system to destroy a CBP surveillance drone the Pentagon had not been told about. The FAA and the Pentagon signed a safety agreement on April 10 that cleared the lasers for U.S. airspace, and in October the Pentagon picked AeroVironment's laser for a year-long pilot at U.S. bases.

The FAA's flight restriction closes a one-nautical-mile circle around Mar-a-Lago from the surface to 2,000 feet AGL until October 20, 2027, and warns drone operators that the Department of War, DHS or DOJ may take action resulting in the "seizure, damaging, or destruction" of their aircraft. It has been in place around the clock since October 20, 2025, whether or not Trump is in residence. The Secret Service requested it in a September 16, 2025 letter from Director Sean Curran to FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford, citing "adverse threat intelligence." Palm Beach County, West Palm Beach and the Town of Palm Beach took the restriction to the D.C. Circuit over noise from rerouted airliners, and the county commission voted 4-3 in September to pause its case rather than drop it. In an August 11 federal court filing, the FAA counted more than 160 planes and drones that had breached the airspace since the restriction began. NORAD F-16s intercepted a general aviation aircraft over Palm Beach as recently as October 24.