Current drones, without modifications, are vulnerable, but it's cheap and easy to modify them. Plus, this doesn't work in humid weather either. It's another "wonder weapon" that's nothing but hype. I mean, ask an LLM, and it will give you at least several strategies for protecting a drone from any kind of directed energy weapon! Unless it's direct kinetic energy, forget about it!
> AeroVironment says it has successfully demonstrated its LOCUST laser weapon system aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush during a live-fire exercise
So, not combat proven, but demonstrated in an exercise with constrained parameters. An interesting system, but we've yet to see how well lasers handle the CIWS mission profile.
How is the $5 calculated? It's in the title but not article text or the press release it's based on.