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Deep & Emerging Tech·October 22, 2026·1 min read

US Army moves away from dedicated laser vehicles — modular LOCUST X3 laser turns standard army trucks into speed-of-light counter-drone rigs for $5 a shot

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The Army shifting to modular LOCUST X3 lasers on standard trucks is a bet that counter-drone will be a software-and-power problem, not a bespoke-vehicle problem. For any organization facing cheap, proliferating aerial threats, the pattern is clear — flexible mounts and interchangeable payloads beat specialized platforms.

Deep & Emerging Tech

'Data centers can be located in exhausted open pits': Russia eyes 300-meter-deep coal mines to shield server infrastructure from Ukrainian drones

Designing data centers 300 meters underground to avoid drones and leverage passive cooling shows how compute is now treated as strategic infrastructure in conflict zones. If your footprint is even indirectly exposed to geopolitical risk, physical hardening and location strategy belong in the same conversation as chips and power.