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One of the most distinctive features of the U.S. military\u2019s high-energy laser weapon of choice isn\u2019t the system itself\u2014it\u2019s how operators control it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The logic of embracing the handset simple: If the vast majority of Americans grow up playing video games<\/a> and even continue playing into adulthood, why not adopt a control system that capitalizes on U.S. troops\u2019 preservice experience and reduce the training timelines for advanced weapons systems?<\/p>\n \u201cThe gaming companies spent millions of dollars developing an optimal, intuitive, easy-to-learn user interface, and then they went and spent years training up the user base for the U.S. military on how to use that interface,\u201d military technologist Peter Singer previously old me<\/a> of the Pentagon\u2019s Xbox fixation. \u201cThese designs aren\u2019t happenstance, and the same pool they\u2019re pulling from for their customer base, the military is pulling from .\u00a0.\u00a0. and the training is basically already done.\u201d<\/p>\n Xbox controllers and high-energy laser weapons in particular appear to be a match made in heaven, and not just with LOCUST. More than a decade ago, the beam director on the U.S. Army\u2019s truck-mounted 10-kilowatt High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator<\/a> (HEL MD) was operated<\/a> using an Xbox handset. So is the 10-kilowatt High-Energy Laser Weapon System (HELWS) from Raytheon that both the U.S.<\/a> and U.K. militaries<\/a> have tested in recent years, according to a 2018 video published<\/a> to the U.S. military\u2019s Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS). <\/p>\n<\/div>\n