Miniaturized Solution Against Drone Swarms

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While there are many optional solutions against rogue drones, a swarm of a number of drones operating together is more challenging.

A new solution uses high-energy microwaves to destroy enemy drone swarms. The weapon is able to fire beams of microwaves that can damage electronic devices and mess with their power.

Developed by Epirus, a US-based startup, Leonidas is a counter-electronics system with the power and precision to disable multiple threats across a wide area or neutralize a single system in tight, crowded spaces. Epirus’ approach shifts the paradigm for directed energy, delivering counter-electronics capabilities that would traditionally occupy entire rooms’ worth of space into a flexible, mobile package that can fit in the back of a truck.

The system allows the capability to widen or narrow the beam and put a null in any direction to disable enemy targets without harming friendly electronics.

The weapon seems to work like a directional EMP generator. Such a system could be helpful against mass drone attacks, according to wonderfulengineering.com.

The company created the first solid-state direct energy microwave that doesn’t use vacuum tubes or require a truckload of coolant to operate. The weapon employs an array of solid-state gallium nitride emitters similar to those found in 5G communication equipment but weaponized to fry drones. During a demo, Leonidas was able to take out all 66 drone targets and was even able to down multiple targets in one attack.

The startup is working to bring down the weapon’s size even further and also bump up its accuracy. According to them, accuracy is very important because, in case of friendly fire, the weapon is capable of “damaging the electrical power infrastructure or frying people’s electronic devices”.