The US military is reviewing its approach to producing weapons aimed at suppressing and destroying small drones built by Iran and China. Since anti-aircraft missiles are ineffective against drone swarms, the army is planned to be equipped with more technological solutions.

Paul Scharr, vice president and research director of the Center for American Security (CNAS), believes that destroying a thousand-dollar drone with a million-dollar missile is not a cost-effective solution. Such UAVs force the military to waste ammunition, which can make them vulnerable to attacks from larger missiles. However, it is necessary to shoot down unmanned aerial vehicles, so the United States is developing effective technologies against aerial threats such as unmanned aerial vehicles.

Epirus’ Leonidas anti-drone aerial system produces a powerful microwave beam that overloads the electronics of the drone it affects. In the best case, the electronics fails, in the worst case, all its components are completely burned out. Thus, microwave weapons effectively destroy drones in the sky. Unlike electronic warfare, which interferes with radio communications, microwave weapons destroy a drone.

Epirus first showcased the Leonidas in 2020 and introduced the third-generation model in 2022. During testing, Leonidas shot down 66 of 66 target drones.

The emitter of this microwave setup is not a conventional satellite dish, but a flat plate with a diameter of about 3 m, this is because the device is based on a series of solid-state blocks, similarly composed of gallium nitride. LEDs, however, produce radio waves, not light. Such emitters are more compact than the magnetrons used in conventional radars. A computer controller adjusts the output signal of each chip in the array to shape and direct the beam with high precision.

Epirus has already delivered Leonidas systems to the US Army. They could be perfect for dealing with drone swarms. Paul Scharr notes that the use of directed energy weapons to combat drones is economically beneficial and is not inferior to anti-aircraft missiles in terms of accuracy.