Engineering and development testing by the Army of a drone-killing microwave-based directed energy system is set to begin shortly, another important milestone for what system developer Epirus hopes will pave the way for use in one or more combatant commands this year, the head of the company said last Friday.
The Army in April will conduct the month-long capabilities and limitations tests at the China Lake, Calif., testbed in the Mojave Desert to try out the high-power microwave (HPM) system at full power to learn what it can do, Andy Lowery, Epirus’ CEO, told Defense Daily during a virtual interview.
After theses tests, the Army will decide what is next, he said.
“To say this is a Super Bowl for us is an understatement,” Lowery said. “This is the Super Bowl, World Series, the whole dang thing for us going into April.”
If all goes well, Epirus expects the Army to continue training on the short-range air defense Indirect Fire Protection Capability (IFPC)-HPM and send one or more prototypes into an operational theater this year. There has been talk of sending IFPC-HPM prototypes to Ukraine, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, he said.
The company’s HPM system, which is based on a commercially-developed internal technology effort called Leonidas, defeats drone threats—including swarms—by destroying their electronics in flight, causing them to fall from the sky. The microwave systems are expected to counter-drone threats at pennies per shot versus kinetic systems that can cost thousands of dollars to engage a target.
Epirus in December 2022 won a $66 million contract to further develop and produce four IFPC-HPM prototypes. The first system was delivered last fall and now all are with the Army, including two at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington where a small contingent of soldiers are going through the training curriculum.
If one or more combatant command uses the system through 2025 and want it as part of their toolset, they will send a capabilities request to the Army Program Executive Office-Missiles and Space with the expectation that IFPC-HPM is included in the fiscal year 2027 budget request as a program of record, Lowery said. The Defense Department is talking “hundreds of systems,” he added.
Last Thursday, CENTCOM Commander Army Gen. Michael Kurilla told a Senate panel that he wants more directed energy weapons in his operating area to lower the costs to take out drones being used by Iran-backed proxies against cargo vessels and U.S. Navy ships, and to take on swarms of drones, which IFPC-HPM is designed for (Defense Daily, March 7). Iranian proxies had been attacking U.S. military bases in the Middle East region but those attacks stopped after U.S. forces struck 85 enemy targets following a successful drone strike killed three U.S. troops at an outpost in northeastern Jordan.
For Epirus, it comes down to execution. “It’s our not to lose,” Lowery said. The company needs Kurilla to “say it’s good,” then it will get into the budget, he said.
While Epirus awaits the outcome of the upcoming testing, the company with its own funds is building four more prototype systems with more advanced capabilities, he said. The company expects congressional defense appropriators to include funding for the four new systems in the FY ’24 defense bill, which continues to be delayed. If the funding is approved, the Army will acquire the additional IFPC-HPMs, he said.
The next-generation HPMs will include polarization that can be modified vertically and horizontally to boost lethality against certain targets, Lowery said. The company is also increasing the power of the amplifiers. The improvements will all help extend range to take on targets, Lowery said.
IFPC-HPM is designed to kill smaller drones, which typically weigh less than 55 pounds and are ubiquitous in the ongoing war in Ukraine. But DoD officials are telling Epirus that they are seeing more Group 3 drones, which weigh up to 1000-plus-pounds and are the sort that Iran is providing to its proxies and Russian forces.
To counter the threats from the Group 3 unmanned aircraft systems that are being equipped with warheads for use as precision strike weapons, Epirus is modifying its HPM system by aiming it at a large dish that can be “electrically parabolic” to narrow the energy beam but with 15 times the energy to destroy targets out to the five-to-10-kilometer range, Lowery said. This higher energy microwave beam can get through the shielding and other protective measures that a Group 3 UAS can carry, he said.
The modified HPM system with the parabolic dish would go after the bigger targets while a separate IFPC-HPM would tackle the smaller drones at shorter ranges, he said.
The modified HPM system, which Lowery described as high technology readiness level technology and “low risk,” is being designed with a university and the dish was purchased off-the-shelf. Epirus believes the technology’s ability to identify and track a target will be easier than using a laser and will get through impediments such as fog and foliage, he said.
Lowery hopes that this summer the company will do “some discovery” work with its modified HPM.
Lowery also provided updates on other developments with its HPM technology:
- In partnership with the Office of Naval Research and the Marine Corps, Epirus is developing a smaller version of Leonidas that could be pulled or carried by a small truck to counter-drones out to 300 meters. Development of the X-DEX system is nearly complete and could also be modified to include a parabolic dish to increase range, he said. It could also be used on small boats to defeat unmanned surface vessels, he said.
- Epirus also continues to work with General Dynamics [GD] on integrating Leonidas on the Stryker wheeled fighting vehicle. The two companies have showcased a smaller version of Leonidas on Stryker and are pursuing the possibility of prototyping a full-size system on the vehicle later this year with the same capabilities as the ground-based system. Lowery said that there may be funding to prototype four Leonidas systems on a Stryker.
- He also said there is international interest in Leonidas.