US microwave weapons are able to destroy all drones in China and Iran - the media
Paul Sharr, Executive Vice President and Director of the New American Security Center (CNAS), believes that the destruction of a drone worth a thousand dollars with a missile worth a million dollars is not an cost-effective solution. Such UAVs force the military to spend ammunition, which can make them vulnerable to the attacks of larger anti -ship missiles. But not to knock down drones is impossible. Therefore, the US needs effective technologies against such dangerous air threats as drones.
The Epirus Leonidas Antirone Air Air Air system generates a powerful microwave, which causes the electronics of the drone to be overloaded. At best, electronics fails, at worst - completely burned all its components. Thus, microwave weapons effectively destroys drones in the sky. Unlike radio electronic fights that cause interference into radio communication, the microwave weapons of UAV destroys. Epirus first demonstrated Leonidas in 2020 and introduced the third generation model of 2022.
During the tests of 2021, Leonidas knocked 66 out of 66 target drones. The emitter of this microwave is not a traditional plate antenna, but a flat plate with a diameter of about 3 m. This is due to the fact that the device is based on an array of solid state blocks made of nitride gallium, which resembles LEDs, but produce radio waves, not light. Such emitters are more compact than magnetrons used in traditional radars.
The computer controller regulates the output signal of each chip in an array to form and direct a ray with high accuracy. Epirus has already handed over the US Army 4 Leonidas. They can be perfect for the fight against swarms of drones. Paul Sharr notes that the use of weapons directed energy to combat drones is profitable economically and at its accuracy it is not inferior to air defense missiles. Threats exist both in the air and at sea.
For example, Ukraine successfully uses excess drones against Russian warships in the Black Sea. Russian artillerymen barely managed to impress a small ship of large-caliber machine guns and automatic guns, as boats are fast and maneuverable and usually attack at night. The so -called Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation was destroyed by these attacks that broke through the Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports. US warships are reflected from the unmanned Khussite boats.
The risk is that a sufficient number of drones that approach simultaneously from different directions can still be a problem, especially in combination with simultaneous air drones and rocket attacks. Each unmanned boat costs about $ 100,000 - much less than a rocket. Epirus microwave technology is effective against surface and air drones.
This summer, the company will demonstrate this during the annual exercises on US Navy Navy as part of the Coastal Trident program, contrasting Leonidas with high-speed Drome boats. The Navy representative stated that Tradent's training will help identify potential discords in their defense and possible decisions. "Leonidas" is not the only weapon of directional energy. The US Navy is now testing a 150 kilowatt laser weapon called Helios.
But lasers have restrictions: rain, smoke, fog break their work, because the beam in such environments is scattered. And the laser requires some time to go on the target that slows down the reaction. Depending on the target, its destruction can take a few seconds, while the microwave is valid for a second. The laser focuses only for one purpose at a time, but microwaves can shoot a wide "fan" and affect several goals at a time.