The U.S. Army wants to develop and integrate a high-powered microwave weapon that has the ability to destroy small drone threats beginning in 2022, according to budget justification documents published with the financial application. It is planned to spend more than 50 million dollars in the next year to develop this technology that kills these small aircraft. All services are working together to form a solution that addresses this threat, as drones are increasingly common both in the military field and in work or everyday life.
In fact, the US Army has prepared a budget of 18.73 million dollars for the year 2022 to carry out the development, integration and testing of new technologies that lead to the construction of high-power microwave weapons, which would serve to destroy both single drone threats and swarms of these.
The weapon, under development
According to a schedule established in the Army documents, the company plans to carry out a development phase to establish a high-power microwave weapon from the year 2022 to the second quarter of the year 2023. Different prototypes are planned to be created until the end of 2022, and then carry out a test on the system in the first quarter of 2023 and end up delivering a prototype of said weapon in the third quarter of 2023.
This service is being developed by the US Air Force, in charge of research and development. For its part, the one that is contributing the money to build prototypes is the Army. This system wants to be an implementation as a protection against indirect fires and to be used in fixed sites against missiles, drones, rockets, artillery and mortars.
At Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, the weapon known as THOR was demonstrated in February of this year. Starting in 2024, the Army plans to conduct field tests.
More weaponry in development
The budget documents also spoke of another weapon, the low collateral effects interceptor, which the Army has scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year to integrate and test this weapon, ending in the third quarter of 2022. Final integration will end in the fourth quarter of this year. first quarter of the year 2023 and it will go into production in the second quarter of that same year.
This weapon was tested by three vendors this year in Arizona: Aurora Flight Sciences (owned by Boeing), Elta North America and Xtend. This demonstration was the first of a series of events that will be held twice a year, where possible problems will be checked to solve them and thus bring them in optimal operation to the battlefield.
The Pentagon also wants to demonstrate potential weapons capabilities against unmanned vehicles, starting in September this year with wearable devices that will destroy small drones.
