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August 19, 2019 10:34 am

The US Army Wants To Microwave Drones in Midair

"The U.S. Army, as part of a broad counter-unmanned aerial systems strategy, is pushing forward with the U.S. Air Force to develop a high-powered microwave weapon," reports Popular Mechanics:Microwave radiation can disrupt or destroy electronic equipment exposed to them, "cooking" internal circuits much in the same way a fork or other metal objects placed in a microwave oven will cause the oven's electronics to melt down. Here's 2018 footage of a Raytheon HPM system tested at Fort Sill in 2018. The Pentagon has researched high powered microwave weapons for years, but the threat of drone swarms may have presented it with the perfect threat. The military is preparing for the eventuality of facing swarms of suicide drones on the battlefield, each carrying an explosive payloads or prepared to make a suicide attack. Current anti-drone weapons include jammers, shotguns, nets, and even birds, but many of these weapons are only effective against one or a small number of drones at once, and not the dozens or more drones envisioned in the worst drone swarm scenarios.... Microwave radiation doesn't care about rain and other inclement weather, it doesn't rely on individual shots of ammunition, and as long as the electrical generator powering is powered on, it will continue to "fire"... The weapon's broad firing arc means it could take out many drones at once, defeating enemy drone swarms. The joint Army/Air Force microwave weapon prototype "should be operational by 2022."

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