The US Army has accepted delivery of Epirus’s first high-power microwave prototype for a new developmental initiative aimed at protecting soldiers and facilities from swarms of aerial drones, the company announced today.

The delivery marks the first of four prototypes derived from the company’s Leonidas counter-unmanned aircraft systems (cUAS) system that Epirus owes the service after inking a nearly three-year, $66.1 million contract in December 2022 for the Indirect Fire Protection Capability–High-Power Microwave (IFPC-HPM) initiative. A company spokesman told Breaking Defense the plan is to now deliver the second directed energy weapon to the Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) by the end of December and complete delivery of the full platoon of four IFPC-HPMs early next year. 

“The IFPC-HPM platoon will undergo capabilities and limitations testing by the Army to develop tactics, techniques and procedures for how the capability will be used in theater as part of a layered defense posture for the counter-UAS mission,” the spokesman wrote in an email. 

Epirus has been developing and showcasing its Leonidas HPM for several years, including via a teaming agreement with General Dynamics Land Systems where the duo integrated the HPM onto a Stryker. Then earlier this year, Epirus announced it “outperformed” six other systems during various test events to win the Army’s sole-source IFPC-HPM contract. 

The company spokesman did not specify just what changes have been made to the Leonidas system to get it ready for the Army’s IFPC-HPM program but said the system is a “continued maturation of our technology, marked by increased lethality against UAS threats, which we’ve enhanced via our software weaponeering.”

“The government acceptance test was a critical validation of system effectiveness, safety for friendly personnel and assets and [Forward Area Air Defense Command and Control] FAAD C2 integration,” he added. “Put simply, this is our most powerful and precise system yet.”

A proliferation of low-cost drones has, in part, prompted service leaders to seek out new ways to take them out them before they kill soldiers or damage facilities. While there are a number of initiatives underway, including in the directed-energy space, the service is pursuing an umbrella category of IFPC capabilities that includes a kinetic interceptor, a high-energy laser and the high-power microwave option by Epirus.

When it comes to that latter category, the Army’s fiscal 2024 budget request, not yet approved by lawmakers, includes nearly $11.2 million for IFPC-HPM development, following its planned $41.4 million investment in FY23.

“IFPC-HPM will provide the Army with HPM prototype weapon systems for the short-range defense of fixed and semi-fixed sites from unmanned aircraft system (UAS) swarms,” the service wrote, noting that it consists of a HPM source, power and thermal subsystem, and an antenna subsystem interoperable with a battle management command, control and communication software.

“IFPC-HPM provides much needed protection against adversarial UAS swarms capable of targeting and overwhelming US and allied air defense systems,” it later added.

As the service pursues new capabilities like a future IFPC high-energy laser and high-power microwave, it is requiring leaders and program managers to not only look at how soldiers will use them in combat, but how they will maintain them in remote locations. 

“Lasers are complicated. This is not a Humvee that’s sitting in the motor pool,” Lt. Gen. Daniel Karbler, the head of US Army Space and Missile Defense Command and Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense, told reporters in August. “Many of the some of the main [laser] components… you’re not going to have a supply room or maintenance office full of repair parts. Those are going to be ones that are going to have to be built out.”

Epirus said it is cognizant of such challenges and tried to keep the “modern warfighter in mind” while designing its high-power microwave by providing hardware and software interfaces that are “intuitive, straightforward, secure and reliable.”

“Since contract kickoff, we’ve hosted a number of soldier touchpoints with RCCTO technologists where they familiarized themselves with the system and provided critical operator feedback to improve the systems near–term testing and future operational capabilities,” the spokesman wrote.