Microwave electromagnetic weapons may prevail over laser weapons in the battle to defeat unmanned swarms
WASHINGTON – The U.S. military is racing to deploy new weapons to tackle the threat from small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). That means countering several attackers simultaneously, and microwave-based electromagnetic weapons are considered the obvious choice. Forbes reports. Continue reading original article
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
23 Aug. 2021 -- From China’s 48-cell barrage launcher to Israel’s successful deployment of a combat swarm in Gaza, swarming drones are becoming a battlefield reality. Swarm attacks easily can overwhelm existing missile and gun systems.
Laser weapons may look like a solution: precise, speed-of-light-operation, and an infinite magazine, but they have a problem with dwell time. This is the amount of time necessary to hold the laser on target to bring it down. A typical tactical laser can take as long as five seconds. If a laser weapon only can acquire small drones from two kilometers away, then a few dozen cheap drones will overrun the million-dollar laser.
Microwaves work differently. A burst of high-intensity microwaves will overload electronics, causing many failures and knocking a drone out of the sky instantly. The microwave weapon also can swat whole unmanned swarms at once.
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John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics
