La experiencia del empleo de UCAS (Unmanned Combat Aerial Systems) en los conflictos recientes y en especial en la invasi\u00f3n de Rusia a Ucrania, ha acelerado el desarrollo de sistemas \u201cAnti dron\u201d (C \u2013 UAS), que proporcionen una soluci\u00f3n eficiente para neutralizar estos disruptivos sistemas cada vez m\u00e1s presentes y letales. La compa\u00f1\u00eda especializada en sistemas C-UAS, EPIRUS, obtuvo un contrato del US Army por US$ 66 Millones para comenzar a fabricar las primeras unidades de su sistema C-UAS \u201cLeonidas\u201d, un Arma de Energ\u00eda Dirigida (DEW) que emplea \u201cPulso electromagn\u00e9tico\u201d (EMP-Electromagnetic Pulse). A diferencia del L\u00e1ser, puede dirigir su acci\u00f3n letal a un \u00e1rea determinada en el aire y neutralizar simult\u00e1neamente varias amenazas, lo que lo hace especialmente \u00fatil para el ataque de \u201cenjambres\u201d de drones. El principal beneficio adem\u00e1s, es que con este tipo de arma se evita tener que emplea costosos sistemas de DefAe & Mis para neutralizar amenazas de bajo costo.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s frequent drone attacks on Ukraine mirror a challenge that is growing for the U.S. military in almost every operational environment: How do you defeat drone swarms without wasting expensive surface-to-air missiles? The U.S. Army is working with a California company to develop microwave weapons that can fry airborne electronics<\/p>\n
On Monday, counter-drone company Epirus announced that they had won a $66 million prototyping contract from the Army\u2019s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office for its experimental Leonidas counterdrone microwave weapon. The Army will \u201ctransition Leonidas into a future program of record after successful demonstration of the prototypes,\u201d according to the company\u2019s\u00a0statement.<\/a><\/p>\n Andy Lowery, the company\u2019s chief product officer and chief operating officer, described the Leonidas as a directed electromagnetic pulse or EMP weapon. Like a laser, which the military has been\u00a0using<\/a>\u00a0for drone defense for years, the Leonidas is a directed-energy weapon;\u00a0 unlike a laser, it can focus on an entire swath of sky. The Leonidas also improves on jamming-type defenses because it works even on drones that have no link back to their operators.<\/p>\n About a year ago, Lowery said, the company began to test the weapon against large group\u00a03 drones<\/a>. \u201cWhat we found was is that we are very effective against all the wires that go down the length of the wings and control the\u00a0ailerons<\/a>\u00a0and the rudders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He said that Epirus has been experimenting with\u00a0gallium nitride<\/a>\u00a0chips, which have been shown to amplify power in radar and directed energy applications. Previous\u00a0 microwave weapons have used vacuum tubes, which he said pour their energy \u201cinto a huge parabolic dish in a very, very skinny beam and zap up like a high-energy laser in that way.\u201d The use of gallium nitride as well as new uses of machine learning for frequency identification allows\u00a0 Leonidas to vary its energy output, depending on the sort of drone it needs to target, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo what that means is we’re changing frequency, changing pulses, changing various aspects of that EMP in order to turn it to the adversary. And that’s something that just differentiates us.\u201d<\/p>\n The\u00a0Shahed 136s<\/a>\u00a0are more than a menace for Ukraine. They\u2019ve\u00a0also<\/a>\u00a0been used against tankers in the Middle East. While U.S. military and defense officials highlight Ukraine\u2019s ongoing air defense needs, their answer so far has been expensive surface-to-air missiles like the Patriots and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, or NASAMS and Patriots, as well as\u00a0VAMPIRE<\/a>\u00a0laser-guided rockets.<\/p>\n