ABQ-built microwave weapon passes tests

Raytheon system downs swarms of UAVs in an Armyorganized demonstration

The U.S. military recently tested a new, high-powered microwave weapon built by Raytheon in New Mexico to instantly down swarms of incoming drones and missiles.

Raytheon successfully demonstrated the system in December during an Army exercise at Fort Sill, Okla., where the ground-based weapon shot down 33 unmanned aerial vehicles with highpower electromagnetic waves, simultaneously knocking out groups of two or three drones at a time, said Raytheon New Mexico Site Director Susan Kelly.

“At one point in the final demonstration scenario, there were eight drones coming at us from different directions in groups of two and three and we took them all out,” Kelly said. “We showed the system is now ready and available as a counterswarm weapon to down multiple drones at once.”

The prospect of incoming swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles is a rapidly emerging battlefield threat, and the U.S. military is considering laser and microwave weapons as a potential way to counter them, Kelly said.

It will take more time for such weapons, known as directed energy systems, to be deployed in war zones. But the military is now developing the tactics, techniques and procedures to use those weapons, said Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., who is spearheading efforts to get the Pentagon to move systems into final test-anddemonstration phases. The latest federal spending bill signed by President Donald Trump earmarks $158 million for directed energy development. That includes about $70 million for work by the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, which worked last year with Raytheon under a $2 million contract to get that company’s microwave system ready for the Fort Sill demonstration.

Two laser systems have been deployed, one on the USS Ponce in the Persian Gulf and one on a Stryker armored vehicle in Europe, but no microwave weapons are being used yet.

“We’re at a turning point where we’re truly moving from the idea phase to the implementation phase,” Heinrich told the Journal this week. “It’s a moment of inflection now as the Pentagon conducts all the managerial work to figure out how these weapons will actually be used in war-fighting environments.”

Many systems were partly or fully developed in New Mexico, including Raytheon’s ground-based anti-swarm weapon, plus the military’s Counterelectronics High-Powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project, or CHAMP, which places a microwave weapon in a cruise missile to destroy electronics, computers and other systems as it flies over buildings and installations.

Such work has grown Raytheon’s Albuquerque workforce to about 190 employees, with 50 more hires expected in coming months, Kelly said. The company recently expanded its facilities at the Sandia Science and Technology Park.

If the military opts to acquire Raytheon’s anti-swarm microwave system, it could be built in Albuquerque, depending on how many are ordered.

“It depends on the quantity and timeline to do it,” Kelly said. “If the order is for one, for sure we’d do it here, but if it’s thousands, we’d have to think about it.”