US Anti-Drone Weapons: Four Indirect Fire Protection Capability – High-Power Microwave (IFPC-HPM) weapons from the tech company Epirus have been sent to the US Army.
This goal is part of a $66.1 million deal to use directed energy to destroy drones and drone swarms.
November 2023 saw the delivery of the first IFPC-HPM product under this project to the US Army.
As per The Defense Post reports, the corporation completed the New Equipment Training and Engineering Developmental Testing (NET-EDT) services with the agency to pursue the issuance of operational capability for the weapons in addition to concluding the delivery.
Epirus says that similar tests with the IFPC-HPMs were done in April to see how well and how tactically the platform could be used against targets with complicated flight patterns.
The US Army Test and Evaluation Command will use the data gathered during these tests to direct upcoming deployments, funding, and initiatives related to IFPC-HPM.
“The US Army is getting closer to fielding HPM operationally with the completion of NET and EDT,” said Andy Lowery, CEO of Epirus.
“We were able to demonstrate effects that we haven’t done in this close to a real-world environment, including coordinated fires for additional range and advanced waveforms for greater effectivity,”
“We learned a lot about the importance of each system within the system-of-systems approach that will inform capabilities, limitations and requirements. Most importantly, we’ve demonstrated that our HPM systems are effective for the counter-drone and counter-swarm mission as a final protective fires solution within a layered defense.”
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Program for Indirect Fire Protection Capability
The latest directed energy weapons from the US Army are a component of the Pentagon’s larger IFPC program, which aims to use a fleet of armored vehicles to defend against artillery, rockets, mortars, cruise missiles, and unmanned aerial systems.
The solutions for this initiative are designed to be mobile and ground-based, with the goal of securing warfighters and other vital fixed and semi-permanent capabilities.
Future IFPC assets, according to the US government, will also fill in the gaps left by the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), the short-range air defense (SHORAD) platform, and the PATRIOT air and missile defense system.
