A New Set Of Electronic Warfare Weapons

The U.S. Air Force Research Lab in 2012 demonstrated the ability of the Counter-electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) to zap the computers at the Utah Test and Training Range. CHAMP, embedded in a Boeing AGM-86 cruise missile launched from a B-52, did not make a direct transition from the research world into a procurement program.

After CHAMP, high-power microwave cruise missiles did not disappear. The U.S. Navy and Air Force are now collaborating on a high-power joint electromagnetic nonkinetic strike weapon that might be more relevant to operations.

The U.S. Navy also has explored ship-board high-power microwave systems. To that end, BAE Systems has shown a conceptual high-power microwave installed on a Mk. 38 mount, which could be employed against ships or drones.

When it comes to defeating drone swarms, Raytheon took out 45 during the U.S. Army’s Maneuver Fires Integrated Experiment at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in May, with its advanced high-power microwave and laser dune buggy.

In March, Lockheed Martin won a contract worth up to $942 million to develop and deliver two high-power laser weapons by fiscal 2020 under the High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler with Surveillance (Helios) program. The system brings together long-range intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and the ability to dazzle unmanned aircraft systems. One of the systems will be integrated onto an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and the other used at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, for testing on land.