Posted on 03/23/2018 8:11:32 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Raytheon Technology recently participated in a Maneuver Fires Integrated Experiment (MFIX) at the U.S. Army Fires Center of Excellence, in which its advanced high-power microwave and laser dune buggy engaged and destroyed 45 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Raytheon’s high-power microwave system engaged multiple UAV swarms, downing 33 drones, two and three at a time.
“The speed and low cost per engagement of directed energy is revolutionary in protecting our troops against drones,” Dr. Thomas Bussing, Raytheon Advanced Missile Systems vice president, said. “We have spent decades perfecting the high-power microwave system, which may soon give our military a significant advantage against this proliferating threat.”
Also at MFIX, Raytheon’s high energy laser, or HEL, system identified, tracked, engaged and downed 12 airborne, maneuvering Class I and II UAVs. HEL also destroyed six stationary mortar projectiles.
“Our customer needed a solution, and they needed it fast, Dr. Ben Allison, director of Raytheon’s HEL product line, said. “So, we took what we’ve learned and combined it with combat-proven components to rapidly deliver a small, self-contained and easily deployed counter-UAV system.”
Raytheon worked with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory under a $2 million contract to test and demonstrate high-power microwave counter-UAV technologies.
God please continue to bless America with all of it’s technological advantage. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
Not as easy to do as it sounds. The wiring to the motors will let the signals right in. And that shielding adds weight.
Shielding will become much easier when the drones are completely autonomous.
Discovery
In 1945, the specific heating effect of a high-power microwave beam was accidentally discovered by Percy Spencer, an American self-taught engineer from Howland, Maine. Employed by Raytheon at the time, he noticed that microwaves from an active radar set he was working on started to melt a candy bar he had in his pocket.
WIKI
For everybody’s knowledge.
From the article:
“Raytheons high-power microwave system engaged multiple UAV swarms, downing 33.”
“Also at MFIX, Raytheons high energy laser, or HEL, system identified, tracked, engaged and downed 12 airborne, maneuvering Class I and II UAVs”
I would rather use the high-power EMP because it downed 33 UAV swarms. Such swarms would be very challenging for laser zaps because of the need to recharge after each kill pulse. With EMP microwave, all you need is one pulse in their direction and the whole lot of them are fried. Precise accuracy is not needed as much as the laser.
I would not want to be near that microwave generator with a pacemaker. I could sacrifice my watch.
I agree this is not an easy thing.
A little while ago we worked on a drone surveillance system, It could fly over 2000 m and track things on the ground and send back TV pictures (with a different camera we could send IR images but this cost more). The heart of the survive ability of the drone was the data link which was hardened against jamming from microwaves Etc. This system used the same type of comm system used today in cell phones. (Frequency agile send and receive), but also used higher power and a directional antenna to defeat the type of jamming that is being described. It was very expensive in its day, and highly classified but now the technology is everywhere.
In order to jam something that is trying to do a mission and has been designed to not be hurt by interference, the jammer will need to have a very broad band of frequencies and lots of power. Also if the drone is using coding software to allow some missing bits, then it gets even harder to achieve what is described here.
If, on the other hand, the system is nothing more than a RC airplane type comm system, then yes, a strong sweeping signal may be able to interfere. However to bring it down you will have to keep the signal on the drone until it crashes or else risk the operator regaining control.
I am not sure we are talking about jamming signals or frying circuitry.
Jamming takes much less power, but frying is not so frequency specific.
AKA, getting into the sidelobes. Powerful ECM technique, but lots of ERP are needed.
Remember the Movie “Earth Versus The Flying Saucers”?
What’s old is new again.
Now that is a won
derful prayer !
You could only use the Faraday cage approach with a completely autonomous aircraft. But that is doable.
For countering the laser you could use a mirrored surface material, or an ablative material, and fly a fast and zigzag course to your target to make it as difficult as possible for the HEL to maintain tight track.
LOL, they burned some stationary mortar shells. The ones that get you fly through the air, you know...
Nikola Tesla tested his prototype Teleforce device (ray gun) in 1934.
A device capable of bringing down a fleet of 10,000 enemy airplanes at a distance of 200 miles. He gave his contraption to the US Army for testing. They liked it, but somehow broke it a few months into their test program. Unfortunately, Tesla died before it could be repaired and nobody was ever able to figure out how it worked or how to repair it.
Ah, but the wire mesh in your microwave is grounded. Hard to reliably ground something in a flying missile!
You can design lightweight shielding that will shield against microwave frequencies.
Yup. Wasn’t he working on a cyclotron.
And the water molecule is tuned to the microwave wavelength. Doesn’t the water molecule have a slight charge that will respond to the microwave em wave and oscillate/vibrate.
Water is in everything and especially food products. It took them a few years to make the connection and make it a useful food preparation tool.
Like interference? Just have the drone hover or find a safe position until the beam is gone.
Also, the microwave beam can be used to target the object firing it.
Seems like em wave weapons are easy to defeat. And I bet that we have drones that can survive this kind of thing and maybe even an emp blast.
Shielding could be simple and with minimal weight. Metal can be applied to plastic and other lightweight materials. And only exactly what is needed and nothing more — up to the skin effect thickness.
True. There were TWO systems mentioned in the article. That picture is of the second part of the system.
"Also at MFIX, Raytheons high energy laser, or HEL, system identified, tracked, engaged and downed 12 airborne, maneuvering Class I and II UAVs. HEL also destroyed six stationary mortar projectiles."
Amana RadarRange
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