Drones changed modern warfare forever, and traditional air defense is losing the race to keep up. Spending millions of dollars on a surface-to-air missile to take out a commercial quadcopter worth a few hundred bucks is a losing financial equation. You run out of ammunition fast. The U.S. Army knows this better than anyone, which is why they just handed ThinKom Solutions a $49 million Other Transaction Authority prototype agreement to build something entirely different.
They are pivoting toward high-power microwave technology. Specifically, they want a mobile weapon that can fry drone swarms out of the sky using invisible electromagnetic energy instead of expensive physical interceptors. Read more on a related subject: this related article.
What the Army is Actually Buying
Under this $49 million ceiling agreement managed through the Portfolio Acquisition Executive Fires and Program Manager for Advanced Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System Effects, ThinKom is delivering its Alecto high-power microwave system. This isn't a lab experiment meant to sit on a concrete slab. It is built for tactical vehicles, meaning it moves right alongside ground troops.
Initial funding covers the first of four requested prototypes, with harsh field testing slated for 2027. The system integrates the Alecto effector with government-designated threat detection sensors and fire-control architectures. When small, cheap uncrewed aerial systems appear in large numbers, soldiers can't wait for a stationary radar setup to boot up. They need immediate, non-kinetic defense that travels where they travel. More journalism by ZDNet highlights comparable views on the subject.
The Engineering Problem Nobody Talks About
Directing gigawatt-level microwave energy from a moving truck sounds great on a PowerPoint slide, but physics usually ruins the fun. Traditional solid-state directed energy systems struggle with massive power requirements and bulky form factors. They generate too much heat, take up entire trailers, and struggle to maintain precise beam steering while driving over rough terrain.
ThinKom solved this by leaning on its patented Variable Inclination Continuous Transverse Stub antenna technology, known as VICTS. Originally famous for high-performance satellite communications antennas on commercial aircraft, the hardware translates surprisingly well to electronic warfare.
The VICTS phased-array architecture allows the system to steer high-power beams electronically and mechanically while the host vehicle is actively moving. Instead of stopping to engage a threat, the vehicle keeps rolling. That capability changes survivability metrics completely in contested environments where stopping makes you an easy target.
Why Non-Kinetic Defense Wins the Math
Defense economics dictate modern procurement. If an adversary launches twenty Group 1 or Group 2 drones at a maneuver unit, kinetic missiles will deplete an armory in minutes.
High-power microwaves offer an asymmetric advantage. Every firing cycle costs pennies in electrical power rather than tens of thousands of dollars in rocket fuel and guidance chips. Furthermore, microwaves don't rely on a direct physical hit. The invisible energy pulse sweeps across the incoming swarm, burning out onboard circuitry, frying microchips, and causing the drones to drop harmlessly out of the sky all at once.
Dan Roman, ThinKom's vice president for electronic warfare and high-power microwave programs, pointed out that the Alecto architecture is specifically designed to give soldiers a high-capacity, low-cost per engagement option against multi-drone threats.
What Happens Before 2027
Winning a prototype contract is the easy part. Delivering hardware that survives military operational testing is where defense contractors usually stumble.
The upcoming 2027 field evaluations will put these four prototypes through rigorous operational testing. Government evaluators will test how fast the sensors can hand off target data to the microwave effector, how well the system resists battlefield interference, and whether the prime power requirements strain standard tactical vehicle generators.
If these prototypes perform as advertised, the $49 million ceiling will quickly turn into multi-year production orders. Ground troops need reliable anti-drone protection that doesn't require a logistics train heavier than an armored brigade. Microwave effectors might finally provide the answer.
