Microwave weapons

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microwave generator was designed by ukraine company Yuzhnoye DO

defence-ua.com

КБ "Південне" розробило електромагнітний генератор, що має збивати БПЛА | Defense Express

Розробка від "Південного" може згенерувати електромагнітний імпульс, якого вистачить "закоротити" системи як мінімум комерційних БПЛА типу DJI Phantom
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Good for space solar power. The only Death Ray that ever worked was by accident…the Therac-25.

Still want to know if the “Ellipton” was real…
 
publiusr said:
Good for space solar power. The only Death Ray that ever worked was by accident…the Therac-25.

Still want to know if the “Ellipton” was real…
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Seems pretty far fetched that a Nikolai Tesla experiment accidentally caused the Tunguska event.
 
There may be some abandoned hospitals with old medical equipment a tinkerer could get reckless with.

A therac 25 atop a hearse with some cutting lasers in place of some headlights.
 
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TUCSON, Ariz., Dec. 19, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon, an RTX (NYSE: RTX) business, will design, build and test two high-power microwave antenna systems that will use directed energy to defeat airborne threats at the speed of light. The systems are designed to be rugged and transportable for front-line deployment.

Under the three-year, $31.3 million contract from the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, Raytheon will deliver prototype systems to the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force as part of the Directed Energy Front-line Electromagnetic Neutralization and Defeat (DEFEND) program.
"Non-kinetic defense systems are a key part of America's national defense strategy," said Colin Whelan, president of Advanced Technology at Raytheon. "The new iterations of Raytheon's high-power microwave systems are cost-effective and reliable solutions that operate at the speed of light – enabling our warfighters to defend against faster and more maneuverable threats."
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dan_inbox said:
Hrm. What exactly is the motivation for circulating such info?
Help the foreign spies not miss it?
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Tell (insert power here) that we already have systems to deal with their drone swarms?


Foo Fighter said:
The real question is does it cook passing pigeon's?
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They can, yes. Usually takes a couple hundred kilowatts emitted power to cook a bird in flight, though. Or, if the bird is stupid enough to land on the antenna, 1kw+ will blast it off the antenna. (Had a seagull land on one of the radio masts. We transmitted something, seagull fell off the mast.)
 
It seems like these would also be useful for defending hardened bunkers and silos against nuclear attack.
 
exclaimedleech8 said:
It seems like these would also be useful for defending hardened bunkers and silos against nuclear attack.
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Not really. Any weapon with a nuclear warhead has a guidance system that is hardened to take nuclear EMPs and x-ray or neutron radiation bursts. Plus, HPMs are only effective against cruise missiles. Hypersonics or ballistics are going to be in a terminal dive on target that nothing short of destruction will prevent them from impacting.
 
Ballistic RVs do not even have a guidance system, though perhaps the fusing may be vulnerable. Though to Scott’s point, nuclear weapons are designed with an expectation of broad band EM exposure all the way to x-rays.
 
Josh_TN said:
Ballistic RVs do not even have a guidance system, though perhaps the fusing may be vulnerable. Though to Scott’s point, nuclear weapons are designed with an expectation of broad band EM exposure all the way to x-rays.
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Point of order.

RVs do have a guidance system (in the bus), which means any guidance electronics are way outside the range of a ground-based HPMW system.
 
Scott Kenny said:
Point of order.

RVs do have a guidance system (in the bus), which means any guidance electronics are way outside the range of a ground-based HPMW system.
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The warhead bus has a guidance system; the RVs do not. My statement was accurate.

ETA: it is possible some RVs are MaRVs and have guidance, but not those in US service.
 
Josh_TN said:
The warhead bus has a guidance system; the RVs do not. My statement was accurate.

ETA: it is possible some RVs are MaRVs and have guidance, but not those in US service.
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I do expect all new generation RVs to be MaRVs. US W93 and whatever the UK equivalent is, whatever is going on Sarmats, and whatever the Chinese are fielding.

And this is as a split for accuracy and for evading defenses.
 
bobbymike said:
Extreme HPM DEWs will ultimately be the only real solution to drone swarms IMHO.
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There is no such thing as one “only real solution”. A robust system relies on different forms of C-UAS working together.

Advantages of HPM:

1) kills everything in a large area instantaneously.
2) lowest cost per drone taken down.

Disadvantages:
1) kills everything in a large area instantaneously (also indiscriminately).
2) requires bulky power generation unit.
3) very short range compared with laser per wattage.
 
I think HPM has the additional liability of being very expensive and very fragile. It probably only is a good solution for permissive environments that do not have a lot of more conventional threats. But there are certainly environments where it would be a key component of an overall air defense, especially in areas/situations where kinetic kills would be problematic.
 
Josh_TN said:
I think HPM has the additional liability of being very expensive and very fragile. It probably only is a good solution for permissive environments that do not have a lot of more conventional threats. But there are certainly environments where it would be a key component of an overall air defense, especially in areas/situations where kinetic kills would be problematic.
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I suspect that a modern SPY6 would be capable of smoking an entire swarm, raster-scanning the beam through the swarm. What's the peak transmit strength again?
 

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