Defense contractor Epirus Inc. has announced the successful demonstration of the first-ever high-energy, high-powered microwave weapon, resulting in a perfect ‘kill’ of all four ‘attacking’ nautical vessels.
A self-described leader in advancing “the frontiers of technology to meet the asymmetric challenges of the future,” Epirus says the Leonidas H2O platform expands on its existing directed energy weapons developed for the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps to counter small vessels, UAVs, and drone swarms.
“Epirus has leveraged our innovations in advanced electronics to create a first-of-its-kind high-energy, high-power microwave technology platform,” explained the company’s Senior Manager, Strategic Communications, Andrew Wargofchik, in an email to The Debrief. “We are offering a working solution to immediately fill DoD’s identified capability gap of countering small vessels.”
High-Powered Microwave Weapon Joins Growing Directed Energy Options
When discussing the development timeline of the Leonidas directed energy weapons family, Wargofchik noted that the U.S Navy’s desire to use non-kinetic weapons to stop marine vessels dates to the 2019 solicitation of the Vessel Incapacitating Power Effect Radiation (VIPER) program, which is part of the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD).
Several directed energy technologies designed to counter drones and other weapons have been demonstrated in recent years. After announcing the development of a high-powered microwave weapon, Thor’s Hammer, in 2022, the U.S. Army successfully demonstrated the technology’s effectiveness in 2023 by “dominating” an enemy drone swarm in a simulated attack.
A similar directed energy microwave system under development by Raytheon is also at the prototype stage. Still, according to Wargofchik, six years after the VIPER solicitation for a DEW capable of stopping small marine vessels, “no system has been fielded, and no known successes have entered the public domain.”
Numerous directed energy weapons are also under development, including several combat lasers. Last year, the U.S. Army began testing a combat laser prototype in the Middle East. In recent months, the Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces Commander, Vadym Sukharevsky, claimed the country had its own combat-ready laser.
Following the successful demonstration of Leonidas H2O at the U.S. Navy’s Advanced Naval Technology Exercise Coastal Trident (ANTX-CT) program in August of last year, Epirus believes its prototype is ready to advance to the next stage. If successful, Leonidas H2O could become the first-ever high-energy, high-powered microwave weapon designed to counter marine attacks to be deployed in the field.
Classified Power and Expanded Capabilities
In a press release announcing the successful demonstration of Leonidas H2O, the company explained that the tested prototype faced several limiting factors that added to the challenge. For example, the system’s power was limited to roughly 50% of its overall capacity. The company said Leonidas H2O was also restricted to a specific range of waveforms sent out by the weapon’s microwave emitter.
Wargofchik told The Debrief, “The max power output of our systems is classified.” However, he could explain what made Leonidas different from other high-powered microwave systems in development.
“Our energy-based HPM systems output incredibly high amounts of energy, which manifests in duration of effect and cumulative energy on targets, allowing us to disable electronic targets at much lower peak power and with much more advantageous size, weight, and mobility than legacy HPM systems,” Wargofchik said.
During the August tests, the Leonidas H2O prototype responded to a simulated attack by four vessel motor types, ranging from 40 to 90 horsepower. The company said all four vessels’ motors were stopped, resulting in a perfect score.
Actual videos of the tests were not made available. However, Epirus provided The Debrief with several video animations of their high-powered microwave weapon at work.
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Leonidas H2O Joins Army and Marine Corps Directed Energy Platforms
Although the H2O prototype was tested against marine attacks, the company has already delivered a prototype weapon to the U.S. Army to counter airborne attacks. According to Wargofchik, the Army has received four Leonidas-derived, semi-fixed systems “to support the Indirect Fire Protection Capability—High-Power Microwave (IFPC-HPM) program.” Those directed energy weapons are undergoing additional testing at Combatant Commands.
Epirus is also expanding its leading-edge technology to meet the Marines’ needs. Dubbed Leonidas Expeditionary, that application features what Wargofchik described as “a compact energy-based HPM system developed to support USMC Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO) and cUxS (counter-unmanned systems) missions in austere environments.”
“All of our Leonidas systems leverage Epirus’ energy-based HPM technology platform, and our phased array architecture allows us to easily scale up or down to meet various customer requirements,” Wargofchik told The Debrief.
Scaling Up and 2025 Demonstrations
After the successful tests and demonstration last August, the company was again selected to participate in ANTX CT 25. Wargofchik states that the prestigious invitation is “a reflection of our ongoing conversations with the US Navy and US Coast Guard on the benefits of Epirus high-energy HPM for maritime interdiction and counter-UxS.”
“Leonidas H2O is yet another example of the unprecedented scalability of Epirus’ Leonidas technology platform,” the company told The Debrief. “We have leveraged the Leonidas high-energy HPM platform to develop and validate multiple form factors to support the mission requirements of multiple US Department of Defense services.”
“The Department of Defense has spent years of research and development and poured tens of millions of dollars into developing a non-kinetic vessel stop solution, with no operational system deployed to date,” added Andy Lowery, Epirus CEO. “With Leonidas H2O, we are bringing forth a proven technology with demonstrated effectiveness to fill this capability gap today.”
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.