Raytheon Co. Corporation Missile Systems received $ 16.289 million from the Pentagon to create a prototype high-power microwave gun for the US Air Force. This was reported on the website of the US Department of Defense. The complex is designed to repel drones attacks.

Microwave gun testing will take place at a test site located outside the continental United States. The document states that the verification of systems and assemblies of experimental weapons will take at least 12 months and may be completed by December 20, 2020.

"Disable infantry"

The action of the microwave gun is based on the energy of electromagnetic radiation (EMP) ultrahigh frequency. Its effect is detrimental to the human body (causes a violation of the immune system) and electronics ("burns out" semiconductors, transistors, boards, microcircuits). Also, this type of weapon can cause detonation of ammunition.

As military expert Yuri Knutov explained to RT, modern electromagnetic weapons are used mainly as electronic warfare (EW) equipment, which can damage electronics, interfere with communications and jam jam signals from navigation satellite systems.

“The use of electronic warfare systems against drones is the most optimal way to deal with them. Therefore, the interest of Americans in the microwave gun is understandable. This weapon has a lot of advantages. Hypothetically, it can “burn out” on-board equipment, not only UAVs, but also manned aircraft. It’s cheap and at certain distances quite effective non-lethal means of air defense, ”the expert explained.

  • Modeling the impact on enemy aircraft equipment by electronic means
  • © Wikimedia

However, today the main obstacle to the widespread use of microwave weapons is the lack of a power source of sufficient power, Knutov notes.

The United States has been working on the subject of microwave guns for about half a century. In the 2000s, in Iraq, the US military wanted to use ADS (Active Denial System) remote non-lethal effects on people. Army SUVs were equipped with it. The system developer is Raytheon Corporation. The effective range of the rays was 750 m.

The Americans intended to use ADS to disperse the demonstrations, but the Pentagon refused this measure because of fears that the weapon could be considered as a torture device. As part of the experiments, microwave beams were directed at US troops and reservists. In the media you can find information that after 5 seconds of exposure a person could not tolerate pain, some had burns.

In 2010, ADS was transferred to Afghanistan, but, according to the Americans, the complex was not used there. Almost nothing is known about the fate of the device.

“How successful the experience of using this complex turned out to be is hard to say. But this does not mean that the United States abandoned the experiments, ”Knutov argues.

The expert has no doubt that the Americans continue to research in the field of electromagnetic weapons. According to him, the efforts of the United States are aimed at creating microwave systems to combat aircraft and enemy manpower.

In 2013, Raytheon began developing the Phaser microwave gun. The weapon is a "plate" that can be installed on land and offshore platforms. The complex is designed to destroy drones. In the fall of 2016, the corporation introduced Phaser to the public. However, over the past three years, information about the project is not publicly available.

Knutov is confident in the promise of investment in electromagnetic weapons. However, in his opinion, in this area the United States acts as a catch-up. The Russian military-industrial complex (MIC) has advanced further than the Americans in the development of non-lethal weapons based on electromagnetic radiation, the expert believes.

“Despite the many unresolved problems (mainly related to power sources), there is sufficient reason to declare Russia's advanced positions in the field of electromagnetic weapons. A positive role in this matter was played, including by the combat experience gained in Syria. First and foremost, it is about successfully repelling the attacks of terrorist drones. Our military is actively using a variety of electronic warfare equipment, ”Knutov emphasized.

Back in 2017, at the Army forum, the Kalashnikov concern introduced the non-lethal electronic gun Zala Aero REX-01. A conditional shot of a product replaces a microwave impulse. The main objective of this weapon is also the fight against drones. The advantages of the REX-01 are ease of use, ergonomics and relatively low weight (just over 4 kg).

"The weapon has a built-in suppression unit that drowns out the signals of the American satellite navigation GPS, the Russian GLONASS, the Chinese BeiDou and the European Galileo within a radius of five kilometers," the materials of Kalashnikov said.

  • Remote Folding Demining Machine (MDR) “Foliage” at the exercises of the 42nd Tagil Missile Division of the Strategic Missile Forces (Sverdlovsk Region, Svobodny, March 28, 2018)
  • © Alexey Zakvasin / RT

In recent years, the part of the Strategic Missile Forces (Strategic Missile Forces) delivered 15M107 “Foliage” Remote Demining Machines (MDRs). The car moves ahead of the convoy that accompanies the Topol-M and Yars mobile missile systems. With the help of the microwave radiation module and the broadband electromagnetic pulse generator, the “Foliage” initiates the detonation of ammunition.

Some of the Russian projects based on the energy of EMP are closed to the media. In particular, we are talking about the Alabuga program, on which the specialists of the Radioelectronic Technologies Concern (KRET) have been working, presumably since 2011. According to experts, scientists are creating an electromagnetic munition capable of "burning out" the equipment of aircraft, tanks, ships, missile and artillery systems.

According to the British newspaper Daily Star in 2017, the mysterious system will be installed on UAVs. By its power, Russian ammunition will supposedly be comparable to the effect of a nuclear bomb explosion for electronic equipment.

“It is extremely difficult to protect a person”

In June 2018, Sergey Abramov, industrial director of the Rostec conventional armament, ammunition and special chemistry cluster, said that Russia has “very effective groundwork for the combat use of sound, laser and microwave-based weapons.”

According to him, in the near future, “the significance of non-lethal means aimed at incapacitating enemy soldiers without physical destruction” will increase in the world, and microwave weapons will play a leading role in local armed conflicts.

The adviser to the first deputy general director of KRET, Vladimir Mikheev, believes that the microwave gun will become an effective air defense system and, possibly, will be mounted on a drone. In an interview with TASS, he explained that a fighter cannot be equipped with a microwave gun, since radiation can harm the pilot.

“The electromagnetic pulse that a microwave weapon will fire will be of such power that it is extremely difficult to protect a person, a pilot, from his own weapons. No matter how well we shield the cabin, this electronic impulse will penetrate there, ”said Mikheev.

The representative of KRET refrained from voicing specific projects that are being developed by the domestic defense industry complex, but clarified that the latest samples of electromagnetic weapons "have been transferred to the plane of specific development work."

In a conversation with RT, head of the Department of Political Science and Sociology Plekhanov, reserve colonel Andrei Koshkin noted that the Russian defense industry has made significant progress in the development of electromagnetic weapons, ahead of foreign countries, including the United States.

“In Russia this direction (development of electromagnetic weapons. - RT ) is in a more advanced state than in other states, in particular, the USA. I draw this conclusion on the basis of the results of the work of domestic electronic warfare systems in Syria in the fight against drones, ”summed up Koshkin.