The Army has successfully completed engineering and development testing (EDT) with its Epirus-built drone-killing microwave-based directed energy system prototype, the company said on Wednesday.
After delivering the full set of four prototypes for the Army’s Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High Powered Microwave (IFPC-HPM) effort and completing new equipment training (NET) in March, Epirus said the testing
in April validated the system’s effectiveness against drones and drone swarms, citing NET and EDT as “key milestones on the path to issuing the HPM systems to an operational unit.”
“We delivered our first IFPC-HPM system to [the Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office] in November 2023, just nine months after our initial contract award, and finalized delivery of all four systems this March,” Epirus CEO Andy Lowery said in a statement. “Completion of NET and EDT puts the U.S. Army closer to fielding HPM operationally.”
Epirus won a $66 million contract to develop and produce four IFPC-HPM prototypes, with the first system delivered last fall and the remaining capabilities handed over to the Army by this March.
The company’s HPM system is based on its commercially-developed internal technology effort called Leonidas and is designed to defeat drone threats by taking out their electronics in flight, causing them to fall from the sky.
The Army has viewed HPM systems as a potential counter-drone solution, offering the ability to take out threats at pennies per shot versus kinetic systems that can cost thousands of dollars to engage a target.
Epirus told Defense Daily in March the critical testing period in April would take place at the China Lake, Calif., testbed in the Mojave Desert and would include using the IFPC-HPM prototype at full power, viewing the event as a key step toward validating the system for future operational deployments (Defense Daily, March 8).
“I’m thrilled with the effectiveness of our HPM systems throughout the test. We were able to demonstrate effects that we haven’t done in this close to a real-world environment, including coordinated fires for additional range and advanced waveforms for greater effectivity,” Lowery said on Wednesday. “We learned a lot about the importance of each system within the system-of-systems approach that will inform capabilities, limitations and requirements. Most importantly, we’ve demonstrated that our HPM systems are effective for the counter-drone and counter-swarm mission as a final protective fires solution within a layered defense.”
Data from EDT will inform the Army’s follow-on decisions for the program’s next steps, Epirus noted, with Lowery previously telling Defense Daily that a move into a program of record for IFPC-HPM could be reflected in the service’s budget request for fiscal year 2027.
“To say [the EDT] is a Super Bowl for us is an understatement,” Lowery told Defense Daily in a March interview. “This is the Super Bowl, World Series, the whole dang thing for us going into April.”