The first Leonidas microwave cannon delivered to the US Army by Epirus

The US Army has taken possession of the first of 12 prototypes of the Leonidas microwave cannon designed by the Epirus company, and winner of the competition for the IFPC-HPM program. In the months to come, American mittens will be able to experiment with the systems, to prepare the procedures and doctrines for the use of this system designed to eliminate swarms of drones.

Among the many lessons that have emerged from the war in Ukraine, the preponderant role of drones, and the threat they represent, are certainly the most decisive in foreshadowing the nature of military engagements in the years to come.

The omnipresent drone threat in Ukraine

Indeed, from the small commercial drone intended to locate enemy positions and adjust artillery fire, to long-range supersonic drones having struck Russian military airfields up to Engels, including lurking munitions and drones Geranium long-range attack range, they now intervene at all levels of engagement, from infantry combat to strategic range strikes.

In addition, they have now invested in all areas of conflict, well beyond the Ukrainian sky alone, with surface and submarine drones used to strike Russian ships and infrastructure in Crimea, and land drones. Russians employed to breach, or on the contrary to undermine, routes.

These omnipresent drones made Admiral Ben Key, the First Sea Lord of the British Admiralty, say a few weeks ago: that a Dreadnought Moment was developing today linked to the arrival of aerial, naval and submarine drones, namely a great upheaval, linked to the arrival of a technology establishing all the technologies and doctrines used until then.

Admiral Key's prediction is all the more relevant as the drones used today in Ukraine are only the beginnings of what they will be in the years to come, whether in terms of capacity, performance, and above all in number.

The coming revolution of drone swarms

Indeed, to date, all drones used by the Russian or Ukrainian armies require either a control operator to enable them to adapt their behavior to their environment, or they follow a flight or navigation plan. pre-programmed, like a missile.

These technological limitations make drones very susceptible to jamming, either by losing contact with the control operator or with navigation satellites. Additionally, they most often require one operator per device, therefore consuming valuable resources in times of war. Finally, they cannot act in a coordinated manner, even if they can, indeed, be employed simultaneously.

This is the difference between a group of drones, i.e. several drones acting simultaneously, but individually, and a swarm of drones, in which the action of each drone is determined by the group.

In fact, the arrival of swarms of drones will represent a major leap in capacity and technology, which can easily be described as a Dreadnought Moment, as they will be able to overcome most of the defense systems existing to date. , thanks to greater autonomy of action, communications more resilient to jamming, and above all by the number saturating the systems.

The US Army's IFPC-HPM program and the Epirus company's Leonidas microwave cannon

To respond to this revolution in the making, several avenues are being studied by the world's major armies. In the United States, this threat is addressed by the Indirect Fire Protection Capability, or IFPC, program, which aims to design a multi-layer and multi-vector defense capable of countering aircraft, missiles, shells and drones.

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