Authors: Cui Songzhi, Yu Hao, Feng Feng Peng
In recent years, countries around the world have become increasingly dependent on electronic systems for modern weapons and equipment. With the continuous improvement of the energy conversion efficiency and reliability of high-power microwave technology, the huge combat potential of high-power microwave weapon technology on the battlefield has become more and more prominent, and even has the potential to change the mode of conventional warfare in the future.
The principle of attack with microwave weapons
The attack principle of microwave weapons mainly includes the following aspects:
- High energy: The interaction of microwave particles and other molecules causes the electromagnetic energy contained in microwaves to be converted into a large amount of heat energy and directly act on the enemy's weapon electronic system, which is highly destructive.
- High penetration: The tiny size of the wave particles determines its super penetration, which can penetrate many protective devices and directly hit the vital parts.
- Strong interference: The energy and electromagnetic effects of waves lead to strong interference, which can interfere with or even destroy the electronic system of the enemy's weapons to a certain extent, making it ineffective.
- High power density: At extremely high power density, microwave weapons have the ability to damage targets by high heat in a very short period of time, and even detonate missile warhead explosives in advance; Due to the powerful energy of microwaves, when they are irradiated to the human body at low intensity, they can cause biological disorders, and when they are high intensity, they can cause a series of injuries such as severe burns.
- High velocity: Microwave is a type of electromagnetic wave, and its ultra-high speed makes it difficult to detect and intercept when used as a weapon.
Together, these principles form the basis of the attack of microwave weapons, making them an effective means of military strike.
The state of research and development of microwave weapons
In recent years, countries around the world have further increased their investment in the research and development of microwave weapons, and have achieved considerable results. The Leonidas series of products developed by the U.S.-based company Epirus enables unprecedented electronic warfare capabilities through the use of software-defined HPM (High Power Microwave) technology. The Leonidas Ground System provides a 360° view of the base. When the Leonidas system is deployed in conjunction with a companion drone mounted pod, the system's synergy is maximized, and its scalability means it can support a fully integrated anti-electronic kill chain. In 2020, the company introduced the land-based Leonida system, which at that time was the only anti-electronic weapon with full-fledged anti-drone swarms and precision strike capabilities. During the live demonstrations carried out by it, the wide range of uses of this weapon was verified. Unlike many countries that currently use expensive kinetic means to counter cheap drone threats, Epirus aims to provide a low-cost, cost-effective solution to electronic threats.
In the United States, in addition to Epirus, following the "Counter-Electronic System High-Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project" (CHAMP), the US Department of Defense is investing in the "High-Power Joint Electromagnetic Non-kinetic Strike" project to seek more combat-ready CHAMP-type weapons. Given the huge advantages of HPM weapons over current surface-to-air kinetic interceptor missiles, the U.S. Department of Defense plans to equip combat HPM directed energy weapons within the next five years, and in the future, HPM will have the ability to respond to a large number of cruise missiles, drones, and other threats against U.S. bases. HPM weapons will be used more widely in all branches of the U.S. military. In 2017, the U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff signed the Directed Energy Flight Program to promote the development and deployment of airborne high-energy lasers and high-power radio frequency weapons for the Air Force. In October 2018, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory issued a request for information on the concept of "Airborne Directed Energy"; In 2021, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory released the report "Directed Energy Future 2060 - A Prospect for Directed Energy Technology in the Next 40 Years of the U.S. Department of Defense", which predicts the development and application of directed energy weapons, including high-energy laser weapons and high-power microwave weapons, in the next 40 years. In addition to the United States, Russia is also accelerating the development of its own microwave weapons. The "Krasukha" family of electronic warfare weapons developed by the Russian Radio-Electronic Technology Corporation includes two models: the "Krasukha-2" and "Krasukha-4" systems. "Krasuha-2" is a vehicle-mounted high-power microwave jamming system, mainly used to combat air-based radar, can interfere with AWACS aircraft hundreds of kilometers away, delivered to the Russian army in advance in 2014, has played a role in the conflict in Ukraine in 2014 and the war in Syria in 2015. In addition to the United States and Russia, European countries are not far behind. On 1 October 2020, at least 77 experts from 10 member states of the European Defence Agency, as well as Norway and Switzerland, participated in an online meeting to study the technical and operational aspects of HPM, which was contracted by the Fraunhofer Association for the Promotion of Applied Research in Germany from the end of April 2020 to the end of October 2021.
The advantages of microwave weapons for anti-drone warfare
With the rapid evolution of modern warfare, traditional weapon systems are gradually being combined with emerging technologies to adapt to the complex and ever-changing battlefield environment. As one of the main offensive weapons of intelligent warfare, UAVs and their swarms have the characteristics of low cost, anti-saturation attack and good concealment, which brings great challenges to the existing air defense system. The military powers of the world are constantly working on various methods and weapons for countering UAVs. At present, there are many countermeasures for UAVs, such as suppressive radio jamming, deceptive UAV interference, physical countermeasures such as direct destruction or capture, etc., but there are problems such as unsatisfactory countermeasures, high costs and easy to cause secondary damage. High-power microwave weapons have become an effective means of countering UAVs due to their fast attack speed, wide killing range, non-lethality, low environmental impact, and high cost-effectiveness ratio.
Microwave weapons are non-lethal weapons that use the electromagnetic wave energy generated by high-power microwave (HPM) technology to cause damage or interference to electronic equipment. In anti-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations, microwave weapons have shown their unique advantages.
- Fast Attack: React quickly when confronted with a swarm of drones, and microwave weapons are capable of attacking targets at the speed of light, providing an almost instantaneous strike capability, which is essential for countering the rapid threat of drones. Compared with other UAV countermeasures, microwave weapons can cover a large area, effectively counter UAV swarms, and provide a wider range of defense capabilities.
- Non-lethal: Microwave weapons are mainly aimed at electronic equipment, do not cause secondary damage, and are able to disable drones without causing physical damage, reducing damage to our personnel and non-military facilities.
- Strong anti-interference: Microwave weapons are not affected by traditional electronic interference, unlike laser weapons, which are limited by weather conditions, and can be used in a variety of environmental conditions with strong anti-interference capabilities.
The future direction of microwave weapons
With the rapid development of science and technology, microwave weapons are standing at the forefront of military innovation, indicating that their application prospects will be infinitely broad. In the face of the complexity of modern information warfare, the direction of evolution of microwave weapons is particularly crucial, but in general, the development direction of microwave weapons should be based on adapting to modern information warfare. The main points in the direction of development of microwave weapons are as follows: Microwave weapons are miniaturized, and the current microwave weapons are huge in size, very cumbersome, inconvenient for maneuvering and transportation, and difficult to adapt to the rapidly changing battlefield situation of informationized warfare. On the one hand, it is developing towards modularity and solidification; on the other hand, it is to explore new materials and technologies to improve the energy storage and insulation capacity of the medium and reduce the volume and weight of the system; To enhance the effectiveness of long-range operations, the destructive capability of microwave weapons decreases sharply with the increase of the range of action, and in order to meet the requirements of actual combat, it is necessary to improve and improve the long-range lethality of microwave weapons. High power, long pulse and high repetition rate are the main breakthrough directions; A variety of platforms are mounted, and the current microwave weapon carrying platform is very limited, and most microwave weapons need a special platform to carry it. In the future, microwave weapons must be able to adapt to a variety of carrying platforms, land-based, sea-based, and space-based should have the ability to carry them, and armored vehicles, tanks, warships, satellites, cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and even small artillery shells may be the combat carriers of microwave weapons in the future; It can hit a variety of targets, and future microwave weapons can achieve different killing effects by adjusting the output power and frequency. The same set of microwave weapons, which can be used for both close defense and long-range killing and damage of enemy electronic systems.
In the ever-evolving field of military technology, microwave weapons are providing new solutions for multi-dimensional operations in modern warfare with their unique advantages. With the gradual maturity and application of these technologies, microwave weapons will undoubtedly play a more critical role on the battlefield in the future.