The US Marine Corps received its first high-power microwave anti-drone system, ExDECS, from California-based defense company Epirus.
To improve the US Marines’ anti-drone capabilities, California-based directed energy weapon developer Epirus has announced the delivery of the first Expeditionary Directed Energy Counter-Swarm system to the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division .
According to Epirus, the weapon aligns with the US Marine Corps’ effort to field next-generation counter-unmanned aerial systems .The ExDECS system, derived from the company’s Leonidas Expeditionary platform, is a mobile, solid-state high-power microwave weapon designed to deploy and effectively neutralize drone swarms rapidly.Marines’ first microwave weaponEpirus announced on April 29 that it had developed this microwave system under a contract from the US Navy’s Office of Naval Research .In September 2024, Epirus received another award to continue testing and integrating the system as part of the Preliminary Evaluation of Ground-based Anti-Swarm UAS System program, the company added.After completing Factory Acceptance Testing, documented via Department of Defense Form DD250, the ExDECS prototype was transferred to NSWCDD for Government Acceptance Testing. The system will now support Marine Corps experimentation efforts to assess the operational utility of directed energy solutions in Low Altitude Air Defense and Ground Based Air Defense missions.A spokesperson at Epirus told Interesting Engineering on April 29 that the company has “delivered the ExDECS prototype to NSWCDD for counter-drone-swarm testing by US Marines.”ExDECS is engineered around the scalable Leonidas energy-based HPM architecture, optimized for integration with lightweight tactical vehicles, towable trailers, and other expeditionary platforms. Introduced in 2024, Leonidas Expeditionary is the latest iteration of Epirus’ suite of non-kinetic counter-electronics systems, offering simultaneous broad-spectrum effects against multiple airborne threats.“Drone warfare is changing the fight — fast. Systems like ExDECS give Marines a decisive advantage by neutralizing multiple electronic threats at once with a single system — what we call a one-to-many capability,” said Andy Lowery, CEO of Epirus, in the press release. “This delivery is a critical step toward fielding non-kinetic counter-swarm solutions that enhance the mobility, survivability, and lethality of our Marine forces.”High-power weaponThe Epirus spokesperson earlier told IE that ExDECS can kill any amount of Group 1-2 UAS entering its protection field with a microwave ray. “Epirus HPM can continuously engage multiple groups of targets, as well. In simpler terms, we can defeat multiple drones at once—and multiple swarms throughout the engagement,” the spokesperson said.“The Leonidas Expeditionary announcement highlights the scalability of our HPM systems,” the spokesperson added.He said a solid-state Line Replaceable Amplifier Module architecture is the essential “building block” of all Epirus HPM systems. The LRAM architecture mitigates the risk of a single point of failure, a common challenge for vacuum-tube-based systems, by enabling graceful degradation to maintain operational effectiveness. “The LRAM is also, in part, what unlocks unprecedented scalability for our systems. In a basic sense, ExDECS is a scaled-down version of the IFPC-HPM C-UAS with roughly 1/3 the amount of LRAMs for advanced mobility,” the spokesperson said.He added that developing new form factors involves tech nuances, but ExDECS reflects the scalability of Epirus technology to meet specific use cases and requirements. “With the scalability of our systems, which ExDECS is a prime example of, we’re able to develop new form factors that align with customer requirements.” “If a static system is best for a customer use case—we can build it. If requirements dictate a semi-fixed solution—we can build it. If you need a mobile solution , or HPM built specifically for vehicle protection, we can build it,” according to the spokesperson. He said the LRAM architecture unlocks unprecedented scalability to support the development of customer-specific form factors. The US Navy is adopting HPM C-UAS, learning from the Russia-Ukraine conflict to counter kamikaze drones effectively.
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