As the threat of weaponized drone swarms continues to escalate for U.S. forces, defense planners are considering high-energy laser and high-power microwave countermeasures to combat the threat of these groups of unmanned aerial systems (UASs).

REDONDO BEACH, Calif. Epirus Systems, a maker of software-defined electromagnetic pulse (EMP) technology designed to take down dangerous unmanned aircraft systems (UASs), has won a new type of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract from the U.S. Air Force?s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) and its AFWERX technology accelerator program. The AFWERX program contracts with and empowers companies to engage industry stakeholders and fine-tune technologies at an earlier stage to streamline innovation to the warfighter.