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Raytheon Technologies


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Raytheon Missiles & Defense is developing robust high-power microwaves –
disruptive technology that is changing warfare, potentially offering new defense
against enemy drones and hypersonic weapons.

Caption


HYPERSONIC WEAPONS MEET SPEED-OF-LIGHT DEFENSES


RAYTHEON MISSILES & DEFENSE IS DEVELOPING HIGH-POWER MICROWAVES AS PART OF
LAYERED AIR DEFENSES

January 18, 2022
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They’re two of the biggest threats to U.S. and allied military power, and they
could hardly be more different.

One is the hypersonic missile, which travels at more than five times the speed
of sound and can strike targets at great distances. The other is the UAV, or
unmanned aerial vehicle – particularly off-the-shelf drones modified into cheap
weapons that are prohibitively expensive to defeat.

Different as those threats are, there’s one single emerging technology – the
high-power microwave – that could play a huge role in defending against both.

High-power microwave systems, which use highly concentrated radio energy to
damage their targets’ electronics, are among the options that Raytheon Missiles
& Defense, a Raytheon Technologies business, is partnering with the U.S.
Department of Defense to explore as part of a layered approach to air defense.

“Our adversaries are coming up with increasingly sophisticated and innovative
ways to attack us,” said Colin Whelan, vice president of Advanced Technology for
Raytheon Missiles & Defense. “We need lower cost solutions to counter them.”

The business is building a set of technologies that fall into three categories:

 * Small-scale systems for short-range air defense. 
 * Larger systems for longer-range air defense. 
 * Small airborne high-power microwave payloads for maneuverable platforms like
   UAVs.

Harnessing the power of energy

The advantage of high-power microwaves and other directed energy weapons is
that, once they’re built, they’re inexpensive to fire – and their ammunition is
limited only by the availability of power. That makes them well-suited to take
on drones that attack by the dozen.

“This technology makes it possible to knock out a whole swarm of electronic
threats in a single shot,” Whelan said. 

Raytheon Missiles & Defense’s Advanced Technology group, an elite team of
innovators, is helping the U.S. military explore how they may integrate
high-power microwave technology into aircraft, cruise missiles, surface ships
and ground vehicles. Paired with high-energy lasers, microwaves would give
military commanders a powerful directed energy one-two punch.

Just as high-power microwaves use concentrated radio energy, lasers project
beams of light particles on to their targets. But while lasers burn into their
targets, high-power microwaves attack their electronics.

“We crank up the power to create enough energy to electronically disrupt a
target,” said Paul Head, who leads high-power microwave programs at Raytheon
Missiles & Defense. “It causes the drone to fall out of the sky.”

Speed of light versus sound

High-power microwaves have an important edge over hypersonic weapons – they’re
much faster. While hypersonic weapons travel more than five times the speed of
sound – 343 meters per second or higher – high-power microwaves travel at the
speed of light – 300 million meters per second.

“When it comes to defeating a threat that pushes the limits of a physical
object’s speed, you naturally look to a defense that moves at the speed of
light,” Whelan said. 

Hypersonic weapons are also maneuverable; they can swerve to avoid detection and
even loop around adversary-facing missile defense batteries. But defenses that
move at the speed of light still have the edge, Whelan said.

“It doesn’t matter how maneuverable an adversary is,” he said. “They are going
down if you have speed-of-light defenses.” 

A virtual proving ground

The innovation doesn’t stop there. Advanced Technology is using digital
engineering methods such as modeling and simulation to prove to the greatest
degree possible that high-power microwave technologies work before costly
prototyping.

“We call it pushing the ‘I believe’ button,” Head said. “With our powerful
modeling platforms, in conjunction with live test data, we can show that the
system works and adds significant benefit to a modern layered defense in terms
of cost and magazine depth.” 

The modeling platforms allow the business to demonstrate the directed energy’s
effect on target is both predictable and measurable, offering the best defense
for a mission. 

“We have a strong understanding of the effects these weapons have and the
platforms they are designed to counter,” Head said. “We are maturing the
technology and look to demonstrate high-power microwaves in the field.”

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