{"id":69640,"date":"2025-04-08T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2025\/04\/08\/epirus-debuts-high-power-microwave-weapon-to-knock-out-boat-motors\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:09:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:09:57","slug":"epirus-debuts-high-power-microwave-weapon-to-knock-out-boat-motors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/industry\/2025\/04\/08\/epirus-debuts-high-power-microwave-weapon-to-knock-out-boat-motors\/","title":{"rendered":"Epirus debuts high-power microwave weapon to knock out boat motors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Counter-drone company Epirus<\/a> unveiled a new high-power microwave system <\/a>capable of disabling manned and unmanned boat motors, it announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonidas H2O \u201cwas effective against vessel motors at record ranges\u201d during the U.S. Navy\u2019s Advanced Technology Exercise Coastal Trident event in Crane, Indiana, held in August 2024, according to the announcement. The system knocked out four commercially available vessel motors, varying in horsepower from 40 to 90 \u201cat a multitude of ranges,\u201d it noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pentagon \u201chas spent years of research and development and spent tens-of-millions of dollars into developing a non-kinetic vessel stop solution, with no operational system deployed to date. With Leonidas H2O, we are bringing forth a technology with demonstrated effectiveness to fill this capability gap, today,\u201d Epirus CEO Andy Lowery said in the statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The California-based company debuted its ground-based system designed to protect forward operating bases from incoming swarm threats in 2020 and has since proven Leonidas can adapt<\/a> to other platforms, including being mounted on a drone in a pod<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLeonidas, by its nature, it\u2019s just an old-fashioned platform. We\u2019ve made force fields \u2026 of electromagnetic energy,\u201d Lowery told Defense News. \u201cWhether that electromagnetic energy spoils a drone\u2019s electronics from working correctly or spoils a boat\u2019s motor, or use your imagination, anything with little computers in it and stuff, is susceptible to these persistent fields of energy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent Navy exercise proved the system \u2014 scaled down to a third of its original size \u2014 could go up against \u201ca whole bunch of different types of boat motors out there,\u201d Lowery said. It did so despite testing restrictions at the range limiting it from operating at full strength and from using certain frequencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lowery noted that the system was effective up to nearly 100 meters working at half power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The technology would come in handy at ports and close to coastlines, where kinetic defenses would not be a good option, Lowery said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adapting Leonidas for marine operations meant the company took into account that it would endure the corrosive effects of salt water, but otherwise, \u201cthe system works more or less the same,\u201d Lowery said. \u201cExcept for one item,\u201d he added. \u201cIt kind of uses the water as a mirror, and so [we] can use the water to our advantage, that is it hits certain spots in even further distances by using reflections off the water.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of the beams\u2019 behavior on water, the company made adaptations to the software, he noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One limitation of the system is that it does not work under water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe frequencies just don\u2019t propagate under water. They just stop dead in like an inch of travel,\u201d Lowery said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Epirus continues to work to get the capability into the hands of service members<\/a>. There are two systems deployed with the Army in the U.S. Central Command area of operations and a few others going to another operational area, Lowery said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t