US Air Force deploys cutting-edge weapon to destroy drone swarms just weeks after Saudi oil strike – but won’t say where overseas it will be based
- US Air Force purchased drone killing machine for $16.28 million
- It uses use systems equipped with an electromagnetic pulse cannon
- Defense department is deploying PHASER overseas for testing
A massive $16.28 million microwave weapon system designed to ‘disrupt’ and ‘damage’ drones is set to be tested overseas for operational evaluations.
Called PHASER, this military owned devices uses electromagnetic pulse to take down swarms of enemy drones.
The news of the high-powered device’s deployment comes just weeks after a fleet of 10 drones attacked a refinery and oil field in Saudi Arabia.
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Th Air Force is deploying a prototype microwave weapon system that uses an electromagnetic pulse to take down swarms drones overseas for operational evaluation
The weapon is mounted on a 20-ft. trailer, and can detect and track threats using its own radar or be ‘plugged in’ to other sensors.
The device’s parameters can be set to ‘disrupt’ or ‘damage’.
Powered by a diesel generator, PHASER can direct a brief jolt of microwave energy in the direction of incoming drones.
The energy fries the control systems, stopping their motors and causing drones to fall out of the air.
The US Air Force spent a total of $16.28 million on the prototype, which it purchased from Raytheon and going to run tests until December 20, 2020 in an unspecified location outside the US, Popular Mechanics reported.
‘Experimentation includes, but is not limited to 12 months of in-field operation by Air Force personnel against unmanned aerial systems threats,’ the contracting notice explains.
‘In addition, experimentation includes but is not limited to operator training, in theater maintenance of systems while collecting availability (full mission capable, partial mission capable, non-mission capable), reliability, maintainability and supportability data, and system operation against real-world or simulated hostile vignettes without disrupting other necessary installation operations.’
Unlike lasers, these types of HPM weapons can disrupt or destroy electronic devices across a wide area.
Raytheon says it has already halved the size of the PHASER payload since the experiment in 2013
The weapon is mounted on a 20-ft. trailer, and can detect and track threats using its own radar or be ‘plugged in’ to other sensors. The device’s parameters can be set to ‘disrupt’ or ‘damage’
‘It is a remarkable coincidence because this has been in the works between the Air Force and Raytheon essentially since an experiment at White Sands [Missile Range] late last year,’ said Don Sullivan, Raytheon missile systems’ chief technologist for directed energy.
‘There are fairly recent incidents, for example in Yemen where a very large drone with a high explosive payload killed about 40 people, at a prayer ground of all places. And that was on YouTube,’ Sullivan said.
‘It was a real eye-opener. What happened in Saudi over the weekend was kind of that raised to the nth degree.’
The attack in Saudi Arabi happened on September r14 when ten drones launched by Iran-backed militants sparked a huge fire at the world’s largest oil processing facility and a major oilfield in Saudi Arabia in the early hours of this morning.
The fires at Abqaiq in Buqayq, which contains the world’s largest oil processing plant, and Khurais, which contains the country’s second largest oilfield, have now been brought under control since the drone attacks at 4.00am local time.
Two days after the attack, crude prices jumped by 10 percent as a result of the blasts disrupting the supply of some 5.7 million barrels per day, or 5 percent of global supply, with experts warning that petrol prices could rise by up to 24 cents per gallon in the US and four pence per liter in the UK as a result.
