A new high-power microwave system that can strike drone swarms Outside the sky will immediately “touch all aspects of war”, according to the founder of Epirus, Joe Lonsdale.
“It’s a bit like a Star Trek shield,” said Lonsdale, founder of Epirus and co-founder of the growing defense technology company, explained by its counter-drone Leonidas system. “He is able to extinguish them from far away.”
“It will affect all aspects of war over the next decade,” he told Fox News Digital. “We can shoot down fairly advanced drones.”
The Defense Epirus startup tech obtained another $ 250 million in a series of funding from the series D, which was announced on Wednesday, providing its total capital funding to more than $ 550 million.
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The Leonidas counter-drone system from Epirus sends a high power microwave bundle that stops drones on their traces. (Epius)
The Epirus Léonidas system is a ground -directed energy weapon that draws an electromagnetic pulse to deactivate drone swarms, or it can neutralize precision targets. The company aims to help the military to go from a “1 to 1 to a state of mind to a” 1 to many “way of thinking of a short -range defense,” according to CEO Andy LowerY.
Drone swarms were a first -line key tactic in the Russia-Ukraine War because most defense systems are designed to eliminate an unmanned vehicle at a time. In addition, in the Middle East, The United States has used several million dollars missiles to shoot down Houthi drones that are built for around $ 2,000 or less.
“Drone swarms are where war is going, and currently you have very expensive and very difficult to stop drones,” said Lonsdale. “These are not only drones, these are all kinds of different types of uses for this,” he added, predicting that one day technology could be deployed to freeze planes in the sky and protect satellites. Technology has already succeeded in Defense Department tests on boats and other electronics, according to the company.
“It’s just that it will affect all aspects of war during the next decade.”
Joe Lonsdale, an entrepreneur in defense and venture capital technology, said that Leonidas d’Epirus technology would affect all aspects of war. “ (Mohammad Obaidi / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Representative Rob Wittman, vice-president of the House Armed Services Committee, warned that the United States should “run to play the catch-up” with his opponents in the Counter-Uas area.
“We are not doing what we have to do,” he told Fox News Digital on the sidelines of the basis of the database of national security innovation in Washington, DC “We have miserably failed in Counter-Ua.
Dozens of drones have hovered over Langley For more than two weeks in 2023, and legislators say they have still not received an explanation.
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Epirus won a $ 66 million contract in 2023 to provide its Leonidas to the American army, and technology would be in the test phase by central order, which oversees the Middle East, according to comments that the military’s chief of staff, General Randy George, did the Congress last year.
The rapid rise of unmanned air vehicles at war has prompted a defensive race to develop systems to counter them, such as high energy lasers and high-power microwaves.
“We have many people who are, you know, in the (Ministry of Defense) who wanted to adopt new technologies,” said Lonsdale. “They are really excited about it.”
The defense entrepreneur suggested that there were “tons of waste” in the Pentagon which could be reused for new technologies.
“There is a ton of cronyism. We see dozens, even hundreds of billions of dollars that you could withdraw, according to (on) how aggressive you want to be. And these should be placed in advanced technologies that really dissuade enemies. “”
Epirus was evaluated at $ 1.35 billion when he raised 200 million dollars in series C financing, but the company did not disclose its valuation for this round.
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The California-based company will use the new cash flow to develop on international and commercial markets and extend manufacturing in the United States
The company also plans to open a new simulation center in Oklahoma to train soldiers in a counter-drone war.