ECM,directed energy.
Epirus develops software-defined electromagnetic pulse (EMP) technology designed to take down dangerous drones. In September 2019 it won a new type of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract from the US Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) as part of its AFWERX technology accelerator programme. According to a company press release: “Epirus was awarded the contract for its novel architecture that makes multi-beam phased array systems extremely affordable and scalable while greatly accelerating their development timeline and reducing development costs. That enables Air Force Special Operators and other satellite communication and phased array customers to be more lethal and survivable in any operational environment.
Epirus developed a novel architecture for using commercial off-the-shelf field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), semiconductor devices commonly used in electronic circuits, as ultra-wideband radio frequency (RF) transceivers. It is, says the company, a significantly more resource-efficient approach than other FPGAs, while being much cheaper and faster than ASIC-based transceivers. Using this new architecture, it becomes much faster and more affordable to develop RF systems for digital beamforming and channelizing, which has multiple uses in communications, electronic warfare and even radar.
Partnerships:
General Dynamics Land Systems and Epirus have signed a strategic teaming agreement to collaborate to integrate the Epirus Leonidas directed energy system and broader high-power microwave technology into the U.S. Army’s Stryker and other manned and autonomous ground combat vehicles for enhanced mobile Short Range Air Defense (SHORAD) capabilities.
