The Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base unveiled THOR or Tactical High
Power Microwave Operational Responder in a live demonstration with local reporters.
The system knocked out a hovering drone out of the sky with an invisible and inaudible
electromagnetic wave as the reporters watched.
THOR which is developed at a cost of $15 million disabled the unmanned aerial vehicle in a
flash and sent it spiraling to the ground.
THOR program manager Amber Anderson stated that had more drones been flying within THOR's
expansive scope, they also would have dropped in an instant.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes how THOR will destroy drones without wielding
a hammer?
Let’s get started.
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Drones are no longer just being used as harmless hobby systems.
These are being employed as weapons to strike targets at long standoff ranges.
Drone technology has become very advanced and relatively cheap.
The conflicts in Iraq and Syria have shown that this kind of capability is within reach
of even non-state actors.
In January 2018, a mass drone attack was witnessed on Russia’s main outposts in Syria – the
Khmeimim airbase and the naval base in Tartus.
Though the damage from the attack was insignificant as per Russia, it clearly displayed the potential
of drones in warfare.
U.S President Donald Trump revealed on 19 July 2019 that the USS Boxer downed an Iranian
drone.
As per him, the drone came within 1,000 yards of the U.S Navy ship and ignored "multiple
calls to stand down”.
Mr. Trump Speaking at the White House had said the drone was "threatening the safety
of the ship and the ship's crew" in the Strait of Hormuz and was "immediately destroyed.”
On September 14, 2019, facilities of Saudi Arabia's oil company Aramco located in the
east of the country came under attack.
As per reports, the raid began around 4 a.m and 18 drones, as well as 7 cruise missiles,
were used in the attack.
The world’s biggest oil refinery near the city of Abqaiq and a refinery near Khurais,
where Saudi’s second-largest oil field is located were targeted.
The damage was significant & this caused a spike in global oil prices.
It is evident that a swarm of armed drones has the potential to cause a lot of damage.
Currently, there are two ways to neutralize drones
1.
Non Kinetic kill approach where the drone is not hit physically with a projectile.
It can be electromagnetic weapons like THOR that basically damage electric circuits or
disrupt the drone’s communication with the ground control station resulting in them falling
out of the sky.
2.
Kinetic kill approach where the enemy drone is physically damaged.
This can be done by intercepting the drone with missiles, automated gun systems and lasers.
New age drones powered by AI are more self-reliant and don’t need continuous human control
and hence are resistant to Electronic Warfare.
Several new variants of drones can automatically return to the operator even if the communication
is lost.
THOR uses the first approach.
AFRL first exhibited THOR, at the 2019 Air Force Association Air, Space, and Cyber Conference
at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, located just across the Potomac River
from Washington, D.C. and Virginia, September 16-18.
THOR is not a hammer-wielding God but it is a non-kinetic counter-drone swarm electromagnetic
weapon that AFRL developed for airbase defense.
Stephen Langdon, chief of the High-Powered Microwave Technologies Branch of AFRL’s
Directed Energy Directorate said “THOR is essentially a high-powered electromagnetic
source that we put together to specifically defeat drones,”
THOR program manager Amber Anderson says that the system “operates like a flashlight,”
and that anything caught in the beam “will be taken down ... in the blink of an eye.”
It operates from ground power and uses energy to disable drones.
2nd Lt. James Wymer, a research physicist for the program with the Air Force Research
Lab's technology directorate, "This is designed for base defense"
He added, "What it does is that it sends out that high-power, short pulse of microwaves
that disable the electronics on the system itself”.
THOR can be packaged in a 20-foot transport container and hence can easily be transported
in a C-130 aircraft.
Reports indicate that the system can be set up within three hours and its user interface
is designed to require very little user training.
Further testing against a larger set of drone types in swarming configurations is being
planned.
The Air Force began testing THOR against short-range targets earlier this spring, while another
system, the Counter-Electronic High-Power Microwave Extended-Range Air Base Air Defense
(CHIMERA) is designed to hit things at medium to long ranges.
Drones can be taken out with traditional methods like rapid-firing guns but since there are
small and highly maneuverable, this can be difficult.
THOR has some very important advantages.
The speed enables it to hit their targets almost instantaneously.
THOR will also not need to carry ammunition like traditional systems and hence it will
be able to take out a much larger number of threats constrained only by the power supply
limit of the platform.
This is pretty significant as traditional air defense systems can run out of ammunition
when encountering a large number of incoming threats.
They are silent and invisible which makes them very much suitable for use in the urban
landscape.
It will also be much cheaper as only electricity will be required and the cost as low as $1
per shot.
This is very cost-effective compared to conventional weapons.
It is evident that drones will have a significant part to play in future combat and the scenario
is becoming reality much faster than what we could imagine a decade earlier.
The U.S military predicts that swarms of drones will be a major threat in the coming days.
Nonkinetic technology is still relatively new and scientists and engineers are working
round the clock to master it.
There are many challenges when it comes to using them for combat usages.
American military’s tryst with this kind of weapon is not new.
In 2010, the Air Force mounted and fired off a megawatt-class chemical laser from a modified
Boeing 747.
Things have changed since then and instead of unstable chemical laser used for that experiment,
solid-state lasers are now being used.
The SHiELD program is developing a directed energy laser system that will act as a demonstrator
for a self-defense system that could eventually enable aircraft to protect themselves from
surface-to-air (SAM) and air-to-air (AAM) missiles.
On April 23, 2019, the U.S Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Self-Protect High Energy
Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD) Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) Program successfully achieved
a major goal.
A laser developed as part of the program had shot down several air launched missiles in
flight.
But the U.S military is not putting all eggs in the same basket and is also pursuing Kinetic
solutions.
Anduril Industries which is a small California-based tech startup has revealed that it has started
delivering"hard kill” drones to the U.S military that are designed to bring down enemy
drones.
The drone in question is named ‘Interceptor' and was unveiled on Oct 3, 2019.
It is designed to destroy similarly sized hostile unmanned aircraft by physically ramming
them in air.
It will be interesting to see how things pan out in
the coming days.