Microwave weapons are excellent tools for affecting entire drone swarms.

Microwave weapons. They are directed energy weapons (DEW). Those weapons use microwaves to affect targets. That effect is needed. When. The system needs to affect an entire drone swarm in one shot. The microwave weapon. It is basically radar. It operates with extremely high energy levels. So. It’s possible to transform regular radar into a microwave weapon. In. That case. Microwave radar raises its transmitting power. To a destructive level. So that it can destroy drones’ electronics and even melt their shell.  

Microwave weapons can also disturb or even destroy manned aircraft. Microwave weapons can also warm things like ammunition. And that can detonate ammunition in the ammo shacks.  Microwaves turn an area into a no-go zone. There. The troops cannot go. The microwave system can cause pain. But more high-power systems can also kill attackers. The system can form a microwave wall. That wall can detonate grenades before they hit targets. 

But those weapons are also effective. In. The hands of attackers. The microwave transmitter can be used with drone attacks to shut down high-tech defense. The tank can use microwave domes to destroy ammunition and drones. The only problem with this type of defense is that it needs electricity. 

There are three types of microwave weapons. 

1) Jammer that disturbs communication. 

2) EMP (electromagnetic pulse) that destroys microchips. 

3)The deadly EMP that melts metal. When coherent microwave hits a human. It. Causes a hydrostatic shock. This means the system explodes cells. That effect can be deadlier than any bullet. Can cause. 

Transmission power determines the category. The jammer system can seem very effective. But its radio transmissions make it a good target for anti-radiation missiles. Anti-radiation missile.  It can be shot from air, sea, or ground-based platforms. The EMP weapon can destroy a missile’s electronics. And third systems can melt the aircraft’s shell. Microwave weapons can affect multiple targets.

Ammunition-free microwave weapon. (InterestingEngineering) 

There are over 20-year-old articles about the EMB (Electromagnetic Bombs). Those systems are effective both offensively and defensively. Microwave weapon. It can be used with stealth bombers and fighters to protect them against anti-aircraft missiles. 

The same way. Defenders can use microwaves to protect their own targets. 

At the same time. But. MASER (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) makes it Possible to create highly accurate microwaves. The microwave weapon can be a group of masers. That are on a rotating platform. 

Microwave weapons can also be mounted on satellites. In some visions, microwave systems are one tool. That can protect orbital data centers. Orbital data centers, reconnaissance satellites. And military communication satellites. They are the primary targets in next-generation conflicts. Satellites are point targets. And they can control things like smart weapons. The problem is that. Attacks against civilian satellites are crimes. There is a possibility. That enemies can buy time from opponents’ satellites. This means that a hostile actor can use Western satellites to control drone swarms against countries that own those satellites. 

Communication satellites can control drone swarms. This means. That. Any communication satellite can assist with military operations. This means those satellites require something. That protects them against ASAT weapons. The satellite can have high-power capacitors. 

The ASAT weapon. It can be an air- or sea-launched missile. Those missiles can also be launched from the silos. Or from regular rocket sites. The ASAT missile can use a conventional microwave weapon against satellites. The microwave burst can destroy a satellite’s electronics. But the microwave weapons. It is a multipurpose tool. The satellite can carry high-power capacitors. They store energy in them. When the satellite needs its microwave weapon. That electric power is conducted into the weapon. 

It is a multipurpose tool.

This kind of system can be mounted on hypersonic missiles and hypersonic gliders. The system can use a wind turbine generator to create high-power microwaves. Those microwaves can damage defenses. They can shut down vital components. And deny even missile launches. Weaponization of microwaves is one of the things. That causes resistance in the UN. 

The power satellite transmits energy on the ground using megawatt-class power. The power satellite, or satellites. They can aim their energy transmitters. At. One point. The satellite can use radio or microwave frequencies to transmit energy to the ground. If that energy is high enough, it could even melt electric wires. It can. Cause structural damage to stealth aircraft. The heat. That impacts stealth material. It can destroy its stealth ability. High-energy radio waves or microwaves can act as EMP impulses that destroy computers. 

https://www.baesystems.com/en-us/article/bae-systems-unveils-next-generation-directed-energy-and-kinetic-defense-systems-at-ausa

https://www.inss.org.il/publication/electromagnetic/

https://interestingengineering.com/military/bae-microwave-weapon-counter-drone-swarms

https://www.onr.navy.mil/organization/departments/code-35/division-353/directed-energy-weapons-high-power-microwaves

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed-energy_weapon

The new drones and solutions are shaping the next trends in the military.

"Ukraine Tests World's First Purpose-Built Robot Aircraft Carrier for Drones" (Kyiv Post, Ukraine Tests World's First Purpose-Built Robot Aircraft Carrier for Drones)

The next trend in the military is networking. All actors share information about their ammunition capacity. Recognized vehicles. Enemies and their movements. Knowledge of the enemy is a key element. 

The new systems are integrated as part of the whole. Entire battle units and their support systems form a network that shares information immediately. The winner is not the fastest. It's the sharpest. It's the thing that can detect, follow, and shoot the enemy with the highest possible accuracy. The only accepted accuracy is destroying the enemy. This is the element. 

In tactical-scale work. The strategic scale is more complicated than just battlefield operations. 

The strategic scale means the entire system. Its ability to replace losses settles the war. Settling the war is not the same as winning battles. It’s a little bit the same. But if the actor uses all its anti-tank ammunition in one battle. That can mean a loss in the next battle. All ammunition is a single-use tool. That means resupply is the most important thing in the war. The new drones can carry other drones. 

Sea- and land-based solutions. They carry anti-drone, killer drones, and observation drones. Surface and underwater systems can release other drones. That can affect inland objects. They can also use their anti-drone systems as traps. That can affect things. Like aircraft and helicopters. And other ships and tanks. The USVs (unmanned surface vehicles).And UUVs (Unmanned Underwater vehicles). And UGVs (Unmanned Ground Vehicles). They can carry small, lightweight anti-aircraft missiles. Stinger-type missiles can cause damage to large aircraft.

"A photograph of Typhoon uncrewed surface vessel equipped with an Airstrike Pack. Image: Splash Industries" (The Defensepost, Typhoon USV Gains Ability to Launch One-Way Drones With a Single Button)

And if. The system carries an internal warhead. That can improve its ability to cause damage. The large-sized robot can carry other robots.  This means the UUV or USV can be dropped from an airplane.  Or some unmanned sea vehicle can carry a UGV to the operational area. This makes those systems very hard to predict. A drone is completely different from a manned vehicle. 

The AVs. (Autonomous Vehicles) like AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles) are replacing remote-controlled vehicles. Those AI-powered systems can operate independently without a remote pilot. This makes them immune to jammers. 

The drone must not care. About. Its crew. And the only problem is its communication. When. We think about small-sized FPV drones. Bigger drones like the MQ-9 Reaper and its successors. They can transport those drones. And. They can act as relay stations. This means that the small FPV drone can also be controlled from another side of the world. That gives small drones new capabilities. Larger drones. They can carry those small drones to operational areas. The fact is that. 

Things like Starlink systems. They can offer drones higher capacities. Than we ever imagined. The modem that uses jumping frequencies is hard to jam. But if jamming is successful. That makes those drones ineffective. Except. If they have AI-based systems. That can make them follow and hit the target even if the controller loses connection. 

When we think about manned submarines, their limit is food. Another thing. That limits their operations. It is psychological effects. Things like toilets can malfunction. And relationships in a closed environment can turn poisonous. This means the next thing that we can see at sea. It could be nuclear-powered drones. Full-scale nuclear submarine. It’s easy to transform into a drone. 

Small nuclear reactors. They can give small vehicles the ability to use things like lasers and microwave weapons. Nuclear power can solve problems with those drones' operational range. Nuclear batteries (RTGs) can give a small drone an unlimited operational capacity. But portable nuclear reactors can give the same ability. For. Larger-scale drones. The nuclear-powered tank Chrysler TV-8. It could be based on the new nuclear submarines. Those submarines can have caterpillar tracks. That allows them to operate. 

On the bottom of the sea. The miniature sub. It can look like the Soviet miniature submarine concept. That was designed for Spetsnaz. The submarine had those caterpillar tracks. That. It can travel along the seabed.

Miniature nuclear technology. That was created. For nuclear-powered cars like the Ford Nucleon and tanks like the Chrysler TV-8 in the 1960s. Those reactors' modernized versions. They can make it possible to create nuclear-powered flying vehicles, ground vehicles, corvettes, frigates, and missile boats. Or the nuclear-powered version of the Orca-class UUV.  Miniature reactors. They can turn many visions true. The ability to create systems with unlimited operational range is interesting. 

https://www.hisutton.com/Russian_Tracked_Submarines_Baltic_1980s.html

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/83090?

https://thedefensepost.com/2026/08/27/typhoon-one-way-drones/

https://www.twz.com/land/bradley-fighting-vehicle-lugging-load-of-swarming-ground-drones-is-a-sign-of-whats-to-come

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_underwater_vehicle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_aerial_vehicle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_surface_vehicle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_underwater_vehicle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_TV-8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Nucleon

Swarm of drones is here and are we prepared?

Picture I

Kimmo Huosionmaa

Swarm of drones is in the key element if the world of battlefield and intelligence. Those small aerial and land-moving robots can cover very large areas, and they can be connected together with networks, what allows to connect the information, what the sensors of those vehicles send to the control center. Sometimes those small drones can carry the remote-controlled "toy cars", what can be dropped to the operational area, and those devices can look in the holes, and other places, where might be hiding people or equipment.

Some of those vehicles are equipped with small explosives like thermobaric, HEAT and thermite ammunition, what mission would be destroy enemy equipment. But there is more use for the swarm of the drones than use them as the hit weapon. The central computer can use the swarm of drones for protecting the bases against land and even the aerial attack.

Those small helicopters can have IR- and chemical sensors, and because drones are cheap, every drone might have different sensors.  The computer can use drones as the shield by moving the swarm of them to the route of attacking aircraft and helicopters when the jet motors and helicopters rotors would be suck drones thru them, and this causes damages for those vehicles.

The drones can equip with the ECM-systems, what will disturb radars, and also there could be small-sized weapons like automatic pistols and MAC-10-style-submachine guns for terminating the enemy, and this kind of devices can be very dangerous. Every person can install the winch in the drone, what would pull the trigger backward by using wire and then launch that gun.

Smallest size drones cannot carry the automatic guns would anyway also equip the derringer pistols or the outside of the drones would install rifle bullets, what are equipped with electric detonators. Those killer drones can have size about a couple of centimeters, and they can be extremely deadly, the idea of those weapons comes from the toys and the 338 caliber rifle bullet is always deadly.

Those systems can also be used in the intelligence role, and they can use the commercial routers and other devices for catching WIFI communication, and in the worst case, those drones can make "man-in middle-attack" and route the enemy communication thru it. That kind of systems can cause very big troubles if the enemy communication would be routed thru that equipment. And are we prepared for those threats?

Sometimes we must say, that those drone swarms can defend successfully by using ECM-systems, what denies the communication between drones and central computers. Those drone swarms can communicate together by using WLAN-technology, and that kind of systems are giving them the ability to share the computer power together. And that technology makes those drone-swarms more independent. In the most futuristic and terrifying visions system would equip with the ability to find the fuel for those helicopters independently.

The chemical sensors would find the hydrocarbons for the fuel cells and then drones can cut the canister open, and fill the tanks.  Drone swarms can also equip with "centers" what means drones with more powerful computer systems, and those systems can support the operations of the drones by flying with them, and the best way to defend against those systems would be EMP- or ECM weapon, what destroys the electronics and denies the communication between the individual drones.

I wait with fear when the first street gangs will attack against together by using drones. Those systems can also use for protecting the drug dealers by looking for the officials and this will cause terrible visions, how criminals can use them. They can look inside the houses, and looking for weapons and things, what they can steal. Drones can also be equipped with the microphones, and they can record every voice inside some house.

Picture I

https://assets.pcmag.com/media/images/494272-how-we-test-drones.jpg