Rather than engaging one target at a time, the system can neutralize more than 50 drones in a single flight, the company said.
By Shula Rosen
The growing use of cheap attack drones on battlefields from Ukraine to the Middle East is fueling a race to develop new ways to stop them, and Lockheed Martin says it is moving a high-power microwave weapon designed to disable entire swarms closer to operational use.
Israel and the United States face a rapidly escalating threat from both hostile drone swarms and highly precise attack drones. First Person View (FPV) drones and fiber-optic-tethered models are inexpensive to build, difficult to detect on radar and can evade traditional electronic jamming, making them increasingly difficult to counter.
Lockheed Martin said it is accelerating production and testing of MORFIUS X-Rotor, a reusable airborne system that uses bursts of high-power microwave energy to disable the electronics that keep drones flying.
Rather than engaging one target at a time, the system can neutralize more than 50 drones in a single flight, the company said.
The company said MORFIUS is designed to be recovered and reused after missions, lowering the cost per engagement. It also operates with a range of sensors and command-and-control systems and does not require a dedicated sensor or fire-control radar to guide an intercept.
Lockheed Martin is preparing another round of flight tests after trials in Arizona, California and Oklahoma that evaluated the system’s flight performance, intercept capability and lethality.
It is also increasing prototype production of both the aircraft and its high-power microwave payload.
The company said the program supports the U.S. Department of War’s 2025-2028 Rapid Response Counter-UAS Roadmap.
According to Lockheed Martin, MORFIUS is the only ground-launched, field-reusable airborne high-power microwave system capable of disabling more than 50 drones in a single flight while operating with any command-and-control system and without relying on fire-control radars. The X-Rotor builds on MORFIUS variants that have been flying since 2017.
“MORFIUS sets a new benchmark for counter-drone capability, delivering a high kill rate while keeping the cost per kill low,” said Randy Crites, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control Advanced Programs.
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