Something big to watch, a counter to the explosions, democratization, and cost differential to cheap, lethal drones - "Laser, microwave, and other directed-energy weapons ready for the battlefield" "It is estimated that Iranian-made drones cost approximately $2,000 each. While the DOD - citing operational security - has not disclosed what it is using to destroy the Houthi weapons, it is believed to employing the Standard Missile-2, which costs approximately $2.1 million per shot." "This spring, BlueHalo in Arlington, Va., won a four-year support contract for the Army's Palletized High Energy Laser (P-HEL) system. The system, which is based on BlueHalo's LOCUST LaWS, is in use to counter small UAVs. LOCUST is a short-range air defense system designed for quick deployment and mobility." "This spring, Doug Bush, the Army's head of acquisitions, told Forbes that the Army had used laser weapons in the Middle East to take down hostile drones." "One microwave weapon garnering attention is the Tactical High-Power Operational Responder (THOR), which is being developed by the U.S. Air Force Research Lab to combat the rising threat of swarming drones. When a swarm of drones is detected, THOR emits a wide-area burst of microwave energy that disables several drones simultaneously, making it highly effective against coordinated, large-scale drone attacks that are designed to overwhelm conventional defenses." https://t.co/6NsBZeexfL
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