BAE Systems Brings a High-Power Microwave Counter-Drone Array to AUSA, Built From 99% Off-the-Shelf Parts

BAE Systems used AUSA 2026 to show its answer to the drone swarm: a high-power microwave (HPM) array that the company says is built almost entirely from commercial components. It is offered as one layer of a two-part counter-drone package. In its release dated October 12, BAE paired the microwave system with a kinetic weapon, the MDACS cannon, and pitched both against the same weakness. Defences that rely on interceptors run out when the magazine is empty.

Jason Casciotti, vice president of BAE's Weapon Systems product line, summed up the microwave half of the pitch in one line, quoted by Defence Industry Europe: "as long as there is power, there is defense."

What BAE actually showed

The HPM system is a modular array. According to Defence Industry Europe, the power output and array size can be adjusted, and the different configurations share controllers, graphical user interfaces and power systems. BAE describes four deployment options: fixed-site, towed, mounted on a combat vehicle, and maritime. Interesting Engineering reports the same four configurations.

The most notable claim is about the supply chain. BAE says about 99% of the system is commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware, and the system is described as American-made. Interesting Engineering and Army Technology put it at more than 99%. According to Defence Industry Europe, BAE says established commercial supply chains would shorten production lead times, lower costs and simplify maintenance. BAE did not disclose a numerical cost per shot to back that up.

Defense Daily describes the system shown as a large array designed to knock down Group 1 and Group 2 drones, the small and lightweight end of the UAS spectrum. Chris Laski, director of business development for weapon systems at BAE's Combat Mission Systems business, told the publication the system can also defeat fiber optic-linked drones, which Defense Daily notes have been widely used by both sides in Ukraine's war against Russia.

How mature is it? It depends on whom you ask

The two accounts of how ready the system is do not line up exactly, and readers should keep them separate.

In BAE's own framing, reported by Defence Industry Europe and Interesting Engineering, the system has reached Technology Readiness Level 6, which Defence Industry Europe describes as testing in a relevant environment. The company says it got there through outdoor range testing in which the array fired billions of microwave pulses to document effects on targets. Interesting Engineering says that outdoor testing validated the system's operation.

Defense Daily, citing a company official, goes further. In its account the system has been developed and tested for four years under a contract with an undisclosed Pentagon customer. The hardware has been ready for two years, and the system is ready for operational testing in a theater command. Laski told Defense Daily that BAE has one prototype at present and that, if a combatant commander wanted the system, it is ready to go. Defense Daily also reports that BAE is self-funding some critical technology work to mature the system and prepare it for production.

The two accounts are not necessarily in conflict. But "TRL 6" and "ready for operational testing in a theater command" signal different things to a program office, and none of the sources read here names the customer or the command, or gives a timeline. Interesting Engineering adds a caution: BAE's announcement does not establish that the US Army has adopted either system for operational service, and its eventual role depends on further development, testing and procurement decisions.

What BAE did not say

BAE left out the numbers that would let anyone judge the system against its competitors. Defence Industry Europe notes that the company did not disclose, in the material supplied:

engagement range
numerical cost per shot
a fielding date

Without a range figure, it is not possible to say how much warning time the array needs against an incoming swarm, or how it would sit alongside longer-reach layers. Without a cost-per-shot figure, the economic argument behind "as long as there is power" stays a qualitative claim. Defence Industry Europe adds that BAE says missile systems remain better suited to high-value, long-range threats that need precision kinetic effects, and that the HPM is designed to work alongside existing kinetic weapons and missile defenses.

The kinetic half: MDACS

Army Technology reports that BAE presented the HPM array together with the Multi-Domain Artillery Cannon System (MDACS), a kinetic system that fires guided munitions. For air defence it is designed to fire the Hypervelocity Projectile. Against fixed and moving ground targets it can use Scorpio-XR, which BAE says has twice the range of existing 155mm cannon-launched projectiles. Army Technology says MDACS is air-transportable and intended to be mobile across the battlefield. BAE positions the HPM array as the directed-energy component, with MDACS covering the kinetic side.

The common thread, as Army Technology puts it, is the growing gap between widespread drone use and the limits of conventional, magazine-dependent kinetic defences. A microwave array, in BAE's framing, can keep operating while electrical power is available, rather than relying on ammunition stocks.

The competitive picture

BAE is not the only company working on this. Defense Daily notes that Epirus has three first-generation prototype HPM systems operating in the U.S. Central Command area of operations, and that Epirus has also demonstrated its ability to defeat fiber optic-controlled drones. Defense Daily also reports that BAE was previously under contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory for an HPM effort called Tactical High-power Operational Responder (THOR), and that the new system is a unique design separate from THOR. By that account, Epirus already has prototypes operating in the CENTCOM area, which puts BAE in the position of a challenger rather than an obvious first mover. BAE's case appears to rest on the commercial-parts approach, the modular and scalable array, and four years of development under its undisclosed contract.

Why It Matters

Large numbers of small, cheap drones threaten any defence that has to spend one expensive interceptor per target. BAE's pitch answers that problem on two fronts. A microwave layer, in the company's framing, is limited by electrical power rather than by the number of rounds in the magazine. A guided-projectile layer adds a kinetic option against both aerial and ground targets. The claim that the array can defeat fiber-optic drones, which have been widely used in Ukraine, addresses a real battlefield threat, if the claim holds up.

The commercial-parts claim may matter as much as the technology itself. If roughly 99% of the system really is COTS, BAE is arguing that it can shorten the path from prototype to deployment using established commercial supply chains. The gaps in BAE's disclosure are important too. Until the company publishes range, cost per engagement and a fielding timeline, or the results of an operational test become public, the system is a prototype with reported range testing and not a proven capability.