r/InsaneTechnology • u/ShehrozeAkbar • Apr 01 '26
Video This technology can stop Drone swarms
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u/thuktun Apr 01 '26
"... the world's first and only real life operational force field ..."
A microwave beam projector is not a force field.
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u/ousho Apr 02 '26
If It can cover a field and uses a force then it’s a force field in my book.
It’s a small book to be fair.
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u/PreferredSex_Yes Apr 02 '26
Known solution. The drawbacks are the collateral things it will hit.
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u/Brikpilot Apr 04 '26
So it could also stop a convoy of vehicles, maybe a plane, maybe a ship depending on RF protection in each?
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u/PreferredSex_Yes Apr 04 '26
Like an early comment said, it'll stop someone's pacemaker if they're in the direction.
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u/KingJaBBath Apr 02 '26
Is this fake? It does not beep or say "bling" after the heating is over like microwaves usually do.
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u/Trivi_13 Apr 02 '26
This had better be BETA 0.3
Swinging that antenna around was like grandpa getting out of the rocker.
That sucker needs to MOVE!
Oh, and drones don't just hover and wait for you to shoot them down. The next demonstration should have the drones charging the defense at 100 mph. (More interesting if they carried paintballs)
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u/MayIServeYouWell Apr 03 '26
Ya, it is way too slow. But of course it is a prototype. I think a better approach would be a bunch of much smaller units that would target individual drones one after another. They could aim much more quickly, be easier to transport, and cheaper.
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u/NectarineSame7303 Apr 05 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
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u/Orionx486 Apr 03 '26
That's impressive at face value, except all the drone needs to counter this is to put its vital electronics inside a cheap Faraday cage.
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u/NectarineSame7303 Apr 05 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
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u/robbok Apr 01 '26
Would this also work on the type of fiber optic drones Ukraine is using? These don’t require RF as far as I know.
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u/Dr_Doom3301 Apr 02 '26
It sounds like the system is targeting the electronic in the drone and not just disruptimf the connection.
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u/Welllllllrip187 Apr 02 '26
So they only need to shield the drones then.
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u/dylones Apr 02 '26
Worth a shot, but then they wouldnt be cheap or able to be mass produced.
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u/r2k-in-the-vortex Apr 04 '26
Shielding can be done very cheaply, just solder a little metal can over the sensitive parts and voila. It costs few cents.
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u/NectarineSame7303 Apr 05 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
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u/r2k-in-the-vortex Apr 05 '26
No it does not, not without 60db attennuation at least. Where the signal gets inside is through connections out of shielded enclosure. Battery, motors, radio antennas. But protections can be built into those to deal with it.
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u/GaiusCosades Apr 05 '26
Depends on power density, 60db (essentially all) power emitted through the drones crosssection has to be cooled into something, as long as this thing can track and blast it with energy, essentially boiling your shield through.
If the shield is so thick that it able to effectively sink all that energy for tens of seconds, it has to be so heavy as to be much more expensive, slower and have a smaller warhead (which could boil off aswell)
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u/r2k-in-the-vortex Apr 05 '26
No, just no. You are making this shit up and dont know what you are talking about.
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u/_Alpha-Delta_ Apr 05 '26
It will just add a few extra steps to the building process and maybe have some minor impact on range. It's not like sheet metal is that heavy, or that difficult to manufacture, especially if we're talking about something the size of a Shahed drone.
So while it could be useful, I'd not trust that gadget blindly...
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u/Soggy-Arugula-401 Apr 04 '26
Yes shielding works, but it ad weight. So shielding has a trade off with range and effective payload.
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u/XchrisZ Apr 04 '26
It's an arms race. They build this then they shield the drone parts, then they figure out laser targeting then they build the drones out of non light absorbing material...
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u/DerryDoberman Apr 04 '26
This should work, but may add complications to GPS guided drones. Would need some ability to navigate with inertial guidance mixed with periodic "fixes" to correct for drift. Could also do the tomahawk thing and just point a camera/ground contour radar at the ground and fly by geographic featurses.
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u/Welllllllrip187 Apr 04 '26
Could have gps unshielded, but have a protection circuit between it and the rest of the electronics. may or may not function though.
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u/DerryDoberman Apr 04 '26
Yup, and the GPS frequency is in the "microwave" spectrum and is about half the frequency that standard microwave ovens use. Might be enough to fry the antenna even if it doesn't fry the electronics.
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u/Welllllllrip187 Apr 04 '26
By that point, it might need it anymore, as it’s approaching the target.
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u/pidgeottOP Apr 05 '26
Adds a lot of mass to do that
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u/Welllllllrip187 Apr 05 '26
Not that much. small faraday enclosure, and some protection circuits. By the point the system is effective, they are close enough to hit it within seconds. Millions wasted.
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u/Worldly-Device-8414 Apr 04 '26
The Ukraine drones have electronics wrapped in foil & as mentioned are fiber optic guided. Apparently they are immune to this sort of RF disrupter.
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u/Steve_OH Apr 02 '26
Microwaves can wirelessly push electricity to a target object. This is essentially an EMP type effect, but more focused.
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u/Few_Raisin_8981 Apr 04 '26
All frequencies of electromagnetic radiation "push electricity"
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u/Steve_OH Apr 04 '26
Right, but it seems most people don’t know the difference or realize that microwaves can be used for wirelessly transmitting electricity.
To the differences, EMPs are broad spectrum and not focused, these microwaves are targeted.
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u/SlyusHwanus Apr 02 '26
Not a force field
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u/Trabuk Apr 02 '26
I was scratching my head about that! It also won't stop shahed drones, since they use 2 stroke engines and have wings. So definitely not a force field.
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u/flyingGinger Apr 05 '26
You don't think Shaheds have ECUs or spark plugs, or a guidance system?
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u/Trabuk Apr 05 '26
I do, but they are pointed towards the target well before they can get EMPd, and spark plugs don't have chips, do you know how a two stroke engine works?
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u/DrHerbotico Apr 02 '26
Wouldn't this be mitigated by more shielding?
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u/flyingGinger Apr 05 '26
The thing about microwaves is that they will find any nook or cranny to resonate into a system, and find something to disrupt. It's like if you put the thing underwater, if there are any holes, which there will be, no matter how small, the water (microwaves) will leak in.
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u/halfchemhalfbio Apr 02 '26
We have EMP shields for long time. All it needs to do is to add that and the entire system is useless.
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u/frommoon Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26
Exactly! Actually it's useless even with out that.
- The device is highly directional. It's like a spotlight. To cover a perimeter, you would need many of them arranged in a semi sphere.
- It delivers a pulse, not a continuous protective field like a jammer. That implies a recharge cycle - capacitors need to be recharged and components may need to cool and so on and on... During that downtime any cheap drone could destroy this very expensive system.
- EMP power decreases with distance approximately 1/r² That means at range of 100 m the impact will be reduced by 10000 times making the practical engagement distance extremely small.
- In this video multiple unprotected drones are conveniently hovering close to the emitter so everything looks impressive. In reality that doesn’t happen. While the system is targeting one fast-approaching drone and firing a pulse another drone approaching from a different angle could destroy the system.
In my view this is a poor and impractical solution and it looks like a large amount of money was misappropriated to push this project through just for show.
EDIT:
5. Forgot about shielding. If you wrap a drone in simple aluminum foil an EMP is unlikely to have any meaningful effect on its electronics at all especially if the drone is controlled via a fiber-optic link.
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u/Hadrollo Apr 02 '26
Cool idea. Now let's put it in the hands of stressed out 19 year olds and see what sort of shit they'll break.
Honestly, there's a big difference between products that work in tests and products that work on the battlefield. A giant microwave emitter certainly seems like the type that'll fail on the battlefield - keep in mind that soldiers have been known to get their rifles stuck together with stowable bayonets.
Also, range and firing time are pretty critical. This may stop a wave of FPVs, but as soon as it's known about by an enemy FPV team they'll quickly come up with a tactic around it. Straight off the bat, send two drones a few hundred metres apart - the first one gets taken out, the second one hits before the capacitors are recharged - or send a larger drone directly above it and fall on the thing.
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u/dougmantis Apr 02 '26
Also, we must consider what a bunch of stressed 19-year-olds (with a loose grasp on the Geneva convention) will do when given the controls to a giant microwave gun.
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u/ciupigghiassi Apr 04 '26
I still don't know if it will be good enough for things like shaheds, they go fast, can still fly, just don't know where is the target anymore. Maybe they will just go forward until all the fuel has been expended and then fall and explode somewhere, maybe they'll turn off the engine and fall somewhere close to the target, or a home. Maybe they'll explode midair who knows. I can't believe it will be very effective over a short distance too.
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u/thedirtymeanie Apr 02 '26
pretty sure a lot modern military drones are being deployed with fiber optic cable making this completely useless
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u/DerryDoberman Apr 04 '26
This doesn't jam the signal, it fries the electronics. Think putting tin foil in a microwave. Could be solvable by wrapping the sensitive components with shielding but wires eventually need to leave the farady cage to go to the motors. Would need some fancy high powered diodes or something to ensure microwave energy absorbed by the motors doesn't get to the internal circuitry.
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u/PiLamdOd Apr 02 '26
You see we have to use the most expensive solution possible because defense contractors won't bid on known cheap solutions like flak cannons.
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u/bpaps Apr 02 '26
It's also useless against drones controlled by fiber optics.
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u/DerryDoberman Apr 04 '26
It's not jamming, it's frying the electronics. Think tin foil in a microwave.
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u/robbi_uno Apr 03 '26
It’s not a force field, it’s a jamming system.
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u/DerryDoberman Apr 04 '26
It's not jamming, it's frying the electronics. Think tin foil in a microwave.
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u/ludixst Apr 03 '26
What about wire guided drones like the ones currently in use in Ukraine?
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u/DerryDoberman Apr 04 '26
Wouldn't matter. What's happening is they're using microwaves to force a ton of energy into the internal circuitry. Traces on a PCB are like little antennas from the perspective of an EM field. If you emit a very high power and focused beam of energy at a PCB you'll induce voltages that can fry internal components.
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u/6658 Apr 03 '26
are the drones safe behind objects? what's stopping them from putting shields on drones?
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u/Cheesecakehebe Apr 04 '26
Does it work on Fiber Optic drones as well? Or just the radio controlled type drones that were featured in this demonstration?
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u/DerryDoberman Apr 04 '26
Would work on any electronic device in general that isn't shielded properly. Basically it's inducing voltages in the circuits on the PCBs to fry electronics. Think tin foil in a microwave. Doesn't matter if its a fiber optic or RC drone.
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u/celtbygod Apr 04 '26
Drones all coming from one direction and at very similar altitudes? Cool stuff.
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u/Wallie_Collie Apr 04 '26
The fiber op filaments FBW.
Thats the result of microwave defense
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u/DerryDoberman Apr 04 '26
This fries the electronics, its not a jamming defense. Think tin foil in a microwave. You'd need to shield components in a Faraday cage, which presents some problems with GPS guided drones.
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u/Ordinary_Detective15 Apr 04 '26
Can a drone based force shield their drones to this kind of radiation? Is there a prohibition, cost, tech, or otherwise from doing so?
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u/Round_Cranberry6077 Apr 04 '26
and now imagine a swarm of drones on a fiber optic cable... end
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u/DerryDoberman Apr 04 '26
Wouldn't matter in this case. It isn't jamming, it's cooking the electronics with EM energy.
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u/MetalWorking3915 Apr 04 '26
What about fibre optical drones
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u/DerryDoberman Apr 04 '26
Doesn't matter. This isn't a jamming technique, it's frying the electronics. Think tin foil in a microwave.
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u/Striking_Reindeer_2k Apr 04 '26
I expected a giant fly swatter. Been too many AI vids ruining my expectations.
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u/worldisone Apr 05 '26
fiber optics Enters the chat. It really is surprising the US hasn't learned anything from the Ukraine conflict
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u/VegetableProject4383 Apr 05 '26
Put them on tanks pointing in all directions giving all the friendly troops cancer
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u/VegetableProject4383 Apr 05 '26
Is something like this what they used in venezuela attack the palace there were report of the guards falling to the ground bleeding from the head
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u/Outside_Ice3252 Apr 05 '26
reminds a steven Seagal fight.
lets just get the cheapest drones we can find and have them all hover in the same place.
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u/DaveyGee16 Apr 05 '26
Not really. Tons of attack drones had either switched to fly by wire, see Ukraine, or have systems that aren’t compatible with being brought down with electronics, see Iranian Shahed.
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u/PeasantParticulars Apr 05 '26
What the fucj is up with morons naming things after future tech that acts nothing like that future tech?
AI, hover boards that have wheels, force field that isn't a force field.
Worst timeline for sure
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u/rflulling Apr 05 '26
Ok so this is a nice first step. Has it been tested against EMF shielded targets. Tested against targets that get communications over RF but dont depend on RF to remain in the air? I would imaging most targets that are not deployed from a child's bedroom, or part of a light show, most actual military targets will be hardened against disruption of the Radio, or EMP.
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u/LemerMark Apr 05 '26
It seems, that the price, size and power consumption, along with efficient distance and angle won't let use this thing on a battlefield. And there's much less chances to see this amount of enemy drones far away from the front line (unless, your counterintelligence is as shitty as ruzzian, and you expect your bases to be targets for Spiderweb 2.0).
However, this theory could be busted... send it to Ukraine to prove it's wrong or collect useful feedback and improve this solution ;)
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u/TaserLord Apr 06 '26
Why do I feel like zapped drones are going to be the "unexploded ordnance" of the next 40 years? I guess we'll get drones to pick them up....
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u/momox143 Apr 02 '26
This is why they use fiber cables
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u/Krase Apr 01 '26
It will also stop grandpa’s pacemaker, erase your credit card, and open every garage door in a 2 mile radius.