IN Brief:
- ThinKom has received a US Army Other Transaction prototype award for its Alecto high-power microwave counter-UAS system.
- The agreement has a $49 million ceiling, with initial funding covering one of four requested prototypes and 2027 field testing.
- Alecto will be integrated with government-selected sensors, fire control, and a mobile platform before any production decision.
ThinKom Solutions has received a US Army Other Transaction prototype award to deliver and evaluate its Alecto high-power microwave counter-UAS system, taking the technology into a government-led integration and field-testing programme. The agreement carries a ceiling of $49 million, although initial funding covers one of four prototypes requested by the Army.
The project is being managed through the Army’s Program Manager for Advanced Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System Effects. ThinKom will provide the Alecto microwave effector for integration with government-designated sensors, fire-control equipment, and a mobile platform, allowing the service to evaluate a complete detect-to-engage chain rather than an emitter operating independently.
Initial funding also includes field testing scheduled for 2027. The Army will use the prototype activity to assess non-kinetic directed-energy technology against emerging uncrewed aircraft threats, with subsequent decisions dependent on the performance recorded during integration, testing, and evaluation.
Alecto is based on ThinKom’s VICTS phased-array antenna technology and is being developed for mobile high-power microwave operation. The company has designed the system to fire while moving and positions it against Group 1 and Group 2 uncrewed aircraft, the smaller classes that can be deployed in large numbers at costs far below those of many conventional air-defence interceptors.
High-power microwave systems approach that economic problem by transmitting directed electromagnetic energy towards a target rather than launching a separate projectile for every engagement. The objective is to disrupt or damage electronic systems within an uncrewed aircraft, offering the possibility of repeated engagements without consuming missiles or ammunition at the same rate as kinetic defences.
The approach introduces a different set of engineering constraints. A mobile microwave system has to generate substantial electrical power, manage heat, control emissions, maintain sufficient accuracy against the target area, and coexist with friendly radios, sensors, vehicles, and other electronic equipment operating nearby.
The choice of a mobile platform raises those requirements further. Power generation, cooling hardware, the microwave array, control equipment, and supporting electronics all have to fit within weight and volume limits while surviving vibration, shock, weather, dust, and the manoeuvre conditions expected of a deployed land system.
Sensor and fire-control integration will be equally important during testing. A directed-energy effector cannot engage effectively if target detection arrives late, tracks are inaccurate, classification is unreliable, or the command system cannot decide which object should be engaged first. The prototype structure therefore puts Alecto inside a wider architecture rather than evaluating microwave output alone.
That modular approach is consistent with broader counter-UAS procurement, where armed forces are assembling layers of radars, radio-frequency detectors, electro-optical sensors, jammers, interceptor drones, guns, missiles, lasers, and microwave systems. Different targets and operating environments favour different effectors, making the ability to share data and allocate engagements increasingly important.
ThinKom is one of four prototype participants requested by the Army programme. Competitive evaluation keeps the current award well short of production status, even though the $49 million ceiling provides room for additional activity if the service chooses to expand the project.
The distinction is explicit in the Army-backed announcement: the agreement does not represent a production decision or a commitment to buy a specific quantity of systems. The prototype award therefore establishes a funded engineering route towards field evidence rather than a fielding programme.
Performance against representative drone targets will be only one part of that evidence. Reliability, transportability, power demand, electromagnetic compatibility, operator workload, maintenance, integration time, and cost per engagement are likely to determine whether the technology can contribute usefully to manoeuvring formations.
Microwave weapons also sit within a counter-UAS market that is evolving faster than traditional acquisition programmes. Small drones can change communications links, navigation methods, autonomy, flight profiles, and electronic protection quickly, requiring effectors to remain useful against targets that may differ significantly from those used during initial qualification.
Alecto now moves from company-led development into a government-controlled test environment where those assumptions can be challenged. The 2027 trials will provide the Army with substantially better evidence than the contract ceiling itself: whether a mobile high-power microwave system can be integrated, operated, and sustained reliably enough to justify progression beyond the prototype phase.
