IN Brief:
- ThinKom has received an Army Other Transaction prototype agreement with a $49 million ceiling for Alecto.
- Initial funding covers one of four prototypes requested by the programme and field testing during 2027.
- The Army will integrate the high-power microwave effector with government-designated sensors, fire control, and a mobile platform.
ThinKom Solutions has received a US Army Other Transaction prototype agreement with a $49 million ceiling to deliver and evaluate its Alecto mobile high-power microwave counter-UAS system.
The agreement was awarded through Portfolio Acquisition Executive Fires’ Program Manager for Advanced Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System Effects. Initial funding covers one of four prototypes requested by the programme and includes field testing during 2027.
The Army has not awarded ThinKom a $49 million production contract. The ceiling establishes the maximum scope available through the prototype project, while further funding will depend on programme requirements and the progress of integration, testing, and evaluation.
ThinKom will supply the Alecto high-power microwave effector for integration with government-designated sensors, fire-control capability, and a mobile platform. Government-led trials will then assess whether the assembled system provides useful non-kinetic counter-UAS capability under representative conditions.
The programme therefore shifts Alecto from a company-developed effector into a wider Army system architecture. Performance will depend on more than the microwave source itself because the prototype must be connected to sensors capable of finding and maintaining tracks, fire-control software able to determine engagement geometry, vehicle systems providing power and mobility, and command arrangements controlling when the effector is used.
Alecto is based on ThinKom’s Variable Inclination Continuous Transverse Stub, or VICTS, antenna technology. The company formally introduced the counter-UAS system in April after earlier work applying the same antenna architecture to high-power microwave applications.
ThinKom is positioning Alecto against Group 1 and Group 2 drone threats and says the architecture is intended to support firing while the platform is moving. Both points will need to be demonstrated as part of the integrated programme rather than inferred from antenna performance alone.
High-power microwave effectors approach the small-drone problem differently from missiles, guns, and high-energy lasers. They use electromagnetic energy against electronic systems rather than relying on a projectile or a laser beam to damage the aircraft physically. That creates the possibility of engagements without expending a conventional interceptor against each low-cost target.
The trade-off is a different integration burden. A mobile microwave system has to generate and manage significant electrical power, control where electromagnetic energy is directed, remove waste heat, protect friendly equipment, operate safely around personnel, and maintain useful performance as the vehicle changes position.
Electromagnetic compatibility will be particularly important because the effector is expected to work alongside Army communications, sensors, computers, and other electronics. A counter-UAS system that disrupts its own command architecture or nearby friendly equipment would create an operational problem even if its effect against a target drone were strong.
Sensor and fire-control integration add another layer. Small drones may fly low, present weak radar returns, operate without useful radio-frequency emissions, or appear in numbers large enough to overload a track-management system. A directed-energy effector still depends on the wider system identifying which tracks represent threats and allocating engagements quickly enough to prevent aircraft reaching the defended area.
Mobility makes those calculations harder. Vehicle movement changes pointing geometry, vibration, available power, cooling airflow, and the relationship between individual sensors and the effector. A system described as capable of firing while moving has to preserve track quality and engagement control despite those changes.
The Army’s decision to use government-designated sensors and fire control should provide a more useful test of interoperability than a closed company demonstration. It will show whether Alecto can enter an existing or government-defined counter-UAS architecture rather than requiring a proprietary detection and command stack around the effector.
The prototype route also leaves room to change the system before a production decision. Problems identified during integration can be addressed in later prototypes, while the Army can compare operating burden, effectiveness, cost per engagement, mobility, and support requirements against other kinetic and directed-energy systems.
That comparison matters because no single counter-UAS effector performs equally well against every threat. Lasers offer precision but require dwell time and favourable line of sight; conventional interceptors bring established destructive effects but can be expensive against small aircraft; electronic warfare depends on exploitable links or navigation; and microwave systems create their own electromagnetic and integration constraints.
A layered defence can therefore use several effectors, with sensors and command systems assigning the most appropriate response to each threat. Alecto’s value will depend partly on how cleanly it fits into that architecture and whether it provides sufficient engagement capacity against groups of small drones to justify its power, integration, and support burden.
ThinKom enters the programme with an established phased-array engineering base, but the Army has explicitly kept the acquisition decision open. Its announcement states that test results will inform future decisions and that the agreement does not represent a production commitment or a promise to procure a defined number of systems.
The first funded prototype and 2027 field testing are therefore the immediate milestones. Alecto must show that the microwave effect, mobility, sensors, fire control, platform integration, and electromagnetic safety operate as one repeatable system before the $49 million ceiling becomes relevant to anything beyond prototype development.
