Applications range from counter-electronics to 3D printed components for satellite antennas.
By Mark Shortt
In military parlance, yesterday’s battlefield has become today’s “battlespace.” It’s a direct result of technology’s increasing role in creating new weapons and defense systems that are built for deployment across land, sea, air, and space, as well as across modern information outlets and cyber domains.
New systems range from autonomous underwater vehicles to mobile radiation detection equipment, drones and anti-drone technologies, hypersonic aircraft, missile defense systems, satellite antennas, and new platforms for encrypted communications and digital risk management, among numerous others.
As it works to meet the challenges of this evolving threat landscape, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is relying on the support of American manufacturers to help safeguard the nation’s security. But as new risks and dangers arise, the DoD’s expectations for the defense industrial base are changing. A new model for U.S. defense manufacturing is beginning to emerge—one that emphasizes agility, technological superiority, and the ability to ramp and scale operations quickly.
The new model is taking shape around software-driven manufacturing capabilities and hardware systems that combine the use of advanced, high temperature-resistant materials, digital design and engineering, additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, and automation, including automated assembly (see Cruise Missile Goes from Clean Sheet Design to Flight in 16 Weeks). As new defense technology companies enter the space, their capabilities are complementing those of forward-looking contract manufacturers to strengthen domestic supply chains and accelerate the acquisition of technologies that fill critical gaps in DoD’s capabilities.
One of the new defense tech companies is Epirus, a California-based developer of a “software-defined, high-energy, high-power microwave (HPM) technology for counter-electronics applications.” According to a company release, the technology proved effective in DoD tests of its efficacy in countering drones, drone swarms, and other electronics.
“We have entered a revolutionary period of American ‘neo-primes,’ where nontraditional defense technology companies that fuse the DNA of big aerospace with a disruptive Silicon Valley mindset are pioneering extraordinary innovations in support of U.S. government,” the company stated in the release.
According to Epirus, it has invested heavily in internal research and development since 2018, emphasizing a human-centered design approach and an agile, scalable manufacturing process. The company closed a $250 million Series D funding round in March to scale the production of its high-power microwave defense capability for short-range air defense. The funding was led by 8VC and Washington Harbour Partners LP, followed by a long list of returning investors.
One of the keys to the effectiveness of the HPM technology is its open architecture, an adaptable framework that makes it easier for operators to upgrade the system quickly. That’s important because in today’s battlespaces, traditional defenses can be overwhelmed by “the sheer volume and agility” of “thousands of low-cost, highly networked and highly distributed threats,” the company said.
“This shift in warfare necessitates technologies that are scalable and easily upgraded to fit a range of use cases, effective against a spectrum of threats, and capable of processing many threats simultaneously by a single operator,” Epirus said in the release.
Mina Faltas, founder and chief investment officer at Washington Harbour Partners, described Epirus as “the transformative leader in counter-electronics technology, delivering the only field-deployable solution capable of neutralizing drone swarms at scale.”
“The future of warfare demands defense technologies that are intelligent, agile, scalable, and cost-effective,” Faltas said in the release. “As the U.S. faces mounting threats and a strained defense industrial base, Epirus provides a unique asymmetric advantage to fill a critical gap in our national security.”
Another company active in the defense sector is Vitesse Systems, a specialist that designs, builds, and tests critical products for electronic warfare, radar, and next-generation communications across air, ground, sea, and space (see How Manufacturers Are Unleashing Leading-Edge Technologies To Strengthen America’s Defense Industrial Base). The company uses additive manufacturing to design and print antenna and thermal management products for defense and space applications. It recently expanded its additive manufacturing capacity as part of a broader investment strategy to meet growing demand for high-performance antennas.
“Over the past few years, we have expanded our engineering, manufacturing, and test capabilities as the government has fundamentally changed how military programs are procured,” said Vitesse Systems General Manager Richie Dart, in a company release. “Development timelines have been compressed, and performance requirements have increased as the connected battlefield has become a reality and the number of satellites and interconnected platforms has increased significantly.”
According to Dart, these developments have led Vitesse Systems to rethink how it designs, manufactures, and tests its antennas. Additive manufacturing, combined with the company’s in-house design and testing capability, has enabled Vitesse to “significantly reduce the amount of time it takes from design concept to reality,” he added.
On one project, the company delivered an antenna that included more than 1,500 additively-manufactured RF components. Vitesse collaborated with its customers from concept through manufacturing, leveraging the combined benefits of its space heritage and additive manufacturing.
“This allowed us to reduce the overall size and mass of the antenna by 30 percent, optimize RF performance, and deliver the antenna in less than two years,” Dart explained. “Additive manufacturing builds the antenna layer by layer, which allows us to eliminate internal features that are only there for structural reasons. This not only improves RF performance but also reduces the mass and overall size of the antenna—a fundamental shift for satellite applications, allowing our customers to utilize available space and mass for other purposes.”