Ancient warriors, modern warfare: General Dynamics teams with ‘neo prime’ to build drone killer
An Epirus Leonidas counter-drone microwave mounted on the General Dynamics TRX tracked vehicle. Epirus
By
Nick Wakeman
GD is working with Epirus on the TRX Leonidas system, which uses microwaves to blast swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles.
In a demonstration that would surely make their namesakes proud, a counter-drone solution built by General Dynamics and Epirus knocked out dozens of drones with a single microwave blast.
The companies are teaming to build a solution that mounts Epirus’ Leonidas microwave platform onto the GD Land Systems 10-tone tracked unmanned TRX ground vehicle.
The solution is called TRX Leonidas. The companies developed it with internal funds and not as part of a specific contract.
Leonidas was the Spartan king who led 300 soldiers in the battle of Thermopylae. Epirus is the region of Greece that was home to Pyrrhus, known for his military innovations in tactics that combined infantry, cavalry and war elephants. Hannibal reportedly ranked him as the finest general, second only to Alexander the Great.
Breaking Defense first reported the results of the demo, which the companies announced at the AUSA defense industry trade show.
The partnership between GD and Epirus is another example of how established defense primes are working with newcomers to the market. GD was founded in 1952, though the roots of its Electric Boat submarine group stretch back to 1899.
Epirus was founded in 2018 and describes itself as a “neo prime” focused on asymmetric warfare.
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