ND.BUILDS // NOTES
· By Frank Milz
Lockheed's MORFIUS X-Rotor targets drone swarms, not single shots
At Farnborough, Lockheed Martin unveiled an airborne high-power microwave drone killer built for one-to-many engagements.
On July 20 at Farnborough, Lockheed Martin unveiled MORFIUS X-Rotor, an airborne high-power microwave counter-drone system designed to neutralize more than 50 hostile drones in a single flight. The company stressed field recovery, reuse, and independence from a dedicated fire-control radar.
That is the economic flip the battlefield needs. Firing expensive interceptors at cheap drones loses by arithmetic. A reusable effector that can clear a swarm changes the cost curve.
## Builder takeaway Counter-UAS is becoming a systems problem: sensors, command software, and effectors that scale. Hardware that only kills one target at a time will struggle in procurement fights defined by swarm density.
Watch follow-on flight tests and whether services buy reusable microwave effectors beside kinetic interceptors. The drone war is teaching industry to price kills in bulk.