The USMC has placed an initial contract for the HAVOC (High-power microwave Autonomous Vehicle Operational Capability) with Epirus. The solution is expected to be autonomy enabled, theoretically providing greater coverage, but without effective detection it will not offer the protection needed.
By Sam Cranny-Evans, editor of Calibre Defence, published on August 12, 2026.
The US lost several radars at key installations during Operation Epic Fury to strikes by small drones. Israel has similarly lost Iron Dome systems to Hezbollah drones in the past year. And Russia and Ukraine routinely demonstrate the ability to target each other’s radars with small drones. The point here is that defending air defences and other critical assets against small drones is clearly vital.
With that in mind, the US Marine Corps (USMC) has awarded a small $11 million contract to Epirus for the High-power microwave Autonomous Vehicle Operational Capability (HAVOC) programme.
“Epirus will deliver its latest high-power microwave (HPM) system for counter-UAS and counter-swarm point defence. The system will feature a universal sled mount for seamless integration across the Marine Corps’ manned and unmanned ground vehicle fleets,” the August 10 press release states.
Under the contract, Epirus will deliver its latest high-powered microwave solution which will increase electronic lethality as well as expanding coverage and improving operational reliability.
The company already has systems in service with the US Army; they use high-powered doses of electromagnetic energy to damage the electronics inside a drone, overloading the circuits to destroy it. However, those systems are quite large and trailer mounted, the USMC is expected to be mobile and expeditionary, dispersing its forces around the Indo-Pacific region to counter China’s naval assets. So, the HAVOC system will likely introduce a far more mobile version.
HAVOC builds on ExDECS
Shown here is the ROGUE fires platform armed with the Naval Strike Missile from Kongsberg. In this configuration it is called NMESIS. Credit: US DoD
The HAVOC contract award builds on an earlier Epirus effort with the Office of Naval Research (ONR). In April 2025, the company announced that it had delivered an Expeditionary Directed Energy Counter-Swarm (ExDECS) system to the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren.
ExDECS was built upon the Leonidas Expeditionary system, the April press release said. It was developed from 2024 using $5.5 million of ONR funding to support the USMC’s low altitude air defence efforts. The initial expectation was that the system would be integrated into the USMC’s Common Aviation Command and Control System (CAC2S) and that it would be small enough to integrate onto a JLTV.
HAVOC is described as an “an autonomy-enabled evolution of the ExDECS system,” in the latest Epirus press release. No clear explanation is offered for this; however, the concept image shows the high-powered microwave installed on a JLTV ROGUE chassis; ROGUE is the uncrewed version of the JLTV developed by Oshkosh to carry the Navy/Marine Corps Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) for the USMC.
Back in January 2025, Oshkosh was awarded a contract to introduce full autonomous driving capability into the ROGUE platform. In June this year, the USMC ordered $92 million worth of the Block 2 autonomous vehicles, which are designed to be modular, allowing the “rapid swapping of future payload weapon systems based on mission requirements.”
Altogether, this suggests that HAVOC will be mounted on an autonomous JLTV. “The HAVOC system will advance the one-to-many solution introduced with ExDECS,” Andy Lowery, Epirus CEO, states in the press release. One-to-many means that one operator is able to control several autonomous systems, which would help the HAVOC to protect a greater area and accompany things like NMESIS.
Calibre comment: Detection is key
Effective drone defence relies upon the ability of a force to detect them in good time. Without effective detection, it is possible for a drone pilot to get very close to a target and engage it. This has been demonstrated now in multiple wars; from Ukraine to Epic Fury, and the war in Lebanon, small drones are frequently observed getting very close their targets before the defenders realise what is happening. So, having a solution like HAVOC to defend against swarms that might target a high value air defence or missile system is good, but only as good as the detectors that enable it.
Small drones are a complicated threat to detect because they typically have a low radar signature and experienced pilots can fly them very slowly, which may reduce the doppler returns. Doppler returns are where a radar measures the difference in time between pulses; as a radar pulse hits an object that is moving it will return at different times, allowing the radar to determine there is something there. This method is typically gated so that things like birds are not detected. But a slow flying drone at low altitude might complicate that approach. As a result, the most effective drone detection systems layer different modalities together, blending optical sensors with radar and passive radio frequency sensors. This is the approach taken by Poland’s SAN counter-drone programme for instance.
The lead image shows a concept image of the HAVOC system employing a ROGUE chassis. Credit: Epirus.