- Reusable Microwave Drone Reportedly Disables More Than 50 Hostile UAVs Per Flight
- Lockheed Martin Offers Cheaper Responses to Increasingly Dangerous Battlefield Drone Swarms
- Morfius X-Rotor counterdrone system enters testing after successful flight evaluations in several states
Lockheed Martin unveiled its Morfius X-Rotor anti-drone system at the 2026 Farnborough Airshow, calling it a low-cost answer to challenging drone swarms.
The ground-launched system uses a one-to-many high-power microwave, or HPM, approach designed to disable multiple unmanned aerial vehicles during a single mission.
Company officials say the platform can neutralize more than 50 hostile drones in a single flight, a capability intended to address large-scale swarm attacks.
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A reusable alternative to expensive interceptors
The 2026 Farnborough Airshow has largely focused on affordable counter-drone technology as militaries face growing swarm threats around the world.
Lockheed Martin says the approach avoids reliance on expensive guided munitions that are typically used to attack individual air threats one at a time.
Unlike traditional interceptors that are destroyed after use, the Morfius X-Rotor is designed to recover and redeploy after each engagement.
According to Lockheed Martin, the system is compatible with existing command and control networks and does not require a dedicated sensor or fire control radar.
That design choice, the company says, lowers the barrier to integration into a wide range of existing battlefield command networks.
The system “sets a new benchmark for counter-drone capability: delivering a high kill rate while keeping the cost per kill low,” said Randy Crites, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control Advanced Programs.
“By leveraging a high-power, lightweight, field-reusable microwave architecture, we provide the most effective, low-cost solution on the market today.”
Lockheed Martin also announced plans to accelerate prototype production of both the drone platform and its microwave payload for frontline forces.
However, it has not revealed a firm timeline for when the system could reach full production for its military customers around the world.
Testing continues amid interceptor shortage
The Morfius X-Rotor recently completed flight tests in Arizona, California and Oklahoma, where the system reportedly carried out interception missions.
Additional evaluation campaigns are scheduled for the coming months as engineers gather operational performance data ahead of any broader deployment.
Lockheed Martin has not specified which branches of the US military have expressed formal interest in acquiring the Morfius platform.
This announcement comes as US forces search for cheaper alternatives to expensive interceptors after depleting stockpiles of Iranian missiles and Shahed drones.
That shortfall has intensified debate over whether cheaper non-kinetic systems like Morfius could reduce reliance on expensive munitions over time.
Lockheed Martin used the same event to unveil a lower-cost Patriot interceptor, part of a broader effort to reduce per-unit defense costs.
Together, the two ads suggest that Lockheed Martin is betting heavily on affordability as a selling point amid increasingly tight defense budgets.
So far, it has not been verified outside of testing conducted by the company whether the Morfius
Independent evaluations of its effectiveness against dense, coordinated swarms of drones will likely determine whether the military adopts the system at scale.
Via Defense News
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