US Army-developed HPM tested in June 2026, official says

An IFPC-HPM being used by 1st Battalion, US 51st Air Defence Artillery Regiment to shoot down a UAV swarm during a live fire demonstration in Naval Station Leovigildo Gantioqui, Philippines on April 25, 2025. (US Army/Staff Sgt. Brandon Rickert)

The US Army is in the process of testing a demonstrator version of its own high-powered microwave (HPM) weapon system, which it calls the Honey Badger, in June 2026, Kevin Marcus, director of strategy, plans and policy, at US Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF) told Janes at the Eurosatory 2026 exhibition held in Paris between 15-19 June.

“The US Army is moving forward with a high-powered microwave on a couple of different fronts right now. One is an army-produced system, and another one is a commercial alternative,” Marcus said on 17 June. He believes the future of counter-unmanned aerial vehicle (C-UAVs) operations lies with HPMs or other directed energy weapons like lasers.

“The Army previously worked with Epirus and they [Epirus] have done a lot of work with the US Navy as well,” he said.

US Defence company Epirus announced on 17 July 2025 that it had been contracted by the US Army's Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office to deliver two Integrated Fires Protection Capability High-Power Microwave (IFPC-HPM) Generation II systems as part of a USD43.55 million deal. According to Epirus, the IFPC-HPM GEN II systems will build on the four IFPC-HPM systems delivered to the US Army in May 2024.