- Reusable microwave drone would disable more than 50 hostile drones per flight
- Lockheed Martin offers cheaper answers to increasingly dangerous drone swarms on the battlefield
- Morfius X-Rotor counter-drone system enters testing after successful multi-state flight evaluations
Lockheed Martin unveiled its Morfius X-Rotor counter-drone system at the 2026 Farnborough Airshow, calling it a low-cost answer to challenging drone swarms.
The ground-launched system uses a 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 deal with large-scale swarm attacks.
Latest videos fromTechRadar
A reusable alternative to expensive interceptors
The 2026 Farnborough Airshow focused largely on affordable counter-drone technology, as militaries face growing threats from swarms across the world.
Lockheed Martin says this approach avoids the need for expensive guided munitions, typically used to strike individual aerial threats one at a time.
Unlike traditional interceptors which are destroyed after use, the Morfius X-Rotor is designed to be recovered and redeployed 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.
According to the company, this design choice reduces barriers to integration into a wide range of existing battlefield command networks.
The system “sets a new benchmark in counter-drone capability, delivering a high kill rate while maintaining a low cost per casualty,” said Randy Crites, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control Advanced Programs.
“By leveraging a lightweight, field-reusable high-power microwave architecture, we offer the most efficient and lowest-cost solution on the market today. »
Lockheed Martin also announced plans to accelerate production of prototypes of the drone platform and its microwave payload for frontline forces.
However, the company has not disclosed a specific timeline for when the system could reach full capacity production for its military customers around the world.
Tests continue despite shortage of interceptors
The Morfius X-Rotor recently completed flight testing in Arizona, California and Oklahoma, where the system reportedly carried out interception missions.
Additional evaluation campaigns are planned for the coming months as engineers collect operational performance data ahead of any wider deployment.
Lockheed Martin did not specify which branches of the US military have formally expressed interest in acquiring the Morfius platform.
The announcement comes as U.S. forces seek cheaper alternatives to expensive interceptors after depleting their stockpiles of Iranian missiles and Shahed drones.
This deficit 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 introduce a lower-cost Patriot interceptor, as part of a broader campaign to reduce unit defense costs.
Together, the two announcements suggest that Lockheed Martin is banking heavily on affordability as a selling point amid tightening defense budgets.
So far, it has not been verified whether the Morfius X-Rotor can match its claimed kill rate in actual combat conditions outside of company-conducted trials.
Independent assessments of its effectiveness against dense, coordinated swarms of drones will likely determine whether the military adopts the system on a large scale.
Via Defense News
Follow TechRadar on Google News And add us as your favorite source to get our news, reviews and expert opinions in your feeds.
