#299 Andy Lowery - Inside the World’s Most Advanced Drone Killing Machine
Andy Lowery, CEO of Epirus, discusses Leonidas, a high-power microwave directed energy system designed to neutralize drone threats by creating an electromagnetic interference field. The conversation covers the technology's development from microwave oven experiments to a $1 billion defense company, its deployment capabilities, cost advantages over kinetic systems, and the broader shift in modern warfare toward cheap drone swarms versus expensive legacy defense systems.
Summary
Andy Lowery, CEO of Epirus, joins the show to discuss his company's flagship product, Leonidas, a high-power microwave (HPM) directed energy system designed to counter drone threats. Lowery traces his career from enlisting in the Navy after seeing a Marine Corps commercial, to becoming a nuclear-trained officer, then an electrical engineer specializing in RF and microwave systems, before working at Raytheon on the Next Generation Jammer for the EA-18 Growler aircraft. He eventually joined Epirus — a venture-backed company co-founded by former Raytheon colleagues and backed by investors like Joe Lonsdale (8VC) and Grant Verstandig — first as Chief Product Officer and later as CEO.
Leonidas works by emitting directed, pulsed electromagnetic energy using gallium nitride-based solid-state amplifiers arranged in a phased array antenna. The system steers a focused microwave beam electronically at microsecond speeds, allowing it to sweep across a wide area and disable any electronics within range — including FPV drones, fiber-optic tethered 'dark drones,' and autonomous drones — by overwhelming their onboard computers. In a live demonstration, Epirus shot down 49 drones in under one second using three rapid beam sweeps. Lowery emphasizes the system is safe for humans, animals, and plants because it operates at low frequencies that pass harmlessly through biological tissue.
The system operates in multiple modes: manual, man-on-the-loop, and fully autonomous. Detection is achieved through a combination of 360-degree radar (including Ecodyne panels), electro-optical, and infrared telescopes, with integration into Anduril's Lattice command-and-control software. Range scales with system size — from roughly 50 meters for vehicle-mounted tank protection to over a kilometer for fixed-site base or embassy defense. The autonomous ground vehicle (AGV) variant, developed in partnership with General Dynamics Land Systems and Kodiak Defense, can self-navigate to optimal defensive positions.
Lowery addresses the cost asymmetry problem: while the system costs $15–20 million upfront, each drone takedown costs only cents in energy, versus millions of dollars for kinetic interceptors. He also highlights magazine depth as a critical advantage — unlike missiles with limited stockpiles and long production timelines, Leonidas fires effectively unlimited 'electromagnetic bullets.' He notes China reportedly produces 30 million drones per year, making kinetic-only defenses fundamentally unsustainable.
The conversation covers deployment status, noting Leonidas has been tested in the Philippines and is currently being positioned in theater under the current administration's push to reduce ITAR bureaucracy. Lowery expresses frustration with a 'frozen middle' in the military bureaucracy that slows deployment despite top-level support. He references the Barksdale Air Force Base overflight by drone swarms as a critical case study for why these systems are urgently needed domestically. He also notes that downed drones retain intact electronics, enabling forensic analysis to trace their origin.
The episode concludes with a walkthrough of the Leonidas AGV outside the studio, where Lowery explains the phased array antenna mechanics, gallium nitride power conversion, Starlink connectivity, and the God-view operator interface. Epirus is currently building approximately one system per week in Southern California and planning to scale to 100+ per year from an Oklahoma facility.
Key Insights
- Lowery argues that Leonidas is essentially a version-one force field — a close-in electromagnetic interference bubble that can be scaled from tank protection (50-meter range) to base defense (1+ kilometer range) simply by increasing antenna size.
- Epirus demonstrated shooting down 49 drones in under one second by electronically steering a single beam at microsecond speeds across three groups, creating the appearance of a simultaneous blast when it is actually sequential targeting.
- Lowery claims the per-shot cost of Leonidas is just a few cents in electricity, and even amortized against a $15–20 million system cost, high-utilization scenarios bring the cost-per-drone down to hundreds of dollars versus millions for kinetic interceptors.
- Lowery contends that legacy defense primes like Raytheon are structured like law firms — they wait for military requirements documents before building — while neo-primes like Epirus and Anduril proactively guess at battlefield needs and invest at-risk capital to develop solutions.
- The system operates at frequencies low enough to pass harmlessly through biological tissue, meaning it disables electronics without harming humans, animals, plants, or birds, and Lowery states he would stand in front of the main beam for 15 seconds without concern.
- Lowery describes a 'frozen middle' problem in military adoption — top leadership supports rapid deployment, but mid-level procurement officials revert to peacetime testing timelines and approval processes, slowing fielding of urgently needed systems.
- Drones disabled by Leonidas retain intact onboard electronics after crashing, enabling forensic analysis to trace the drone's origin — a capability Lowery specifically cited in the context of unidentified swarms that overflew Barksdale Air Force Base.
- Lowery argues that China's reported capacity to produce 30 million drones per year makes kinetic-only defenses strategically untenable, as the U.S. cannot match that scale with missiles or bullets.
- Narrowband high-power microwave systems were historically considered unreliable because they couldn't cover enough frequencies, but Lowery claims Epirus solved this by building in AI-driven frequency-hopping that maps beam frequencies to specific drone susceptibilities.
- The Leonidas AGV is a three-company collaboration between Epirus (directed energy), General Dynamics Land Systems (vehicle integration), and Kodiak Defense (autonomous navigation), enabling the system to self-drive to optimal firing positions without a human operator.
- Lowery draws a parallel between drone swarm warfare and cybersecurity — just as Symantec needs billions of lines of code to defend against 150-line Trojan viruses, physical defense networks must become layered and adaptive to counter cheap, distributed drone swarms.
- Lowery argues that Leonidas is uniquely suited for homeland defense scenarios where kinetic systems are legally and practically unusable in populated areas, citing magazine depth and collateral damage risks as fundamental limitations of missile or bullet-based counter-drone systems.
Topics
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