Beyond Lasers: Why DRDO’s “Project SHIELD” Bet on High-Power Microwaves to Kill Swarms
An investigative defense technology and electronic warfare deep-dive by Prithu Vardhan Mishra: why high-energy lasers fail against saturation drone swarms, the physics of DRDO’s newly announced SHIELD 3 kV/m microwave evaluation mandate, and how Gallium Nitride (GaN) S-band phased arrays fry drone avionics.