BAE unveils MDACS cannon air defense and HPM microwave C-UAS prototypes

BAE Systems introduced a layered air-defense concept pairing MDACS (a cannon-based system firing Hypervelocity Projectiles integrated with IBCS and designed to function when GPS is denied) with a trailer-mounted High-Power Microwave directed-energy system aimed at defeating high-volume drone threats. The novelty is a lower-cost, high-rate-of-fire kinetic layer plus scalable microwave “wide-area” counter-swarm layer intended to preserve expensive interceptor missiles.