TL;DR
The ray gun has a job. A microwave weapon called Leonidas, built by Epirus, fires a pulse that fries the electronics of drones in its beam, and the Pentagon has picked it, alongside three lasers, for a year-long trial guarding five U.S. bases. Where a laser burns one target at a time, a microwave pulse can knock down a whole cluster at once, which is why it is pitched against swarms. It now fits on a commercial truck, and the Marines have bought one. Most of its headline results are the company's own and unverified, and the Army has not ordered it in quantity. But if the base trial shows the costs and upkeep work, invisible beams could become an ordinary layer of defense against the cheap drones that have changed modern warfare.
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