Epirus: Company Profile

Epirus Bets $595M on High-Power Microwave as the Scalable Answer to Drone Swarms

High-power microwave has long been a niche corner of directed energy — technically promising but perpetually pre-production. Epirus is the most serious attempt yet to change that calculus, with four Leonidas systems delivered to the U.S. Army, a $43.5M Gen II contract awarded in August 2025, and a product family now spanning ground, maritime, and autonomous mobile platforms. Whether the company can convert that prototype momentum into a formal program of record remains the defining question for investors and procurement officers alike.

Business Overview

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Los Angeles, Epirus has raised $595M in total venture funding, including a $250M Series D in March 2025 explicitly earmarked for manufacturing scale-up. The company positions itself as a software-defined HPM systems developer — a distinction that matters operationally, since waveform reprogrammability allows Leonidas to adapt defeat parameters without hardware replacement.

No competitor has publicly demonstrated equivalent multi-unit HPM deliveries to a U.S. military customer at this stage. That first-mover position in the IFPC-HPM program creates switching costs, but it is not a moat until a program of record formalizes the procurement relationship.

Revenue, backlog, and unit economics are not publicly disclosed. All confirmed government activity falls under prototype and developmental contracts rather than a formal program of record. The U.S. Army remains the dominant customer, with contract awards totaling approximately $126.6M across three disclosed instruments ($66.1M in May 2023, $17M in February 2025, $43.5M Gen II in August 2025).

Leadership has been refreshed substantially since 2024. CEO Andy Lowery, a new CTO, and a new CFO now lead the company through what management describes as a commercialization and production scaling phase. Board additions include former Peraton CEO Stu Shea, strengthening government acquisition access. The frequency of C-suite changes since founding is a legitimate execution continuity concern.

Technology and Product Portfolio

Leonidas is a solid-state, long-pulse HPM system designed to defeat drone swarms non-kinetically — no missiles, no bullets, no per-engagement consumable cost. The core physics-based advantage: HPM effects propagate at the speed of light across a beam footprint, enabling simultaneous multi-target engagement that kinetic interceptors cannot replicate at scale.

Product	Platform	Deployment Status	Key Milestone
Leonidas	Fixed/Vehicle	FIELDED	4 systems delivered to U.S. Army; NET/EDT complete
Leonidas Expeditionary	Fixed	LIMITED	Delivered to ONR/JCO/USMC, Oct 2024
Leonidas H2O	Fixed	PROTOTYPE	Introduced Apr 2025; Navy maritime testing planned
ExDECS	Fixed	LIMITED	Delivered to U.S. Navy/USMC, Jul 2025
Leonidas Autonomous Robotic (AGV)	UGV	PROTOTYPE	Unveiled with GDLS and Kodiak AI, Mar 2026
Leonidas Pod	Handheld	PROTOTYPE	Compact EW/de-mining variant; no customer disclosed
Air Domain Awareness	Software	FIELDED	AI perception layer; detect-to-defeat kill chain

In October 2025, Epirus reported a 100% defeat rate against a 49-drone swarm in a live-fire test. In January 2026, the company demonstrated defeat of a fiber-optic-controlled UAS — a target class immune to RF jamming, which is a meaningful capability extension. Both results are company-reported; independent third-party validation under operationally realistic conditions has not been publicly disclosed. MODERATE CONFIDENCE on performance claims.

The Leonidas AGV, unveiled in March 2026 with General Dynamics Land Systems and Kodiak AI, mounts HPM on an autonomous Ford F600 truck — extending the kill chain to mobile maneuver force protection without a dedicated crew.

Market Position

Epirus occupies the HPM segment of a cUAS market that spans RF jamming (D-Fend Solutions, Dedrone), high-energy lasers (Lockheed Martin HELIOS, Raytheon HELWS), and kinetic interceptors (Dynetics, Rafael). HPM's structural advantage is cost-per-engagement: electrical power replaces consumable munitions. Its structural liability is that budget allocation across competing modalities is contested, and laser programs at Lockheed and RTX carry longer institutional histories and larger program offices.

The DSTA partnership announced in February 2026 is the first disclosed international relationship, providing a potential export pathway — though HPM export controls could constrain that market materially. Ecosystem integrations with Anduril (C2/sensors), GDLS (autonomous platforms), Peraton (IDIQ access), L3Harris, and Palantir (Warp Speed manufacturing cohort) embed Leonidas into layered kill chains and reduce adoption friction for new customers.

No competitor has publicly demonstrated equivalent multi-unit HPM deliveries to a U.S. military customer at this stage. That first-mover position in the IFPC-HPM program creates switching costs, but it is not a moat until a program of record formalizes the procurement relationship.

Outlook

The next 18 months present three binary outcomes that will determine whether Epirus graduates from contender to dominant player. First: IFPC-HPM Gen II milestone completion and any program-of-record announcement. Second: U.S. Navy/USMC operational test results for ExDECS and Leonidas H2O, which would validate HPM in the maritime domain where corrosion and ocean clutter present unresolved engineering challenges. Third: a first international procurement contract following the DSTA partnership.

The $595M in venture funding provides runway, but burn rate against undisclosed revenue creates dilution risk if procurement timelines slip. The manufacturing scale-up from low-rate prototype deliveries to production volumes — the explicit purpose of the Series D — is unproven. Palantir's Warp Speed program participation is a positive signal, but production yield and capacity data remain opaque.

Epirus has done what most HPM programs have not: delivered hardware to a military customer and received follow-on awards. Converting that into a stable, multi-year procurement program is the remaining proof point the market is waiting for.