The Trump Administration is advancing plans to use a high-power microwave weapon as part of its efforts to target purported drug smuggling boats on the high seas.
Lockheed Martin would help the Coast Guard develop such a device that would be compact enough to fit on small vessels under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement “to augment its drug and human trafficking interdiction missions,” according to a Monday post in the Federal Register. The technology damages electronics in its targets.
The notice is the latest example of the Trump administration pursuing high-power microwave weapons and other advanced technologies, such as small modular reactors for commercial ships, as part of its wider push to reinvigorate the maritime industrial base.
Other companies may submit proposals to the Coast Guard on miniaturizing microwave weapons, according to the post.
“The Coast Guard is considering Lockheed Martin Corporation for participation” because the Maryland-based company already “manufactures and develops an HPM effector that has a size, weight, and required power that could potentially, with modification, be used on Coast Guard small boats” and personal water craft, the post states, saying they don’t want to exclude “other viable participants.”