Verus Research received its first-ever contract award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) with the Waveform Agile RF Directed Energy (WARDEN) contract. Should all options be exercised, this $5 million, 48-month effort seeks to develop hardware, theory, and computational models to extend the range and effectiveness of high-power microwave (HPM) systems for back-door attacks.

The contract scope specifically addresses electromagnetic interactions with electronics contained within enclosures and the effects on system operation. Planned research will leverage recent test methodologies and modeling approaches and extend them to broader classes of target systems to create a physics-based computational framework for the prediction of HPM effects.

To meet DARPA’s requirements as well as address the key questions delineated above, Verus Research will leverage our over three decades experience in researching and modeling the fundamental physical factors which govern the nonlinear, back-door interaction of high-power radio frequency (RF) emissions with complicated electronic systems of interest. This concentrated, effects-based effort will help guide the development of new HPM systems by extending their range and effectiveness and providing new HPM employment approaches for the Department of Defense.

The program is planned to deliver on an integrated approach across multiple Verus Research domains by using machine learning techniques in conjunction with RF predictive effects to devise more effective HPM waveforms.