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TBPN · 4 min · Oct 22, 2026
Stelius is targeting one-to-two-mile drone area denial
Richard Starson describes megawatt-class microwaves as one layer in counter-drone defense, targeting one to two miles for area denial. He explains how higher power extends range and why other defenses still matter.
Founder & CEO, Stellios
Founded Stellios to build U.S.-made high-power microwave systems for counter-drone defense and compact fusion; Caltech PhD.
John Coogan, Host · Co-host, TBPN
Co-founded Soylent and Lucy; OpenAI bought his show TBPN in April 2026.
Jordi Hays, Host · Co-host, TBPN
Founded Branded Native; co-founded fintech Capital, which Rho bought.
About this segment
Richard Starson describes megawatt-class microwaves as one layer in counter-drone defense, targeting one to two miles for area denial. He explains how higher power extends range and why other defenses still matter.
From “Matthew Prince on PHP2Shell, Duo on Arrival, 100 Really Difficult Phone Calls, Norwegian Gold Scheme”, Oct 22, 2026. Watch the full episode
Thanks. We'll look at and fix what's off.
“one to two miles for complete area denial and then disruption at further distances and jamming at further distances”
Takeaways
- Microwaves can take down multiple drones simultaneously.
- Stelius is targeting one-to-two-mile area denial.
- Higher-altitude threats still call for layered defenses.
In this episode
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Transcript
Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.
- 1:21:53
It is an important question to clarify. Yes, high-power microwave, so megawatt class, gyrotrons, glystrons, they have a wide range of applications. The vast majority of them today are driven by defense. If you've got thousands of drones flying at you that are extremely cheap to produce, you want to be able to take them down without expending extremely expensive munitions. And megawatt-class microwaves are uniquely conditioned and capable of taking down those large swarms of drones.
- 1:22:30
So that would be the biggest application. Counter-electronics, frying electronics on drones, on humanoid robots, or satellites as well. There's space domain as well. Yes, they can be used for area denial for anything, and they are non-lethal to humans, but this is not the driving force. yeah interesting what about what about um with drones like obviously you're still you know developing and improving the technology but what about like range and how much area can you cover if a drone you know a drone swarm is uh or the operator is aware that that this technology is out there i'm assuming they would you know spread out the drones over a really wide area so like what are the different trade-offs obviously microwave tech would be a part of a broader system of sort of drone denial but like where where does it shine that's this is exactly right
- 1:23:34
it's one of the components of a layered of a layered defense system right so if you've got an area of, let's say, a few hundred meters of that a swarm is approaching you you can configure the beam to take them down simultaneously and this is the range that we're targeting is one to two miles for complete area denial and then disruption at further distances and jamming at further distances this is where going into megawatt class microwaves is so important so So basically, with solid-state technology or with lasers, it's really hard to go above tens of kilowatts, hundreds of kilowatts.
- 1:24:21
The devices that we're building are more configured for 100 kilowatts to a megawatt class of operation. And so the more power you've got, the longer range and more defensive capabilities you build. So what does powering that look like? I mean, a megawatt, is this like a shipping container-sized diesel generator that's on a truck and then that sits next to the array of microwaves? Yeah, it's a great question.
- 1:24:46
So for 100-kilowatt-class devices, they can be mobile on mobile platforms. For megawatt-class devices that are more stationary, they will be protecting things like forward operating bases, data centers, borders. And as we all know, data centers are becoming a big target for UAS. And we've had some interesting discussions in the Middle East, right? Yeah, data centers all over the world. And I mean, even going back to like, I don't know, maybe 10 years ago, there was a drone attack on some oil and gas infrastructure in the Middle East.
- 1:25:20
Exactly. And even in the recent conflict, one of the first targets that was hit was a data center. in the middle east so is this not useful for high flying drones like if there's a if there's a drone that's more than a mile in the air and then and then it it maybe it's disabled as it's coming down but then it's just falling and it already has a warhead you need a different solution for that type of attack you would need you would need a layered solution you would need a layered solution but uh the more we advance in uh on the power spectrum and frequency uh eventually we will be able to protect higher and higher altitudes, longer ranges from bigger and more shielded UIS systems.
- 1:26:07
Yeah, yeah, yeah.