Air Force Unleashes THOR On Skies

Construction worker in orange safety gear looks at residential buildings

As America’s enemies swarm the skies with cheap attack drones, the U.S. Air Force is finally putting smarter guns and high‑tech microwave weapons on the front line to stop them.

Story Snapshot

The 325th Security Forces Squadron at Tyndall Air Force Base just showed off a new shotgun‑based counter‑drone weapon with smart sights.
The Air Force plans to qualify about 210 defenders on this system to create a true “point defense” shield over key bases.^[2]
Advanced microwave systems like the Tactical High‑power Operational Responder (THOR) have already knocked out full drone swarms in tests.^[5]
A new Point Defense Battle Lab is hunting better ways to spot, track, and kill small drones that threaten U.S. bases.^[6]

Air Force Security Forces Train To Shoot Down Drones Over U.S. Bases

At Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, the 325th Security Forces Squadron recently ran a live demonstration of new kinetic counter‑drone gear for senior leaders.^[2] Airmen used an M870 shotgun paired with the SMASH 2000 fire‑control system, a smart sight that helps shooters track and hit fast, low‑flying drones. The event was billed as a base‑defense demonstration against simulated small unmanned aircraft and was watched by Major General Thomas Sherman from Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center, showing top‑level buy‑in to this approach.^[2]

During the event, defenders walked leaders through a plan to qualify about 210 Airmen to use both the shotgun and the smart sight in real base‑defense roles.^[2] The Air Force describes this as a “point‑defense” capability, meaning it is meant to guard key assets up close, not replace larger missile and radar systems. Once fully in place, the program is supposed to help Airmen safely and effectively knock down low‑altitude, high‑speed aerial targets before they can reach aircraft, fuel farms, or command posts on the installation.^[2]

Microwave “Drone Swatters” Back Up The Kinetic Shield

Behind these shotgun drills sits a wider push to give troops many ways to kill drones, not just one. The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Tactical High‑power Operational Responder uses blasts of microwave energy to fry the electronics of incoming drones in the air.^[5] In a swarm test, the system disabled multiple drones at once using a wide energy beam, high peak power, and a fast‑moving mount to stay on target.^[5] This kind of directed‑energy “area weapon” pairs well with simpler guns that handle single threats which slip through.

Conservative defense experts have pushed for this kind of layered mix, stressing that cheap, kinetic options still matter most for day‑to‑day defense. A recent Heritage Foundation analysis argued that while lasers and microwaves are promising, their power demands and range limits mean the U.S. military should keep prioritizing inexpensive, kinetic counter‑drone systems that can be widely fielded. That view lines up with what we see at Tyndall: smart sights on common shotguns give defenders a low‑cost way to protect critical infrastructure inside the homeland, where commanders must worry about safety and stray fire as much as they worry about foreign threats.^[2]

Point Defense Battle Lab Drives Trump‑Era Push For Base Protection

The Air Force has also set up a Point Defense Battle Lab under Air Combat Command to turn these ideas into real tactics for base defense.^[6] This lab has asked industry for systems that can quickly deploy, track small drones out to roughly a mile or more, and then kill them with “kinetic hard‑kill” options like precision rockets, airburst guns, automated weapon stations, and even drone‑on‑drone interceptors.^[3] The goal is clear: protect U.S. installations from the growing drone threat with layered, fast‑moving defenses that regular Airmen can operate.^[6]

For Trump‑supporting readers worried about open borders, terror cells, and foreign spies testing our bases with hobby drones, this shift matters. The Air Force itself warns that small unmanned aircraft are an “evolving threat” and is weaving counter‑drone training into exercises like Noble Panther at Tyndall, where Airmen practiced spotting and defeating simulated drone attacks on the base.^[2] Yet even as these steps move forward, public reports still lack hard numbers on hit rates, ranges, and performance in bad weather, which means citizens must keep pressing for transparency and real readiness, not just photo‑ops.^[2]