HAWTHORNE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 30, 2026--
ThinKom Solutions, Inc. is expanding its investment in the High-Power Microwave Directed Energy Weapons (HPM DEW) market with the self-funded development of Alecto™, a mobile, rapid tracking VICTS -based system designed to defeat Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) swarms. Alecto provides “fire-on-the-move” capability and platform integration flexibility to meet the evolving C-UAS needs of the Department of War (DoW) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
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Alecto combines ThinKom’s patented VICTS technology with best-in-class vacuum electronics, enabling unrivaled power generation capability. This eliminates the need for prior target knowledge, which is essential for countering rapidly evolving UAS technologies. This combination delivers peak power densities orders of magnitude higher than gallium nitride-based AESAs.
Alecto significantly reduces Size, Weight, Power, and Cost (SWaP-C) from traditional HPM systems, unlocking smaller platform installations such as Infantry Squad Vehicles (ISV) and Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV). ThinKom’s extensive experience producing airborne antennas at high volume supports deliveries of Alecto at scale. The system offers horizon-to-horizon coverage in a low-profile, compact design. The VICTS—a steerable, mechanical phased array antenna—provides high precision and low sidelobes, delivering effects without collateral damage.
"With Alecto, ThinKom demonstrates its dedication to equipping the warfighter with critical, enabling solutions needed on the modern battlefield," explains Dan Roman, VP of EW/HPM. "By investing our own capital, we have been able to greatly accelerate the development cycles, embodying the agility required by the Department of War.”
A November 2025 Memorandum from Emil Michael, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering of the United States, stresses the importance of directed energy, identifying it as one of the critical technology areas where innovation is needed for the armed services in support of the National Defense Strategy.
Alecto combines the HPM advantage of a deep magazine and low cost per shot, with rapid beam steering and instantaneous effects, enabling it to effectively defeat swarms. While the system is designed with C-UAS as a primary mission set, it has broad counter-electronics capability. The system has a simple tablet interface and is compatible with key C2 networks. It also adheres to the U.S. military HERO-, HERP-, and HERF-safe standards for protecting equipment, personnel, and fuel from electromagnetic radiation.
Alecto, a mobile C-UAS solution, is ThinKom’s first offering in the rapidly evolving HPM market. The Company plans to continue its strategic investment in HPM, developing solutions for multiple platforms and applications, specifically for base defense, maritime, airborne, homeland security, and Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD). ThinKom’s HPM solutions deliver superior power density in a compact, steerable, highly agile and low-profile package. With industry leading SWaP metrics, these systems are ideal for both mobile and fixed site missions.
About ThinKom Solutions
Based in Hawthorne, California, ThinKom Solutions, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of high performance phased array satcom antennas and antenna systems for commercial, government, and defense applications, including Inflight Connectivity (IFC), Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS), Ground Stations, and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR). ThinKom’s adaptable antenna systems leverage proven, proprietary, and patented VICTS technology to deliver fast, resilient, and reliable performance in all of our core markets. For more information, visit our website or LinkedIn.
A display unit of ThinKom’s Alecto™ HPM system for mobile C-UAS.
The leaders of major media companies around the world, including The Associated Press, are calling on Israel's government to lift a ban keeping foreign journalists from being able to independently enter and report from Gaza, a barrier that's been in place since the war's start in 2023 and continues even as a ceasefire has been in place for more than six months.
“Being on the ground is essential. It allows journalists to question official accounts on all sides, to speak directly with civilians and report back what they witness firsthand,” said the statement from the executives, released Thursday. “That is why news organizations send their reporters into the field, often at great personal risk.”
From the AP and the BBC to CNN to MS NOW, from Reuters to German news agency dpa to The Washington Post, the top editors of more than two dozen organizations said the Israeli government has so far not responded to their efforts to discuss the situation. They questioned the country's rationales for why the restrictions are still in place.
The letter was released at 5 a.m. ET by the local foreign press association.
Initially, Israel said the ban was necessary because foreign journalists allowed into Gaza could give away the positions of Israeli soldiers and endanger them. Other rationales have included that as an active battle zone, it was too dangerous. The army has occasionally brought foreign reporters in on highly controlled trips, but media outlets want independent access.
Currently, “the heaviest fighting is over and there is a ceasefire in place," the editors' statement said. "The hostages have come home. Journalists do not pose a threat to Israeli troops. There is a mechanism in place—however restrictive—that allows aid workers to enter and exit the territory. Why not journalists?”
There have been attempts at legal action to force the issue. The Foreign Press Association, which represents international media in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, has been waiting on a decision from the Israeli Supreme Court on a petition for independent access to Gaza. That action was filed in 2024, but a ruling has been repeatedly delayed, most recently in January.
With foreign journalists kept out of, coverage of the conditions on the ground there has been possible only for local Palestinian journalists. While covering war would be fraught for any reporter, the Palestinian correspondents have also had to experience it on a personal level — their homes destroyed, their loved ones killed.
When access to food became severely restricted last year they also had to deal with hunger, to the point that the Agence France-Presse news agency in July raised an alarm about their Palestinian colleagues' continued survival. That concern was echoed by the AP and Reuters for the reporters in Gaza they work with.
The editors raised that point in the statement Thursday, saying “this has pushed the responsibility for covering this devastating war and its aftermath almost entirely on our Palestinian colleagues ... They should not have to shoulder this burden alone, and they should be protected.”
Their lives have also been put at risk from military actions. Well over 200 journalists and media workers have been killed according to a tally from the Committee to Protect Journalists organization, far more than in conflicts elsewhere like the Russia-Ukraine war.
Among them was Mariam Dagga, a 33-year-old visual journalist who worked as a freelancer for the AP and other news organizations. She and four other journalists, including Reuters cameraman Hussam al-Masri and Moaz Abu Taha, a freelance journalist who worked with Reuters, were among those killed last August in an Israeli strike on a medical facility.
The AP's reporting on the strike raised questions about the rationale used by the Israeli government to carry out the action against the hospital, which was known as a place where journalists gathered. AP and Reuters later issued a statement calling on Israel to explain what took place and what steps would be taken to protect reporters. The Israeli military says it is still investigating.
The statement from the editors on Thursday came during Press Freedom Week, which they noted. “Freedom of the press is a basic value in any open society. It is time for the delays to end. Let us into Gaza.”
FILE - Palestinians rush to collect humanitarian aid airdropped by parachutes into Zawaida in the central Gaza Strip, Monday, Aug. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)
FILE - Buildings that were destroyed during the Israeli ground and air operations stand in northern of Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
FILE - Freelance journalist Mariam Dagga, 33, who had been working with the Associated Press and other outlets during the Gaza war, poses for a portrait in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on June 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)
FILE - Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid that was unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)
FILE - Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed during Israeli air and ground operations in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)
FILE - A truck driver picks up humanitarian aid designated for Gaza, as reporters tour the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing where aid is awaiting pickup, on Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)
