The U.S. Air Force is exploring a ground-based, medium-caliber cannon capable of defending its overseas bases against everything from small drones to Group 5 unmanned aircraft and subsonic cruise missiles.
The request emphasizes magazine depth, raid handling, cost per engagement, transportability, integrated sensors and compatibility with existing command-and-control systems. In other words, the Air Force wants something that can engage numerous relatively inexpensive threats without exhausting a handful of extremely expensive missiles.
In this video, we examine what the Air Force is asking industry to provide, why sprawling and increasingly dispersed air bases need new defenses, and how this prospective cannon could fit alongside electronic-warfare and directed-energy systems such as THOR, Mjolnir, X-MADIS and SUADS.
Recorded on: September 11, 2026
Written/ Edited by: Kyle Gunn
Task & Purpose is a military news and culture-oriented channel. We want to foster discussion about the defense industry.
Source: Task & Purpose
