Engineers at Echodyne have enhanced the capability of small radars for military applications such a counter-UAS [uncrewed aircraft system]. In a podcast I did with Tom Driscoll, co-founder and CTO of Echodyne, he and I discussed how his team’s metamaterials electronically scanned array (MESA) radar system does things that traditional active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar systems cannot, the company’s unique business model, and how it leverages commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components like Xilinx FPGAs [field-programmable gate arrays]. Tom also shared details about his background in metamaterials and how he once designed an RF invisibility cloak using them. Edited excerpts follow.