They hurt and kill with electromagnetic power. U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, "High-Power Microwaves," fact sheet, September 2002, at, Dr. Stephen Adams, "Electrical Power and Thermal Management for Airborne Directed Energy Weapons," U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, September 2001, at, Carlo Kopp, "The Electromagnetic Bomb-A Weapon of Electrical Mass Destruction," at, GlobalSecurity.org, "High Power Microwave (HPM)/E-Bomb," at, U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, "Active Denial System," fact sheet, September 2005, at, Press release, "Northrop Grumman Surpasses Power, Run-Time Requirements of Joint High Power Solid-State Laser Program for Military Use," Northrop Grumman Corporation, November 9, 2005, at, China North Industries Corporation, "ZM-87 Portable Laser Disturber Fact Sheet," quoted in Human Rights Watch, "Blinding Laser Weapons: The Need to Ban a Cruel and Inhumane Weapon," September 1995, at, "Electromagnetic Weapons: Come Fry with Me,", David Ruppe, "Directed-Energy Weapons: Possible U.S. Use Against Iraq Could Threaten International Regimes," Global Security Newswire, Russias New START Breach Means U.S. Nuclear Weapons Modernization Is a Must, North Koreas Growing ICBM Threat: How America and South Korea Should Respond, China Surpasses U.S. in Nuclear Missile Launchers; U.S. Unprepared to Deter Growing Threat. For example, when deployed, the anti-ballistic missile Airborne Laser will cost approximately $1,000 per shot. During the Cold War, the U.S. and the Soviet Union studied the possibility of creating particle-beam weapons, which fire streams of electrons, protons, neutrons, or even neutral hydrogen atoms. In addition, the cost per shot of a directed energy weapons could be orders of magnitude less expensive than current kinetic weapons. [79][80] However, this story is comprehensively denied by the crew members of STS-41-G and knowledgeable members of the US intelligence community. So how close are they to becoming weaponized? The military has rhetorically embraced the wonders of DEWs, but it has not always opened its wallet to fund the technologies. The laser light is coherent in a single color, and the flashlight is broad-spectrum light. The system generates a focused beam of energy at the frequency of 95 gigahertz. These photons are all at the same wavelength and are coherent, meaning the crests and troughs of the light waves are all in lockstep. Its effective beam width is so small that it can be directed at individuals in a riot. For example, a recent test of a solid-state laser by Northrop Grumman produced a continuous 27-kilowatt beam that lasted just under six minutes. The skin of the missile heats up, melts, and deforms, and the target breaks up in midair. They could therefore avoid there being any evidence of repression or at least limit it. There are two types of hypersonic weapons, boost glide and air-launched high-speed cruise missiles. Depending on the type of laser, this means that the weapon can have an almost "endless magazine" of laser bursts. Each of the six laser modules were as large as small cars and the chemical storage tanks, optical benches, control equipment and piping packed the aircraft. [19], A subset of HPM devices can affect the human body. The U.S. Army has also been moving out aggressively in developing and deploying directed energy weapons as part of its Air and Missile Defense modernization priority. For example, the static and distortion that high voltage power lines have on a car radio causes no lasting damage to the radio after the car leaves the area. Though intended to cause severe pain while leaving no lasting damage, concern has been voiced as to whether the system could cause irreversible damage to the eyes. Research was also conducted on a mobile version of the THEL called the MTEL. It was capable of damaging or destroying fast attack boats, unmanned aerial vehicles and was used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). Laser energy can be generated as a continuous wave or in pulses, which also influences its lethality. One such alternative method was called decomposition (transl. The Air Force also recently demonstrated the ability of an HPM weapon to bring down multiple drones in testing at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, according to a recent Military.com article: After decades of research and investment, we believe these advanced directed-energy applications will soon be ready for the battlefield to help protect people, assets and infrastructure. Thomas Bussing, Raytheon Advanced Missile Systems vice president, said in a news release accompanying the announcement. In 1995, the Chinese military marketed the ZM-87 laser interference device, a tripod-mounted battlefield laser dazzler designed to blind enemy soldiers and optics temporarily. How can they be used and how disruptive can they be? U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs: Hearings Gulf War Illnesses; Testimony to the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee; Meryl Nass, MD, Director of Pulmonary Rehabilitation, Mount Desert Island Hospital Bar Harbor, Maine; September 25, 2007, Last edited on 21 February 2023, at 22:00, United States Army Armament Research Development and Engineering Center, Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, "Milsat Magazine, Satnews Daily, June 24th 2009", "The Chinese Military Now Has Laser Weapons", "Drones, lasers, and tanks: China shows off its latest weapons", "New Chinese Microwave Weapon Can Short Out IEDs and Tanks", "Laser directed energy weapons likely to receive the most investment in future: Poll", "EDA Studying the Use of Naval Directed Energy Weapons", "The French Have Plans For A Constellation Of Laser-Armed Miniature Satellites", "High Energy Laser For Multiple Applications", "Dragonfire laser turret unveiled at DSEI 2017 MBDA", "Dragonfire, a guide to the new British laser weapon", "A farewell to traditional arms: Russia develops weapons for the future", "Russia's new MiG-35 fighter jet to use laser weapons", "Russia's combat laser weapons declassified", "KALI: India's weapon to destroy any uninvited missiles and aircrafts [, "Future technologies must be propelled by power of today's youth: DRDO chairman", "DRDO plans Star Wars-style weapons for battles of future", "Announced In 2017, Why Pakistan's Fifth-Gen Stealth Fighter Jet Program 'Project Azm' Fails To Attract Foreign Partners? This destroys the device but produces electrical pulses in the terawatt range-the equivalent of 10 to 1,000 lightning strikes. It stresses the heart, causes insomnia, completely prevents deep sleep, and causes severe muscle aches. Sean Gallagher - Sep 11, 2018 5:48 pm UTC Enlarge / The US flag flies outside the US Embassy on October 14 . [1] They may begin to appear on the battlefield within the next decade, bringing a revolution in weapons and how war is waged. The Rheotron was captured by the Americans in Burggrub on April 14, 1945. According to a legend, Archimedes created a mirror with an adjustable focal length (or more likely, a series of mirrors focused on a common point) to focus sunlight on ships of the Roman fleet as they invaded Syracuse, setting them on fire. They built an electron accelerator called Rheotron to generate hard X-ray synchrotron beams for the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM). Research was also conducted on a mobile version of the THEL called the MTEL. When directed at humans, a microwave weapon causes atoms to vibrate, which in turn generates heat. Stupor is reported to have been used by Russian forces during the Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war. This information is then transferred to an optical tracking system, which refines the target tracking and positions the beam director. This type of weapon shows great potential as a riot-control device or area-denial system. The distinction between them is the wavelength/frequency of the energy. In this manner someone could be debilitated even though they were no longer imprisoned. While DEWs are not the solution to all combat situations, these technologies would provide the U.S. military with additional flexibility in tailoring its response to different types of threats. Because of its coherence, laser light can stay concentrated for very long distanceseven thousands of miles into space. While centuries of technological advances have improved the power of these materials, the basic operating principle of chemical-powered weapons ultimately remains the same. Are these weapons still science fiction, lab experiments, or are they real? A directed-energy weapon (DEW) is a ranged weapon that damages its target with highly focused energy, including laser, microwaves and particle [1]On August 24, 2004, the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) system destroyed a salvo of mortar rounds in midair during a test. For high energy lasers, lethality depends on the power output of the laser, the purity and concentration of the light (beam quality), the target range, the ability to keep the laser on the target aimpoint (jitter control and tracking), and the atmospheric environment the laser traverses to the target. Laser light is created when the electrons in atoms in special glasses, crystals, or gases absorb energy from an electrical current or another laser and become excited. The excited electrons move from a lower-energy orbit to a higher-energy orbit around the atoms nucleus. ", "Navy's new laser weapon: Hype or reality? There is no injury to the target individual. LRAD systems are used for long-range communications in a variety of applications[53] and as a means of non-lethal, non-projectile crowd control. Furthermore, the power of lasers and microwave weapons has decreased, allowing for nonlethal uses. [74] Some of the victims of this method suffered from suspicious cases of cancer and have claimed that they had also been targeted with directed X-rays. When using laser weapons, the warfighters will need new situational awareness and battle management tools because of the potential long-range effects to avoid friendly systems fratricide. The Air Force Research Lab's Propulsion Directorate has studied using generators that use high-temperature superconducting wire and high-voltage capacitors. Boeing has received a C-130H transport aircraft from the Air Force and is modifying it for installation of the laser system. [15]Colonel Craig Hughes, Office of Force Transformation, U.S. Department of Defense, "Re-directed Energy: the Tactical Relay Mirror System," presentation at The Heritage Foundation, Washington, D.C., February 13, 2006. ), is an Executive Vice President and Directed Energy Lead at Booz Allen Hamilton and the former Director of the Missile Defense Agency. This page was last edited on 21 February 2023, at 22:00. [82], LRADs are often fitted on commercial and military ships. The full system will be fitted to the aircraft by 2007 and test-fired against ground targets. [30][31] After decades of research and development, most directed-energy weapons are still at the experimental stage and it remains to be seen if or when they will be deployed as practical, high-performance military weapons.[32][33]. This destroys the device but produces electrical pulses in the terawatt range-the equivalent of 10 to 1,000 lightning strikes. The sensation increases in intensity until the affected individual moves out of the beam or it is shut off. The United States will soon be reaching the point where it can generate a megawatt of power in a size, weight, and volume capable of being put on a high-altitude aircraft or space-based platform. Since 1999 those weapons have been upgraded for another 13 years. Therefore, HELs and HPMs could also play a role in the midcourse/terminal phase of both types of hypersonic missile flight. What exactly is a directed energy weapon? [16] When the microwave energy encounters unshielded wires or electronic components, it induces a current in them, which causes the equipment to malfunction. Depending on factors such as burst height, microwave frequency, and the shielding around the target electronics, such an e-bomb could have an effective range of several hundred meters. Directed energy weapons, such as lasers and microwaves, had enjoyed an exotic aura. In practice, the weapon was highly vulnerable to enemy fire. Consider that today the United States will launch kinetic interceptors at an incoming threat warhead that cost tens of millions of dollars and multiple interceptors are fired for maximum probability of success. However, current research focuses on using them as a means of nonlethal area defense and as anti-electronic weapons rather than as "death rays.". Neuro-weapons can take the form of biological agents, chemical weapons and in the Havana case directed energy, and possibly a combination of different methods, Giordano said. The SOR's world-class adaptive optics telescope is the second largest telescope in the Department of Defense. Laser weapons potentially eliminate many logistical problems in terms of ammunition supply, as long as there is enough energy to power them. The EPFCG uses chemical explosives to compress an electrically charged coil. While directed-energy research is advancing, inadequate funding is hindering more rapid development and deployment of these technologies. In the weapons version, the microwave energy effects or lethality depends on the power and range to target, but the energy beams tend to be larger and not as sensitive to jitter as is the case for the high energy lasers. Both the Allies and the Axis powers conducted basic research and studies into primitive directed-energy weapons before World War II. The word laser is an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. Design specifications are already being determined. Compare that to a high energy laser which could kill multiple threat missiles with a single magazine charge for a tiny fraction of the cost. The scanning array projects microwaves that disrupt the surface-to-air missile's guidance system, deflecting it from the aircraft. [20], The Active Denial System (ADS) is a nonlethal anti-personnel DEW that uses millimeter-wavelength beams to create a painful sensation in an individual without causing actual injury. Discrete, mission-aligned efforts will maintain our pace of development in the race to get these technologies to the field. There is no silver bullet defense against these weapons and in fact there will have to be an architectural approach in defending against them, but directed energy weapons can potentially play a major role. The Soviet Union invested some effort in the development of ruby and carbon dioxide lasers as anti-ballistic missile systems, and later as a tracking and anti-satellite system. The countries abandoned particle-beam weapon research as impracticable.[3]. They can destroy, degrade or blind many other systems that contain sensors and electronics. [49] The intent was to pre-ionize ignition in aircraft engines and hence serve as anti-aircraft DEW and bring planes down into the reach of the flak. Army Successfully Demos Laser Weapon Stryker in Germany, DefenseNews.com, March 21, 2018, available at < https://www.defensenews.com/land/2018/03/21/us-army-successfully-demos-laser-weapon-on-stryker-in-europe/>. At 200 yards away, body temperature increases from the normal 98.6 F to 107 F. At closer range, the temperature increase can be even higher, and is lethal. As another example, high energy lasers could be used to protect forward-deployed troops and bases from attacks by swarms of unmanned aircraft carrying explosive devices. [54] They range in size from small, portable handheld units which can be strapped to a person's chest, to larger models which require a mount. One problem that affects laser beam strength is a phenomenon known as "blooming," which occurs when the laser beam heats the atmosphere through which it is passing, turning the air into plasma. Havana syndrome is a set of medical symptoms reported by US personnel in Havana, Cuba and other locations, suspected by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to be caused by microwave energy. DE warfare is military action involving the use of DE weapons, devices, and countermeasures to either cause direct damage or destruction of adversary equipment, facilities, and personnel, or to determine, exploit, reduce, or prevent hostile use of the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) through damage, destruction, and disruption.1. [66], In 1973, New Scientist magazine reported that a sonic weapon known as a 'squawk box' underwent successful field trials in Northern Ireland, using soldiers as guinea pigs. Development of the THEL began in 1996 as a joint program between the United States and Israel to develop a laser system capable of shooting down Katyusha rockets, artillery, and mortar shells. [42][43][44], The effective radiated power (ERP) of the EL/M-2080 Green Pine radar makes it a hypothetical candidate for conversion into a directed-energy weapon, by focusing pulses of radar energy on target missiles. Thus, the deny capability is not permanent because the affected systems can be easily restored to their previous operational condition. They are not "weapons of mass destruction," but they have the potential to . It turned out that during its three-year deployment, from 201114, it was used nearly around the clock in its ISR mode. As they become smaller, DEW weapons will first be vehicle-mounted and then possibly man-portable. The two U.S. laser weapons systems closest to actual deployment are the Tactical High-Energy Laser (THEL) and the Airborne Laser (ABL). 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Missile Airborne laser will cost approximately $ 1,000 per shot of a directed energy Lead at Booz Allen Hamilton the... They be which in turn generates heat thus, the cost per shot of a directed energy weapons could debilitated! Stupor is reported to have been used by Russian forces during the Russian military intervention in the civil! And directed energy weapons, boost directed energy weapons on humans and air-launched high-speed cruise missiles. [ 3.! An electron accelerator called Rheotron to generate hard X-ray synchrotron beams for the (... At Booz Allen Hamilton and the Axis powers conducted basic research and studies into primitive directed-energy weapons directed energy weapons on humans... Hamilton and the Axis powers conducted basic research and studies into primitive weapons. Potential as a riot-control device or area-denial system also conducted on a mobile version of the missile Defense Agency 5:48... 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