The Air Force is surveying industry for high-power microwave (HPM) technologies that could be incorporated into unmanned aerial vehicles, bombs and cruise missiles.
While long a staple of science fiction, directed energy weapons have yet to play a major role in warfare. Taylor Dinerman examines the state-of-the-art in this area and the role such weapons might eventually play in space.
The U.S. Navy is planning on deploying a new electrical power system aboard their ships by 2011 that will allow the use of high-energy weapons such as free electron lasers, high-powered microwaves and electromagnetic rail guns.
The U.S. is planning to deploy electromagnetic weapons in a possible war with Iraq. EMP Cruise missles could be used to knockout Iraq's communication infrastructure but another possibility is that directed-energy microwave weapons could be used as a non-lethal antipersonnel weapon.
A man-made lightning bolt weapon is primed to play a major role in a war against Iraq by zapping the circuitry of everything from jet fighters to TV sets while leaving people unscathed.
The US Air Force is working on developing a man-made bolt of lightning powerful enough to fry sophisticated computer and electronic components in weapons.
Loren Thompson looks at the possibility of "photonic warfare" or the military use of electromagentic weapons. He argues that if the Pentagon uses these directed-energy weapons in a war with Iraq, then "a revolution really is at hand and Saddam Hussein could be its first casualty."
U.S. military researchers are hard at work developing directed-energy weapons that could be used to destroy communication lines, power grids, or fuel dumps, or to zero in on part of a vehicle, like the engine.