Directed-Energy Weapons To Arm Unmanned Craft

ORLANDO, FLA. -- The U.S. Air Force intends to put a high-power microwave weapon on an advanced version of its unmanned strike aircraft by 2012.

This reflects a keen new interest by Congress and the Pentagon in the increasingly attractive combination of unmanned aircraft -- which means fewer U.S. aircrew casualties in the most dangerous missions -- and new weaponry pulled from long-classified programs.

Moreover, it points to what senior aerospace officials and specialists in directed energy say is a happy intersection in maturation between directed-energy weapons technology and the unmanned air combat vehicle (UCAV), which Congress says should make up one-third of the strike aircraft inventory by 2010.

Even though Pentagon officials say they will not be able to meet the congressional deadline, the future is still considered so promising that major corporations are rushing to establish new companies to capture the expanding business. For corporate planners, missiles and bombs represent mature technologies, while directed energy holds the key to large future profits.

Previously, attention had been focused on large devices like the airborne chemical laser, designed to knock out ballistic missiles. The Navy's DD-X ship design is to have an electric drive that can provide the power for directed-energy weapons that can quickly destroy supersonic anti-ship missiles.

But in the near- term, interest is quickly turning to smaller, cheaper solid-state high-energy laser (HEL) and high-power microwave (HPM) weapons that use finesse rather than brute force to disable targets. Raytheon, TRW and Lockheed Martin, among others, are producing concepts for a wide range of such devices.

Aerospace officials envision an HPM weapon for the Air Force's UCAV that is palletized and sized to fit into its newly enlarged weapons bay. "It will be self contained with a thermal-rejection [cooling] apparatus, and it will load up like ordnance," said a senior aerospace official. UCAVs with early model directed-energy weapons would target air defense missiles and radar sites. One benefit of such weapons would be that collateral damage to people and structures "goes to zero," he said. Such "infinite precision" would avoid many of the restrictions imposed by current rules of engagement.

Some question the claim for infinite precision and lack of collateral damage. However, barring long-term health effects, HPM produces little physical damage except to electronic devices. Lasers, if aimed correctly, would likely limit damage to the width of their beams.

STILL TO BE DETERMINED is the relative advantage of a payload that returns with the UCAV, or a disposable, one-shot, directed-energy weapon. The latter resembles standoff missiles that could be fired into a high-risk area to disable key components of a headquarters, communications or air defense complex to open the target for further attack. Officials say that both concepts are under development.

The damaging effects of HPM, for example, are magnified at a geometric rate as the emitter gets closer to the target. Specialists also say that moving the generation of a burst of microwaves from the UCAV to a standoff weapon could avoid damaging the aircraft through electronic fratricide.

The largely hidden promise of HPM weapon variants is that they can be used to attack a previously impervious new set of targets. Examples include command and control centers or communications nodes buried in mountainsides or deep underground. Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Afghanistan and Libya have all invested heavily in large underground structures that also can hide chemical and biological production facilities, aircraft and missiles,

The pulse from a high-power microwave weapon is designed to follow virtually any conduit--electrical lines, antennas, water lines -- deep into any hardened or underground structure and still be powerful enough to upset electronics inside with a large spike of energy. The Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland AFB, N.M., is working on at least five such projects.

A solid-state laser, by contrast, generates pulsed power that creates an energy buildup that damages targets made of relatively soft, easy-to-melt metals such as aluminum and other lightweight materials used extensively in missiles.Missiles are designed close to their heat margins, so they are vulnerable to thermal stress.

USAF officials admit that lethality studies have not yet been conducted on high-energy lasers and high-power microwave devices; therefore, weapons effects are not precisely known. However, advocates of the technology predict both will be useful "anti-electronics" weapons. They will be able to scramble the memories of battlefield computers, disable vehicle ignitions and confuse the guidance of infrared and radar-guided missiles.

SPECIALISTS PREDICT that the power generation of solid-state lasers, for example, will increase rapidly from the current range of up to 3,000 watts to 15 kw. by 2004 and to 100 kw. by 2006-07.

A directed-energy weapon with the power to "kill a main battle tank is a decade away," said one aerospace industry expert. He also notes that the problems of HEL or HPM are common--power conditioning, heat and flux -- so that solving the problems of one will speed development of the other.

These weapons are planned for deployment in a decade. However, current designs, such as the CVX and the DD-X, incorporate the huge electric power sources required to power these laser weapons. The article asserts that we may see lower power laser weapons, at least of the "soft kill" variety, in the near-term.

Three cheers, no, a thousand cheers for weaponry that will save our boy's lives in combat. I have always thought low power invisable lasers would be a great defensive weapon - place them at perimeter locations facing outward and anyone that looks at them (remember they emit invisable light) will be blinded. Blind agressors aren't very effective.

Unfortunately, blinding lasers are considered to be against the Geneva Convention. The lawyers won't let you build a laser whose only effect is to blind.

While the idea of using lasers as blinding weapons makes military sense, the US has forsworn their use apparently. See this link:

Lasers Banned by Treaty

The United States has forsworn landmines as well. It is interesting to note that blinding lasers may have already been used by the Russians against a US Navy lookout. I am looking for the citation and will post it if I can find it.

Unfortunately, blinding lasers are considered to be against the Geneva Convention. The lawyers won't let you build a laser whose only effect is to blind.

Ok,they'll cook a hot dog in 1.7 seconds and make popcorn,maybe dry cats too.

Gee! They are taking the fun out of war. And I was just coming up with final plans for a fully automatic Bean Blower.

Actually, the prohibition on Blinding Weapons was signed by President Clinton in 1995, but Human Rights-type organizations believe the prohibitions don't go far enough and want more restrictions.

The United States has forsworn landmines as well.

I thought there was a considerable amount of international costernation over our refusal to do just that. And I also recall the incident you mention, with the blinded pilot. He was off USS Kitty Hawk in the West Coast, as far as I remember.

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