directed-energy-weapons

Laser countermeasure devices promise to provide significantly enhanced protection of aircraft, vehicles and even fixedfacilities against precision weapons with optical or infrared seekers. The speed with which laser systems can respondto threats and their ability to neutralize targets without having to destroy them in flight make such weapons the idealcountermeasure.4. Directed-energy weapons will provide new means for attacking time-sensitive and imprecisely-located or buried targets.U.S. forces face a growing problem of locating and attacking in a timely manner mobile, time-sensitive targetssuch as ballistic- and cruise-missile launchers, aircraft on runways and vehicle-mounted command and control nodes.In some instances, the location of these targets will not be known with sufficient precision to allow them to be attackedwith conventional weapons. Directed-energy weapons, both lasers and HPMs, can address these problems, albeit in differentways. Lasers can shorten the shooter-to-target time line, thereby enabling attacks on mobile targets before theycan move beyond sensor range. HPMs can be employed against mobile targets when locational uncertainty exists.HPMs could be particularly useful against buried targets or those that are located in populated areas. Adversariesintent on pursuing asymmetric strategies are increasingly seeking to protect critical assets by burying them or colocatingthem in urban centers. HPMs can be employed to strike many such targets with no collateral damage.HPMs could be employed in a less-lethal “strategic bombing” campaign designed to attack critical national electricaland electronic assets.5. In the event it is necessary to engage in conflict in or from space, laser weapons could play a critical role in establishingand maintaining space control. Directed-energy weapons in space, or ground/airborne lasers with battle mirrorscould provide highly effective control of space and protection for other critical space-based assets. Deployed in aconstellation of satellites, space-based lasers would provide highly capable defense against ballistic missiles and evenhigh-flying aircraft.6. High-power microwaves offer the prospect for the first effective means of conducting nonlethal engagements atmedium ranges. The Advanced Denial System (ADS), undergoing development, employs microwaves to createnonlethal effects on human beings. If successfully demonstrated and shown to have no irreversible effects, the ADSwould support policing and peacekeeping activities and could be employed in urban environments against hostilecombatants.7. Directed-energy systems could also provide important new means of defending the homeland. One of the goals ofthe National Homeland Security Strategy is to protect transportation. Another is to reduce the vulnerability of criticalinfrastructure. Recent events underscore the threat to civilian airliners from man-portable surface-to-air missilesdeployed near airports. Fixed-site laser defenses employing sensors to detect fast-moving objects on trajectories characteristicof man-portable SAMs could be deployed at major airports, providing protection against such threats.Civilian aircraft could also be equipped with laser countermeasures. Laser defenses aboard aircraft could contribute tothe defense of the U.S. homeland against cruise-missile or short-range ballistic-missile attacks.The Political and Legal Implications of Directed-Energy WeaponsThe introduction of qualitatively new weapons systems often has had important implications for a nation’s foreignrelations and for the larger international environment. Care needs to be taken in the manner in which directed-ener-Directed-Energy Weapons and The American Way of War53