No one has quite figured out how to put together a battlefield ray gun -- yet. But that isn't stopping the U.S. military from getting ready. The Air Force Research Lab is "conducting research... to accurately predict the effects of lasers on various threat targets. Laser vulnerability assessments on space, tactical/ground, and missile, systems, subsystems, and components shall be completed to accurately predict the consequences of lasers interaction with these targets. "
The Naval Surface Warfare Center is launching "scientific investigations into the effects of Laser Weapons on marine mammals." And it's looking to "leverage of existing and/or Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) items into militarily useful laser weapon systems within two to three years."
Emphasis should be placed on an initial capability that could counter a subset of asymmetric threats such as jet skies [sic], small boat swarm attacks, rockets, mortars, artillery rounds, manpads [shoulder-fired missiles], electro-optic sensors, and soft unmanned aerial vehicles.
The Pentagon's High Energy Laser-Joint Technology Office is taking a slightly longer view, looking to kick in $10 million a year for all kinds of ray guns... from gas-powered lasers to electric ones to free electron lasers.
Meanwhile, the Air Force wants to "conduc[t] research to identify the benefits, risks, and capabilities for a wide range of military RF/HPM radiation systems" -- weapons that rely on radio frequency or high-powered microwaves.
The idea is to both "predict and mitigate the bio-effects of directed energy on personnel and mission performance" (protect our guys, in other words) and "to exploit the bio-effects of directed energy for [w]eapons applications" (zap foes with our new microwave guns).
=====================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment