Non-Subscriber Extract
High-power microwave weapons - full power ahead?
- Article Tools
| 25 August 2006 |
By Bill Sweetman IDR Technology and Aerospace Editor
Minneapolis
Despite an enormous degree of hype, and considerable investment for more than a decade, the deployment of a tactical high-power microwave (HPM) weapon - a re-usable mobile transmitter capable of damaging a range of targets - is some way off.
Two HPM weapons are claimed to be ready for full-scale development. The USAF started developing the Active Denial System (ADS) in the mid-1990s, with Raytheon as prime contractor. Known as the 'pain ray', or even less officially as the 'people zapper', the ADS uses an HPM beam to heat the outer layer of human skin - producing an intolerable, but supposedly harmless, burning sensation.
Another HPM weapon that is close to fielding, according to Raytheon, is the Vigilant Eagle anti-missile defence system. Based on a classified precursor, Vigilant Eagle is intended to defend aircraft against man-portable air-defence systems (MANPADS). It could be either an alternative or a complement to installing infra-red countermeasures on the aircraft themselves.
"We have tested high-power microwave countermeasures in real environments, versus real missiles and it has proven effective," said Mike Booen, vice-president of directed energy programmes at Raytheon's Missile Systems business. The background to Vigilant Eagle is shrouded in secrecy, but Booen states that Raytheon HPM weapons "have operated in the field, against real threats" and that the company has been working on Pentagon HPM programmes for more than 10 years.
Neither ADS nor Vigilant Eagle, however, is the long-range, tactically mobile electronic lobotomiser that has been either promised or threatened by the HPM community for many years. In that regime, neither the technology nor the military demand appears to be there as yet.
E-bombs
A completely different class of HPM weapon is the E-bomb: a bomb or cruise missile warhead that uses explosive energy to produce a single, instantaneous, broadband pulse of power.
According to several sources, E-bomb warheads have been designed for the USAF's Air Launched Cruise Missile, the US Navy's Tomahawk cruise missile and the newer Lockheed Martin Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile.
The basic principle of an E-bomb - an explosive magnetic flux compression generator - was described in detail by Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists more than 30 years ago. Essentially, a magnetic armature is driven by explosives through a coil, energised by a bank of capacitors and the resulting energy is directed through an antenna. The most likely application for an E-bomb would be defence suppression, destroying the electronics of a hostile missile system.
395 of 2,644 words
© 2006 Jane's Information Group
[End of non-subscriber extract]
Customers with a paid subscription to Jane's Defence Weekly can access the full article here
If you would like to subscribe, please see our products section for more information and pricing on Defence Weekly