U.S. May Debut Secret Microwave Weapon Versus Iraq

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2003-02-03 12:18am

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?ty ... ID=2153939

U.S. May Debut Secret Microwave Weapon Versus Iraq
Sun February 2, 2003 07:54 AM ET
By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It substitutes pure energy for munitions. It is designed to achieve military objectives without killing people or wrecking buildings.

And Saddam Hussein's armed forces may be chosen as the first target of the U.S. military's new secret weapon.

The U.S. Air Force is developing a high-power microwave, or HPM, weapon that generates a massive electromagnetic pulse capable of frying the insides of digital electronic systems, disabling enemy military equipment, analysts said.

While the weapon is top-secret and details about it are classified, analysts said its development is far enough along that they expect the U.S. military to use an HPM weapon for the first time in the possible war with Iraq.

"The virtue of high-power microwave weapons is that they can shut down virtually any military electronics system while producing no causalities and minimal physical damage," said military analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute think tank. "There's always the possibility that you'll get the scant general with a pacemaker."

These weapons could be used to disable enemy command and control centers, communications facilities, air defense radars, chemical or biological weapons storage or production sites, and sophisticated vehicles, missiles and aircraft, analysts said.

"What that means is that the enemy can't see you coming, they can't hear themselves talking and they can't find their friendly forces. They are essentially deaf, dumb and blind. But they're alive," Thompson added.

Work on high-power microwave technology is being conducted at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.

HPM weapons, at least the rudimentary form that may be used in Iraq, are likely to be delivered to the target by cruise missiles or perhaps unmanned aircraft, analysts said. Delivery by manned aircraft poses problems because the electromagnetic pulse HPM weapons generate could ruin the electronic systems of the U.S. jet, possibly causing it to crash, analysts added.

Shielding U.S. military electronic systems from the effects of microwave weapons will be key in the future, analysts said.

INTENSE ENERGY PULSE

The devices generate a momentary, intense energy pulse producing a gargantuan power surge -- millions of watts -- that would fry practically any modern electronic device within a modest range of hundreds of yards.

The weapon, of course, would not distinguish between electronics used by an enemy military or those used in, for example, a hospital. The surge itself would not harm people.

"The footprint of these is not all that big, which has both pros and cons depending on the issue you're looking at. If you want significant military effect, it may be limited. On the other hand, if you're worried about collateral impact, if you know where the hospital is, you can limit that effect as well," said military analyst Mike Vickers of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

Vickers said use of them in an Iraq war is "quite likely."

"It's not really that high-tech," added retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Piers Wood of the GlobalSecurity.org think tank.

"You've got a microwave oven at home probably that generates a pulse of heat. But the point is that this is not such a ground-breaking paradigm shift as much as an engineering problem: getting the equipment small enough to carry around the battlefield in various platforms," Wood said.

High-power microwave could be useful against some of an enemy's most unreachable targets, analysts said.

"A fabulous target would be a deeply buried command bunker or chemical-biological weapons bunker that we weren't certain that we could dig out of the ground with conventional explosives but which would have to have communications and power lines going into and out of it. It's almost impossible to buffer those lines against a power surge," Thompson said.

Rich Garcia, director of public affairs for the Directed Energy Directorate, said the high-power microwave work at Kirtland is an offshoot of research done in the early 1980s.

"At that time, we were doing a lot of work in studying the effects of nuclear detonations, and so electromagnetic pulse is an offshoot of nuclear detonation. High-power microwave sort of grew out of that," Garcia added.

HPM weapons are categorized as directed-energy weapons.

Garcia said the directed-energy unit, which also is working on laser weapons, space-based optics and plasma projectiles some have likened to firing a bolt of lightning, has about 600 employees with an annual budget of about $120 million.

U.S. defense officials publicly have suggested that a high-power microwave weapon might be used in the near term.

"You never know," said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld when asked at a briefing about the promise of such weapons.

"The real world intervenes from time to time, and you reach in there and take something out that is still in a developmental stage, and you might use it," Rumsfeld added.

Analysts stressed that HPM weapons are a work in progress.

"The military likes to use wartime for experimentation," said Philip Coyle, assistant defense secretary and director of operational test and evaluation from 1994-2001. "And there's nothing wrong with that. So they might go out and try it once. But I wouldn't expect to see any kind of usage where the military really depended on it for its results."

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2003-02-03 06:21pm

Ooohh, goody. More high-tech stuff to use against Saddam!

But I'm sure if we use it, Bill Maher will call us a bunch of cowards again because we're being smart and not putting thousands of soldiers at risk. (Remember when he said that after 9-11?)

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2003-02-03 06:39pm

bill mahr....and don't forget sean penn. hmm sean pean. i'm sorry but i have a hard time taking someone seriouly in a political context when their greatest contribution to society was "all i need is some cold waves and some fresh bud!"

<EDIT> oh yea, i almost forgot damn you sheppard, for a second, before i read the article, i thought we were going to zap the republican guard like a big bag of microwave popcorn.

Alex Moon · Post by **Alex Moon** » 2003-02-03 07:42pm

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi wrote:Ooohh, goody. More high-tech stuff to use against Saddam!

But I'm sure if we use it, Bill Maher will call us a bunch of cowards again because we're being smart and not putting thousands of soldiers at risk. (Remember when he said that after 9-11?)

I thought he criticized Bill Clinton for launching missle strikes which were seen as ineffective in response to the U.S.S. Cole bombing?

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-02-03 08:06pm

Bwahaha! Fire the ion cannon!

Warspite · Post by **Warspite** » 2003-02-03 08:13pm

Uhh, can the microwaves reach deep heavily-shielded bunkers?

jaeger115 · Post by **jaeger115** » 2003-02-03 08:18pm

Oh man. Soon all our future enemies will be prostrate before us because we can disable them at will anytime we want. Of course, a lot of bleeding-hearts will be at losses over what to say about this.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-02-03 08:19pm

CNN: And so, the German premier strongly denounced the actions of the US today. Here we go to a live video link:

...

It's not responding. How odd...

Andrew J. · Post by **Andrew J.** » 2003-02-03 08:22pm

Aww...I thought they were gonna use microwaves to make people explode...disabling electronics is no fun!

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-02-03 08:25pm

Andrew J. wrote:Aww...I thought they were gonna use microwaves to make people explode...disabling electronics is no fun!

I think that'd go against the Geneva Convention.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-02-03 08:26pm

I hope they use directed energy weapons too against troops, the US has Hummers with RDF planar arrays on that emit wide beams of MW energy that can do everything from scold that man to melt that car. Microwaves, unlike visual spectrum EM and particle beam cannons, are not affected by atmosphere too and can do that nifty GoldenEye like EMP effect.

I would still like to see a few Icarus clones in orbit to give Saddam a tan he won't have to worry about losing for a while...

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-02-03 08:27pm

Iraqi Commander: FORWARD! DRIVE THE INFIDELS FROM THE-pop!-

-pop!--pop!--pop!--pop!--pop!--pop!--pop!--pop!--pop!-

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-02-03 08:29pm

HemlockGrey wrote:CNN: And so, the German premier strongly denounced the actions of the US today. Here we go to a live video link:

...

It's not responding. How odd...

"Ah, here we go, picture and sound, apologies for the inconvenience."

"My countrymen, I am standing here today to denounce..."

*FWAP... BANG... SIZZLE*

*An orbital nuclear powered UV laser sat vapes the podium and blows back the bodyguards*

jegs2 · Post by **jegs2** » 2003-02-03 08:30pm

Convential ammunition, mixed with the proper tactics, training and leadership will do the trick nicely.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-02-03 08:32pm

jegs2 wrote:Convential ammunition, mixed with the proper tactics, training and leadership will do the trick nicely.

Yeah but why not justify that huge expenditure on the forces by getting a few nice toys of death courtesy of science.

After the DEWs we can have AI controlled tanks and power armour or robots, genetically engineered viri or bacteria and carriers that can carry aeroplanes that can blow the shit out of practically anything!

BWAHAHAHA!

Wish Blair would let the MoD have more pocket money.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-02-03 08:34pm

You stole my Sig...

WHAAAAAAAAA

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2003-02-03 08:35pm

My word! Lasers? Fuck man, soon we're gonna be launching cloned SEAL's to Mars armed with friggin' laser guns! How cool is that!

THE FUTURE IS HERE. WE MUST ALL GET READY NOW.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-02-03 08:38pm

Darth Garden Gnome wrote:My word! Lasers? Fuck man, soon we're gonna be launching cloned SEAL's to Mars armed with friggin' laser guns! How cool is that!

THE FUTURE IS HERE. WE MUST ALL GET READY NOW.

MASERs to be exact.

But yeah, DEWs are getting good now, who knows, maybe a constellation of LEO laser or incoherant light sats or a particle beam cannon station, the navy is looking at railguns for heavy support and AI is helping planes and missiles while biotech and nanotech can help us get all sorts of neat enhancements.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-02-03 08:41pm

Stormbringer wrote:
Andrew J. wrote:Aww...I thought they were gonna use microwaves to make people explode...disabling electronics is no fun!

I think that'd go against the Geneva Convention.

Geneva convention is worth shit in war the enemy does`nt care about the fucking convention why should we.

Hyperion · Post by **Hyperion** » 2003-02-03 10:00pm

What's really funny, for about $200 you can make your own personal antipersonnel microwave gun, capable of lethal effect at about 200 yards if the waveguide is rigged right... I've made'em and tested them on squirrels, they are just too much fun, no light, no sound, just dead. (sometimes *pop* from a steam explosion in the brainbox though)

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-02-03 10:04pm

we're living in a sci fi novel o_O

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2003-02-03 10:05pm

Add that to the Navy's new railguns.... BOOM!!!

I feel soooo evvviiiillll..... MUAHAHHAHAHAHAH!
Proud to be an American.... goodbye France... err... IRAQ.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2003-02-03 10:11pm

Does anyone know what the geneva convention says about directed energy weapons? I mean will the use of energy weapons to blow people up or burn them be considered a bad thing. Maybe a good reason to use in a fic why firearms are still used in the future.

jaeger115 · Post by **jaeger115** » 2003-02-03 10:14pm

What's really funny, for about $200 you can make your own personal antipersonnel microwave gun, capable of lethal effect at about 200 yards if the waveguide is rigged right... I've made'em and tested them on squirrels, they are just too much fun, no light, no sound, just dead. (sometimes *pop* from a steam explosion in the brainbox though)

Where can I find a site on this? *drools and gears up for the rush there*

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2003-02-03 10:17pm

jaeger115 wrote:
What's really funny, for about $200 you can make your own personal antipersonnel microwave gun, capable of lethal effect at about 200 yards if the waveguide is rigged right... I've made'em and tested them on squirrels, they are just too much fun, no light, no sound, just dead. (sometimes *pop* from a steam explosion in the brainbox though)
Where can I find a site on this? *drools and gears up for the rush there*

*drools*
That damn dog across the street will die a mysterious death soon...
please direct me to this site....

Oh, NOW!!