FYI,

"Beam Weapons Almost Ready for Battle
- Directed energy could revolutionize warfare, expert says"
MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10805240/from/RSS

: There is a new breed of weaponry fast approaching — and at the
: speed of light, no less. They are labeled "directed-energy
: weapons," and they may well signal a revolution in military
: hardware — perhaps more so than the atomic bomb.

: Directed-energy weapons take the form of lasers, high-powered
: microwaves and particle beams. Their adoption for ground, air, sea,
: and space warfare depends not only on using the electromagnetic
: spectrum, but also upon favorable political and budgetary
: wavelengths too.

: That's the outlook of J. Douglas Beason, author of the recently
: published book "The E-Bomb: How America's New Directed Energy
: Weapons Will Change the Way Wars Will Be Fought in the Future."
: Beason previously served on the White House staff working for the
: president's science adviser under both the Bush and Clinton
: administrations.

: After more than two decades of research, the United States is on
: the verge of deploying a new generation of weapons that discharge
: beams of energy, such as the Airborne Laser and the Active Denial
: System, as well as the Tactical High Energy Laser, or THEL.

: "History has shown that, without investment in high technology,
: fighting the next war will be done using the 'last war' type of
: technique," Beason told Space.com. Putting money into basic and
: long-range research is critical, Beason said, adding: "You can't
: always schedule breakthroughs."

: A leading expert in directed-energy research for 26 years, Beason
: is also director of threat reduction here at the Los Alamos
: National Laboratory.

: Though considerable work has been done in lasers, high-power
: microwaves and other directed-energy technologies, weaponization is
: still an ongoing process.

: For example, work is continuing in the military's Airborne Laser
: program. It utilizes a megawatt-class, high-energy chemical oxygen
: iodine laser toted skyward aboard a modified Boeing 747-400
: aircraft. Purpose of the program is to enable the detection,
: tracking and destruction of ballistic missiles in the boost phase,
: or powered part of their flight.

: Similarly, testing of the U.S. Army's Tactical High Energy Laser in
: White Sands, N.M., has shown the ability of heating high-flying
: rocket warheads, blasting them with enough energy to make them self-
: detonate. THEL uses a high-energy, deuterium fluoride chemical
: laser. A mobile THEL also demonstrated the ability to kill multiple
: mortar rounds.

: Then there's Active Denial Technology — a non-lethal way to use
: millimeter-wave electromagnetic energy to stop, deter and turn back
: an advancing adversary. This technology, supported by the U.S.
: Marines, uses a beam of millimeter waves to heat a foe's skin,
: causing severe pain without damage, and making the adversary flee
: the scene.

: Beason also pointed to new exciting research areas underway at the
: Los Alamos National Laboratory: Free-electron laser work with the
: Navy and a new type of directed energy that operates in the
: terahertz region.

: Looming even larger is the role of those who acquire new
: weapons. "The U.S. could put ourselves in a very disastrous
: position if we allow our acquisition officials to be non-
: technically competent," Beason explained.

: Over the decades, Beason said that the field of directed-energy has
: had its share of "snake-oil salesmen", as well as those advocates
: who overpromised. "It wasn't ready for prime time."

: At present, directed-energy systems "are barely limping along with
: enough money just to prove that they can work," Beason pointed out.
: Meanwhile, huge slugs of money are being put into legacy-type
: systems to keep them going.

: "It's a matter of priority," Beason said. The time is now to
: identify high-payoff, directed-energy projects for the smallest
: amounts of money, he said.

: In Beason's view, Active Denial Technology, the Airborne Laser
: program and the THEL project, as well as supporting technologies
: such as relay mirrors, are all works in progress that give reason
: for added support and priority funding.

: "I truly believe that as the Airborne Laser goes, so goes the rest
: of the nation's directed-energy programs. Right now, it's working
: on the margin. I believe that there are still `unknown unknowns'
: out there that are going to occur in science and technology. We
: think we have the physics defined. We think we have the engineering
: defined. But something always goes wrong … and we're working too
: close at the margin," Beason said.

: Stepwise demonstration programs that spotlight directed-energy
: weapon systems are needed, Beason noted. Such in-the-field displays
: could show off greater beam distance-to-target runs, mobility of
: hardware, ease-of-operation, battlefield utility and other
: attributes.

: Directed-energy technologies can offer a range of applications,
: from botching up an enemy's electronics to performing "dial-up"
: destructive strikes at the speed of light with little or no
: collateral damage.

: Beason said he has a blue-sky idea of his own, which he tags "the
: voice from heaven." By tuning the resonance of a laser onto Earth's
: ionosphere, you can create audible frequencies. Like some boom box
: in the sky, the laser-produced voice could bellow from above down
: to the target below: "Put down your weapons."

: Regarding use of directed-energy space weapons, Beason advised
: that "we'll eventually see it."

: However, present-day systems are far too messy. Most high-powered
: chemical lasers — in the megawatt-class — require onboard fuels and
: oxidizers to crank out the amount of energy useful for strategic
: applications. Stability of such a laser system rooted in space is
: also wanting.

: On the other hand, Beason said he expected to see the rise of more
: efficient lasers — especially solid-state laser systems. "What
: breakthroughs are needed … I'm not sure. Eventually, I think it's
: going to happen, but it is going to be a generation after the
: battlefield lasers."

: Shooting beams "through space" is another matter, Beason quickly
: added. Space-based relay mirrors — even high-altitude airships
: equipped with relay mirrors — can direct ground-based or air-based
: laser beams nearly around the world, he said.

: "So you're using space … exploiting it. But you are going through
: space to attack anywhere on Earth," Beason said.

: Late last year, speaking before the Heritage Foundation in
: Washington, Beason told his audience that laser energy, the power
: sources and beam control, as well as knowledge about how laser
: beams interact with Earth's atmosphere, are quite mature
: technologies that are ready for the shift into front-line warfare
: status.

: "The good news is that directed energy exists. Directed energy is
: being tested, and within a few years directed energy is going to be
: deployed upon the battlefield," Beason reported. "But the bad news
: is that acquisition policies right now in this nation are one more
: gear toward evolutionary practices rather than revolutionary
: practices."

: "Visionaries win wars … and not bureaucrats. We've seen this
: through history," Beason observed.

Mark Reiff