High Power Microwaves on the Future Battlefield: Implications for U.S. Defense

Abstract

One of the U.S. Militarys greatest strengths, integration of technology, may soon turn into its greatest liability as recent advances in the area of high power microwave (HPM) weapons are garnering interest around the world. Current U.S. military strategy is to develop and maintain its superiority through the leveraging of information technology, but as recent conflicts have shown, potential enemies are likely to attack asymmetrically. HPMs against electronics is an asymmetric avenue to negate the technological advantage of the U.S. Therefore, nations, groups, and/or individuals will likely seek to use HPM weapons against the U.S. This paper argues that the U.S. should continue to research and develop HPM weapon systems that target electronics, discern how an enemy may use them against us, develop countermeasures, and deter HPM offensive uses, particularly those that can have catastrophic results.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 17, 2010
Accession Number
AD1018555

Entities

People

  • Robert J. Capozzella

Organizations

  • Air War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Command And Control
  • Directed Energy Weapons
  • Electrical Grids
  • Electronically Scanned Array
  • High Power Microwaves
  • High Powered Microwave Weapons
  • Information Systems
  • Military Organizations
  • National Security
  • Nonlethal Weapons
  • Radar
  • Space Systems
  • Test And Evaluation
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare
  • Weapons Effects

Readers

  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Microelectronics