Overview of directed energy weapon developments

Abstract

In future defence scenarios directed energy weapons are of increasing interest. Therefore national and international R&D programs are increasing their activities on laser and high power microwave technologies in the defence and anti terror areas. The paper gives an overview of the German R&D programmes on directed energy weapons. A solid state medium energy weapon laser (MEL) is investigated at Rheinmetall for i.e. anti air defence applications up to distances of about 7 km. Due to the small volume these Lasers can be integrated as a secondary weapon system into mobile platforms such as AECVs. The beam power of a MEL is between 1 kW and 100 kW. The electric energy per pulse is in the kJ range. A burst of only a few pulses is needed to destroy optronics of targets in a distance up to 7 km. The electric energy requirements of a MEL system are low. High energy density pulsed power technologies are already available for the integration into a medium sized vehicle. The paper gives an overview on the MEL technologies which are under investigation in order to introduce a technology demonstrator at the end of 2005. The electric requirements at the interface to the power bus of a vehicle are presented. Finally an integration concept as a secondary weapon in a medium sized vehicle is given and discussed. In close cooperation with Diehl Munitionssysteme high power microwave technologies are investigated. Different kinds of HPM Sources are under development for defence and anti terror applications. It is the goal to introduce first prototype systems within a short time frame. The paper gives a brief overview on the different source technologies currently under investigation. The joint program concentrates on ultra wide band and damped sinus HPM waveforms in single shot and repetitive operation. Radiation powers up to the Gigawatt range are realized up to now. By presenting some characteristic scenarios for those HPM systems the wide range of applications is proven in the paper.