Fried Chips

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Aviation Week & Space Technology
October 20, 2008
Pg. 28

New USAF weapon could shut down or damage enemy electronics
By David A. Fulghum and Amy Butler
After years of hopeful talk and a number of test failures, U.S. Air Force researchers are planning to demonstrate an airborne, electronics-killing, standoff weapon that could receive funding in the Fiscal 2010 budget.
The Air Force Research Laboratory is planning to develop a weapons system that integrates a payload capable of generating pulses of high-power microwaves (HPM). The Joint Concept Technology Demonstration is called “Champ,” according to officials at Eglin AFB, Fla. If selected for funding in Fiscal 2010, the program would include feasibility studies and flight-testing.
Meanwhile, officials at Eglin’s Air Armaments Center (AAC) are planning for a formal procurement effort that could begin in 2014. Lessons from Champ would feed into a larger analysis of alternatives that is expected to start in 2012 and allow comparison of a variety of possible solutions, says John Corley, director of capability integration at AAC.
The initial objective is to select a system that could be used on aircraft specialized for the suppression of enemy air defenses. “We are starting to map out a plan,” Corley says.
Other targets that HPM can affect include command-and-control centers, long-range surveillance radars, communications, mobile missiles and airfields. The AAC brief also mentions selective target engagement, which would mean going after clusters of antennas and computers that can be affected by bursts of microwaves. Traveling through these electronic pathways, energy surges can scramble computer memories or even burn out sensitive electronic components.
USAF planners are looking for an HPM payload that can renew its charge and thereby deliver multiple microwave bursts to a series of targets. Cruise missiles and unmanned combat air vehicles are candidates to carry an HPM payload or munition, say weapons analysts.
U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Dave Eid­saune, program executive officer for weapons and commander of the AAC, flagged the development plans during a conference on precision strike options.
An Eidsaune briefing chart shows a notional payload tucked into the mold lines of a 2,000-lb. Joint Direct Attack Munition with a compact wing storage package to extend its standoff and cruise range, potentially extending a weapon’s operational footprint as much as twentyfold. A JDAM launched from 25,000 ft. can extend its glide range to 65 km. (40 mi.) from 18.5 km. using this method.
Other weapons that can carry wings for extended flight include the CBU-87 combined effects munition, CBU-97 sensor fused weapon, GBU-12 laser-guided bomb and, of course, air- and ship-launched cruise missiles. Various umanned air vehicle programs also have looked at HPM packages that could be fired from weapon bays of larger aircraft.
Weapons with wings offer the ability to attack multiple, widely separated targets from a single release point. Rechargeable weapons allow a single weapon to attack several targets along its route. There has even been discussion of HPM payloads for cruise missiles that may return to base for recovery and reuse.
Flying experiments at Eglin were noted as early as 1992, when air-launched cruise missiles were modified to carry an electrically charged coil wrapped in conventional high explosives. When ignited, the explosives destroyed the missile and crushed the coil, which “squirted” out a beam of high-power microwaves. However, the beam was difficult to aim and its power was hard to predict. Unofficial comments from Air Force officials and the Eglin test community indicated an errant beam burned out small motors that power seats and windows in cars parked near the test area. Air Force officials also said privately the ranges for effective use were too short, often only tens of meters.
The development strategy includes a industry technology assessment this year, followed by a Joint Concept Technology Demonstration submission for Fiscal 2009 and, if all goes well, a Fiscal 2010 budget submission.
With recent successes testing the military utility of high-energy lasers, such as the C-130-based Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL), and demonstrating HPMs to disrupt electronic targets, Eglin is beginning to organize itself to advance these systems beyond concept demonstrators.
Although chemical laser systems, such as ATL and the Missile Defense Agency’s 747-mounted Airborne Laser, have been tested for decades, they may be outpaced by speedy HPM development. Chemical lasers are notoriously inefficient. In the case of solid state lasers, energy output is usually about 10% of that required to generate the pulse, says Bruce Simpson, director of the 308th Armaments Systems wing at AAC. The Pentagon hopes it can push that efficiency to about 19% with the Joint High-Powered Solid State Laser program.
In contrast, HPM emissions can be produced with about 50% efficiency, according to weapons developers at Eglin. This translates to a higher likelihood of developing a solution suitable for mobile applications for vehicles and aircraft. U.S. Pacific Command is proposing a Joint Concept Technology Demonstration project to determine the military utility of such a system, Simpson says.
Among the issues to be considered with HPM or ATL-type weapons are how to manage the psychological effects they could produce in combat. Neither system produces visible effects nor creates results that can be readily associated with an attack.
For example, an ATL could disable a truck in motion, and the truck’s operator would experience what appears to be a spontaneous fire. With an HPM emission, an enemy operator would detect a disruption in an air defense network, but couldn’t easily track its source.
Simpson says warplanners are examining when to keep an attack covert and when to make clear who is attacking. Engineers are also exploring concepts for modeling the effects of nonkinetic weapons to help warfighters best employ them.
 
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