The E-bomb: How America's New Directed Energy Weapons Will Change the Way Future Wars Will Be Fought

by Beason, Doug

• ISBN13: 9780306814020
• ISBN10: 0306814021
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-09-26
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

Light-emitting weapons seem to be the stuff of science fiction-Flash Gordon's ray gun, Captain Kirk's phaser, Darth Vader's light saber. But the imagined future of science fiction is soon to be a reality. After more than two decades of research, the United States is on the verge of deploying a new generation of weapons that discharge light-wave energy, the same spectrum of energy found in your microwave or TV remote control. It's called directed energy. And it's a revolution in weaponry, perhaps more profound than the atomic bomb.

Author Biography

Doug Beason, Ph.D., Col. (U.S.A.F., Ret.), a key architect of and leading expert in directed-energy research for the past twenty-six years, holds a doctorate in lasertechnology physics. He has served at the White House, working for the President's Science Advisor in both the Clinton and Bush administrations in the 1990s. Today he is Associate Director of Threat Reduction at Los Alamos National Laboratory and serves on the Board of Directors of the Directed Energy Professional Society. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Directed Energy Milestones	xi
Prelude: A World-Changing, Disruptive Technology	1	(8)
The Promise of Directed Energy	9	(12)
What Exactly Is Directed Energy?	21	(10)
The Military Effectiveness of Directed Energy	31	(8)
The Problem with Directed Energy	39	(12)
The Difference Between Lasers and High-Power Microwaves	51	(8)
Prophets of the Revolution: High-Energy Laser Weapons	59	(20)
The Department of Defense Wakes Up	79	(16)
Prophets of the Revolution: High-Power Microwaves	95	(18)
The World's First Force Field: The Active Denial System	113	(14)
The Birth of the Airborne Laser	127	(16)
ABL: The Airborne Laser	143	(18)
Making High-Energy Lasers a Global Weapon	161	(10)
Other Major DE Weapons Programs	171	(8)
The Day After Tomorrow	179	(18)
The Next Generation: Fibers, Phasing, and Terahertz	197	(16)
This Is the End	213	(4)
Appendix: Types of Lasers	217	(4)
Notes	221	(12)
Glossary	233	(4)
Bibliography	237	(6)
Index	243