The U.S. Army Meets Star Wars
Issue Brief
The United States Army is preparing to propel itself forward on beams of energy into a new realm of warfare. Already, the Army has made great strides in bringing directed energy weapons to the battlefield. The Army, in collaboration with the Government of Israel, successfully developed and tested the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) designed solely for active defense and then only against relatively short-range threats such as battlefield rockets, artillery shells and mortars (RAM). To date, the THEL has conducted more than 25 successful intercepts, including the near simultaneous destruction of multiple rockets in flight.
A directed energy system such as THEL will be the first active defense against the extremely short time-of-flight threat posed by RAMs. RAM threats have proven to be among the most difficult for U.S. and coalition forces to defeat. By their nature these targets are extremely hard and are accessible to a defensive system for a very short period of time. U.S. indirect fire systems, particularly artillery, are often outranged by those available to U.S. adversaries. It can be difficult to identify the launch locations for RAM threats in order to conduct counter battery fires. The threat posed by hostile RAM fire could increase substantially as adversaries acquire advanced precision munitions, particularly those with anti-armor capability. Faced with such a threat, active defenses become all the more important.
The THEL program has demonstrated the high-speed target detection, acquisition, tracking, engagement and kill capabilities required for a useful tactical directed energy system. The system’s one significant drawback is its lack of mobility. The next step by the Army is to create a mobile THEL or MTHEL system, which is intended to address this shortcoming. The goal of the program is to reduce the overall size and weight of the THEL components, specifically the radar and the laser itself so that each could be mounted on a truck. The system also must meet fairly stringent weight limitations in order to be transportable by C-130. The Army’s ultimate desire is for a directed energy weapon that can be deployed on a single vehicle, possibly a Humvee or the wheeled Stryker.
In the future, directed energy will become a critical element of the U.S. Army’s Objective Force. Central to the creation of the Objective Force is the Future Combat System (FCS). The FCS could employ laser weapons to perform a number of missions including counter-surveillance, air defense and mine clearance. In addition to laser weapons, high-power microwave (HPM) weapons are also likely to be part of the Army’s future. Deployed on ground vehicles, helicopter and unmanned aerial vehicles, or even fired from artillery and missile tubes, HPM weapons will provide the Army with new ways of engaging hostile forces, particularly in complex and urban terrain. One HPM device, the Active Denial System, now in development, holds forth the promise of being the first effective, long-range (1,000 ft or more) nonlethal weapon in the U.S. arsenal.
The Army’s plan for future ground forces involves a complete transformation of platforms, force structure and doctrine. A critical element of that transformation will be the deployment of a wide range of directed energy weapons and sensor systems.
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