“E-​​BOMB,” FOR REAL?

On the eve of the Iraq inva­sion, it was being hailed as America’s next “won­der weapon.” The “e-​​bomb” — a muni­tion using high-​​powered microwaves to fry cir­cuits and com­put­ers — was about to be dropped on Baghdad, we were told. And the press could hardly keep from quiv­er­ing at the thought of the big, elec­tro­mag­netic strike, which would siz­zle every­thing from anti-​​aircraft radars to Iraqi phone sys­tems. But then… well, what hap­pened next is unclear. Some say a pro­to­type e-​​bomb was used to knock out Saddam’s broad­cast facil­i­ties. Others aren’t so sure.
Now, Aviation Week reports, there are a pair of efforts under­way at the Pentagon to use high-​​powered microwaves — the core of the e-​​bomb — for real.
The German man­u­fac­turer Diehl is “sup­ply­ing U.S. forces in Iraq with 10 ‘pro­to­type’ HPM [high-​​powered microwave] devices in tri­als, where they will be used for con­voy pro­tec­tion, accord­ing to a com­pany source. They will be employed to jam det­o­na­tion com­mands for impro­vised explo­sive devices.“
Meanwhile, the American mil­i­tary is look­ing at a British pro­gram to pack cruise mis­siles with HPM war­heads. American tests of the project — code-​​named Virus — “will likely be car­ried out at [Naval Air System Command’s] China Lake, Calif. range against a tar­get set of for­eign sys­tems, includ­ing radars and weaponry.“
The Pentagon won’t imme­di­ately make a pur­chase based on the tests, Aviation Week says. But it could “trig­ger a process result­ing in a pur­chase.” The Defense Department is also look­ing to load HPMs onto other weapons, includ­ing the satellite-​​guided Joint Direct Attack Munition, used so often in the early days of the Iraq war.

October 12th, 2004 | Lasers and Ray Guns | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.