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"Laser weapons History."
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Military Laser Technology and Systems
This new resource provides an insight into the physical principles of the device technology that underpins many laser-based military systems in one form or another. From this knowledge a deeper understanding of the fundamental requirements and the potential performance, as well as limitations of such systems may be assessed, given the appropriate operational parameters. Engineers and students are provided with practical advice on how to evaluate laser devices and systems, operate them safely, and train with them.
eBook
War at the Speed of Light
emWar at the Speed of Light/em describes the revolutionary and ever-increasing role of directed-energy weapons (such as laser, microwave, electromagnetic pulse, and cyberspace weapons) in warfare. Louis A. Del Monte delineates the threat that such weapons pose to disrupting the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction, which has kept the major powers of the world from engaging in nuclear warfare. Potential U.S. adversaries, such as China and Russia, are developing hypersonic missiles and using swarming tactics as a means to defeat the U.S. military. In response, the U.S. Department of Defense established the 2018 National Security Strategy, emphasizing directed-energy weapons, which project devastation at the speed of light and are capable of destroying hypersonic missiles and enemy drones and missile swarms. Del Monte analyzes how modern warfare is changing in three fundamental ways: the pace of war is quickening, the rate at which weapons project devastation is reaching the speed of light, and cyberspace is now officially a battlefield. In this acceleration of combat called \"hyperwar,\" Del Monte shows how disturbingly close the world is to losing any deterrence to nuclear warfare.
eBook
Dreaming of death rays: the search for laser weapons
Lasers have long held allure for physics, the military and science fiction, finds Luke Fleet.
Lasers have long held allure for physics, the military and science fiction, finds Luke Fleet.
Artist’s concept of a high energy laser on a US Airforce fighter jet.
Journal Article
Weapons of choice : the development of precision guided munitions
History and deployment of smart weapons. In the United States, efforts to develop precision guided munitions—PGMs—began during the First World War and resulted in an 'aerial torpedo' by the 1920s. While World War II was dominated by large-scale strategic bombing—essentially throwing out tons of free-falling munitions in the hope they hit something important—both sides in the war worked to develop airborne munitions that could be steered toward a target. However after that war, U.S. national security policy focused on the atomic bomb, hardly a weapon that needed to be directed with accuracy. The cost of emphasis on atomic weapons was revealed in the general unsuitability of American tactics and weapons deployment systems during the Vietnam War. Lessons learned in that conflict, coupled with rapid technological developments in aerodynamics, lasers, and solid-state electronics, brought air power dramatically closer to the "surgical strike" now seen as crucial to modern warfare. New technology created attractive choices and options for American policymakers as well as field commanders, and events in the Arab-Israeli wars, the U.S. raid on Libya, and most dramatically in the first Gulf War created an ever-increasing demand for the precision weapons. The prospect of pinpoint delivery of weapons right to the enemy's door by speeding aircraft seems to presage war in which the messy and politically risky deployment of ground troops is unnecessary. The potential of such weapons, and their strategic limitations, made the Gulf War and Iraqi War living theater for assessing what such weapons can and cannot do and have important implications for planning for future warfare.
eBook
The destroyer of worlds hidden in the forest: Cold War nuclear warhead sites in Poland
The material and documentary archive of twentieth-century global conflict is rich and diverse, but even for such a recent period, gaps in our knowledge remain. One of these concerns abandoned Cold War military sites, where secrecy and historical silence surrounding their construction and use has limited our understanding. This article reports on research that combines airborne laser-scanning data, historical cartography, archived aerial photographs and declassified satellite imagery to investigate three Cold War nuclear storage sites in western Poland. The results supplement and challenge extant historical narratives, and demonstrate the potential of archaeological data for creating persuasive narratives about the recent hidden past.
Journal Article
From Death Rays to Light Sabers: Making Laser Weapons Surgically Precise
This paper explores how, in the two decades following the laser's invention, the popular image of the laser weapon was transformed from a terrifying \"death ray\" capable of contaminating large areas to a surgically precise tool and rationale for a major new defense program. Whereas previous histories of the laser treat its popularizations as irrelevant to real-world developments, this account emphasizes that mass media provide sites for scientists and engineers to vie for control over the meaning and direction of technological development. It shows how the laser as a symbol came to link two very different applications: the everyday use of low-energy lasers to increase the \"precision\" of technologies, and the experimental development of high-energy lasers that would be destructive. I argue that the symbolic appeal of laser weapons made the laser a central part of President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative or \"Star Wars\" missile defense program.
Journal Article
Selected Directed Energy Research and Development for U. S. Air Force Aircraft Applications
The U.S.Air force currently invests significantly in science and technology for directed-energy weapon (DEW) systems.Key elements of this investment include high-energy lasers and high-power microwaves.
eBook
“Space-Strike Weapons” and the Soviet Response to SDI
Westwick examines the 1986 Reykjavik Summit on arms control and its fallout. In particular, he attempts to explain Russia's strongly negative reation to Reagan's proposed Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).
Journal Article
The Battles of Al-Fallujah
First Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) operations officer, declared that weapon precision was unprecedented. While tactical roles such as close air support (CAS) and vehicular attacks increased over time even this was often more cheaply executed by helicopter gunships using \"hell-fire\" missiles, than fixed-wing aircraft using 500-pound bombs.
Journal Article