Directed Energy weapons

[Dr Mordrid]

Aviation Week.....

New Budget Darling May Be Directed-Energy

After decades of promises, directed-energy weapons appear headed for near-term operational use and may be led there by electronic attack programs under development for the military.

The lightning rod for rapid fielding of directed-energy devices and advanced sensors will be the U.S. services’ next-generation jammers, which will likely feature active, electronically scanned arrays and high-power microwave (HPM) capabilities. In Pentagon discussions, HPM is now being called “anti-electronics weaponry.” Power surges created by pulses of HPM can damage or destroy electronic components and addle or erase computer memories. How HPM, high-power lasers and jammers might be integrated is still a work in progress. That directed energy and its associated technologies (such as intelligence gathering, surveillance, cyberattack and electronic warfare) may be focused and accelerated by some of the new electronic attack programs was suggested by David Honey. He is chief of policy and oversight for the Defense Department’s science and technology programs.
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[Brian Ellis]

HPM in the wrong hands? Fry every computer erc. as you drive along a Washington DC (or Arlington) street?

[Evildead666]

Or hit the banks and insurance companies.

Any weapon that is made can be used against the creator.

[Dr Mordrid]

Or hit the banks and insurance companies.

Any weapon that is made can be used against the creator.

Here, at least, major business (and users of services like Carbonite) have their data backed up to huge servers inside mountains, retired mines & missile bases etc.

[Brian Ellis]

What the hell is the use of secure servers if we don't have the terminals to read what they have stored, because they have been fried?

[Dr Mordrid]

Unless you hit every businesses location, and every potential terminal resupply source, the down time would be minimal. Also; with businesses more and more moving their software to the cloud dumb terminals are returning. Still, this kind of weaponry could raise localized hell.