Laminated insulation is rooted in direct energy technology

Industry Perspective: Layered Protection Based on Direct Energy Tech

Department of Defense, iStock photo-graphic

The ongoing Ukraine-Russia war reflects the future of warfare: multi-dimensional warfare on land, sea, air, space and cyberspace. It is a mix between physical and electronic theaters.

It also shows the commonality of urban combat among large civilian populations, and a future that carries next-generation capabilities like unmanned aerial vehicles and hypersonic missiles—to say nothing of conventional infantry, ground vehicles, artillery, and aircraft.

Fundamental to achieving redundancy and defeating emerging threats in this continuum of warfare is a multi-layered defense architecture that makes extensive use of military and intelligence infrastructure. As the cutting edge of this army, fighters and vehicles must be equipped with various electronic warfare technologies such as artificial intelligence, edge computing and directed energy.

The impact of guided power on modern warfare can be particularly profound—it is a disruptive technology that has the potential to transform the battlefield. A nation that can develop and deploy this technology in the first place will have a distinct, strategic advantage over adversaries, capable of defending against threats ranging from drone swarms to vehicle-borne explosive devices to hypersonic missiles.

DirectEnergy is a unique family of versatile technologies, with several subsets that can be customized for different applications and some of which can be dialed in to fulfill different functions. It can be used to neutralize enemy combatants and avoid material damage or civilian casualties. It can fry electronic systems in a swarm or flotilla of hostile small boats. A high-powered laser can be used to intercept and destroy a hypersonic missile with precise range. These are the types of situations, among many, where guided energy can be a game changer.

There is an increasing need for energy tools that can be managed by kinetic methods in a cost-effective manner. And now, the rapidly increasing maturity of the technology means a greater return on investment than ever before.

Beyond their versatility, the systems offer a number of advantages, including deep magazine capacity, a simpler supply logistics strategy, lower cost per shot, faster light engagement and greater accuracy.

Their stealthy nature makes them difficult to detect and hard to hack. These properties and their electronic properties are at the fore for improvements in artificial intelligence, drawing insights such as atmospheric conditions and complex geometric target calculations and weapon-target pairing. This combination of technologies enhances direct power capabilities in areas such as rockets, artillery, and mortars to track, target, and destroy mines mid-flight.

Directed power has become essential for operation. This technology, which has been defined by the Deputy Secretariat of Defense for research and engineering as a critical technology area for years, is set to become one of the defense architectures needed for our national security.

How do we get these weapons into the hands of warfighters? To advance existing capabilities beyond the prototype stage, the United States must increase funding for critical research and development, streamline procurement practices to accelerate deployment at scale, and ensure we have the testing and training capabilities needed to get these devices out of the lab. to the battlefield.

Directed power tools are not limited by technological barriers, but rather by a lack of funding allocated to support them.

Congressional funding is about $1 billion a year. An increase of 2 billion to 3 billion dollars per year will have a significant impact.

While congressional leaders have recently placed a greater emphasis on the weapons development and testing field — including appointing a top official responsible for accelerating the transition of weapons systems to the field — more funding is needed.

The country needs to take several other steps to ensure the integration of directed energy systems into the overarching defense architecture.

It should advance accelerated acquisition approaches to put planned energy capabilities into the hands of warfighters at the rate of actual operational benefit.

Operational prototypes should be used to gather data in the field, inform system integration efforts with warfighter experience, provide near-missile force military service, and develop warfighter confidence needed for system adoption, including tactics, techniques, and procedures.

It should implement policy changes and enhance cooperation between the parties to facilitate the operational use and deployment of the weapons.

It should also enable the services to develop and implement deployment and deployment strategies tailored to match enemy capabilities in all domains of warfare.

The Department should provide a clear roadmap for industry to enable the industrial base – including secondary and tertiary suppliers – to make the necessary investments and have the capacity to deliver when they purchase large quantities.

And finally, understanding what the technology is currently capable of and what is required in a layered defense architecture requires setting realistic goals for the technology and maintaining a commitment to the technology as it evolves to meet complex challenges.

As for industry, it must make accelerated efforts to meet the size, weight, and power requirements necessary to bring accelerated energy systems to the field. These investments are well understood by the Pentagon by providing clear operational requirements and design reference missions that measure the requirements for each service application.

It is important that Congress continues to fund these efforts.

Joe Shepherd is a vice president at Booth Allen, leading the energy business.

Topics: New technologies