US military chiefs eagerly describe ‘new dawn’ of laser and microwave weapons

The US military has made strides in developing lasers, microwaves and other directed energy weapons, and could soon use them more widely, top armed forces officials and US lawmakers told an industry conference.

The officials on Tuesday described weapons that are in various stages of development and testing by the US Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Army, but said more work was needed to scale up the technology for larger weapons, develop tactics for their use, and ensure sufficient funding.

“Directed energy brings the dawn of an entirely new era in defence,” Lieutenant General William Etter, Commander, Continental US North American Aerospace Defence Command Region, told a conference hosted by Booz Allen Hamilton and the Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment.

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Directed energy refers to weapons that emit focused energy in the form of lasers, microwaves, electromagnetic radiation, radio waves, sound or particle beams. Lasers are already widely used to guide bombs to their target, but the next step would be to use the lasers as weapons themselves.