USAF Develops Microwave Missile Against Electronics

In modern battlefields, it's not only the good guys who have access to advanced communications equipment. Eliminating the enemy's ability to coordinate a defense is critical, and the US Air Force is now developing a way to do just that, without unnecessarily harming humans.

Electronic devices are currently a staple in warfare, and therefore numerous branches of the military are working towards developing ways of frying the enemy's capabilities. Doing so can be achieved in a number of ways, none of which is cheap or humane.

For example, soldiers can shoot communications operators, expensive jamming airplanes can wipe out the signals from the skies, or the electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear weapon can fry all electronics within a large radius.

But none of these options is too effective. This is why the USAF is now developing a microwave rocket, a weapon that could be used to destroy all electronics equipments within a given area, while having no discernible effect on human combatants.

The USAF already tested the concept earlier this year, at the Hill Air Force Base's (HAFB) Utah Test and Training Range. A prototype rocket demonstrated it is capable of taking aim at a wide variety of targets, including jet fighter, command trucks, air defense systems and unmanned aerial drones.

Boeing and the USAF Research Laboratory have recently unveiled the successful completion of the test, after keeping it under wraps for security reasons. The new missile is developed under the Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP).

According to the joint research group, the project will take 3 years and about $38 million to complete. It was started in December 2008, when the USAF released a solicitation calling for as many as 5 prototypes to be built, Space reports.

“It was as close to the real thing as we could get for this test,” explains the program manager for CHAMP at Boeing Phantom Works, Keith Coleman. A completed missile, the expert says, will be able to destroy multiple targets with powerful microwave bursts.

“This demonstration, which brings together the Air Force Research Laboratory's directed energy technology and Boeing's missile design, sets the stage for a new breed of nonlethal but highly effective weapon systems,” he goes on to say.