WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Using a broad range of the electromagnetic spectrum, directed energy weapons hold the promise of warfighters being able to target a specific cell tower, shut down power or make aircraft or other vehicles inoperable.
"Sometimes we’ll say clandestine scalpel… sometimes we will say silent precision strikes, we also use silent sabotage," Heithold stated at the Directed Energy Summit in Washington, DC describing the promising capability of long-range precision lasers.
Heithold explained that with a 120 kilowatt laser, a special operator at standoff distance could put a hole in the engine of an enemy aircraft about the size of a nickel. "They go to use the airplane and they don’t go anywhere. You don’t even know it until you get ready to use it," he said. "That’s the way we're thinking at Air Force Special Operations Command."
The United States is still at least a decade away from these capabilities being ready for the battlefield. However, the Air Force has successfully conducted a number of in flight tests, including the 2009 test-fire of the 100 kw Advanced Tactical Laser from a C-130 gunship.
