High Power Radio Frequency/Microwave Directed Energy Weapons (HPM DEWs)

High Power Radio Frequency/Microwave (HPM) Directed Energy Weapons (DEW) have the potential to provide the War-fighter with an Unconventional Electronic Attack (UEA) capability that goes beyond traditional Jammers, since they can attack all forms of electronic systems, not just receivers, and produce long lasting effects that remain after the initial energy is gone.

This presentation is an introduction to HPM DE Weapons and their effects. We will cover, what is an HPM DE weapon, the type of weapons – Narrowband and Wideband, why the Warfighter and DoD are interested in this technology, how HPM DEWs are similar to, but different from traditional Electronic Warfare/Attack (EW/EA) and Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP). We will also cover how the HPM energy couples in to a target’s electronics via intentional and unintentional Ports of Entry and the type of effects it can cause ranging from long term electronic upset to permanent damage. We will also cover some of the basic modeling and simulation (M&S) tools for computing/estimating the probability of target failure as a function of weapon power density and range. Finally, we will discuss mitigation techniques and show an example of how to estimate hardening parameters for a notional helicopter against an HPM weapon.