Pentagon spends $1 billion every year to develop ‘directed energy’ weapons

A report by the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the US Department of Defense (DOD) spends around one billion dollars every year to develop what is known as “directed energy” weapons.

The weapons in question essentially fire concentrated electromagnetic energy or simply known as lasers. However, this military technology is also something that the American taxpayers are now paying at least a billion dollars for. So this is how it is being used.

According to the report, the DOD has developed high-energy lasers that have “successfully shot down drones in demonstrations.” The GAO who reportedly visited these defence facilities also found how the US military is working on making laser weapons small and light enough to be used by one person.

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The Pentagon too is experimenting with high-powered microwave weapons which could potentially penetrate solid objects and this technology has several implications including, disrupting the enemy’s power source, sensors and other electronics, said the GAO.

Similarly, a Congressional Research Service (CRS), a non-partisan organisation which conducts research for lawmakers, in its analysis, last year, found that these high-energy lasers and microwave weapons could be useful for short-range air defence, against drones as well as to counter rocket, artillery and mortar fire, reported CBS News.

The CRS also found that these lasers are not only affordable but also more efficient than conventional weapons.

Meanwhile, the GAO noted how various branches of the US military have already tested these powerful lasers. Reportedly, the US Navy has tested them on drones and small boats while the Air Force has developed a laser which can be attached to its aircraft.

“DOD has pursued these potentially transformative technologies for decades because they could provide considerable advantages,” stated the GAO, in its report. It added, “They can deliver destructive or disruptive effects to targets at the speed of light and have potentially significant advantages over kinetic weapons, such as missiles, including lower per-use cost.”

However, the GAO report finds that the departments have had difficulty “getting these technologies out of the lab and into the field for several reasons” which include determining how to use them for different missions. Additionally, the DOD’s “efforts to transition prototypes to acquisition programs face challenges,” said the government agency.

But this is not the only hurdle that these weapons face, as directed energy weapons also have legal and functional limitations, including some laser systems being restricted under international treaties.

For example, the United Nations has banned laser weapons specifically designed to cause permanent blindness, while previous prototypes have reportedly been affected by atmospheric conditions like rain or fog.

Therefore, before these “direct energy” weapons can be put to actual use on missions, simply powering them remains a challenge, not to mention the development of new tactics to deploy this novel weaponry.

“As a novel technology, (directed energy) weapons require the development of new tactics, techniques and procedures — processes by which the warfighter knows how best to use a particular technology in an operational environment,” the GAO noted.

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