A Vision for Directed Energy and Electric Weapons In the Current and Future Navy Captain David H. Kiel, USN Commander Michael Ziv, USN Commander Frederick Marcell USN (Ret) Introduction In this paper, we present an overview of potential Surface Navy Directed Energy and Electric Weapon (DE&EW) technologies being specifically developed to take advantage of the US Navy’s “All Electric Warship”. An all electric warship armed with such weapons will have a new toolset and sufficient flexibility to meet combat scenarios ranging from defeating near-peer competitors, to countering new disruptive technologies and countering asymmetric threats. This flexibility derives from the inherently deep magazines and simple, short logistics tails, scalable effects, minimal amounts of explosives carried aboard and low life cycle and per-shot costs. All DE&EW weaponry discussed herein could become integral to naval systems in the period between 2010 and 2025. Adversaries Identified in the National Military Strategy The 2004 National Military Strategy identifies an array of potential adversaries capable of threatening the United States using methods beyond traditional military capabilities. While naval forces must retain their current advantage in traditional capabilities, the future national security environment is postulated to contain new challenges characterized as disruptive, irregular and catastrophic. To meet these challenges a broad array of new military capabilities will require continuous improvement to maintain US dominance. The disruptive challenge implies the development by an adversary of a breakthrough technology that supplants a US advantage. An irregular challenge includes a variety of unconventional methods such as terrorism and insurgency that challenge dominant US conventional power. A catastrophic challenge couples unconventional actors or rogue states with weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or WMD-like effects that would be employed against the US or its allies. The war on terrorism encompasses both the irregular and catastrophic categories. The Department of Defense (DOD) Joint Operations Concept, in accordance with the National Security Strategy, the Quadrennial Defense Strategy and the Transformational Planning Guidance (TPG) describes planning for Joint Force operations over the next 15 to 20 years in terms of creating and sustaining pressure and attacking enemies with lethal and non-lethal means. It enumerates the strategic pillars of force transformation namely, strengthening joint operations, exploiting intelligence advantages, experimenting with new concepts and developing transformational capabilities. Unique and tailor-able effects offered by various DE&EW can provide the operational flexibility that makes these technologies suitable to the expanded set of national security challenges. Directed energy weapon systems offer a viable means to meet the defensive capabilities criteria established for the Navy through 2025 in the TPG. These systems span an array of capabilities employing lasers as weapons and sensors, and the electro-magnetic rail gun (EMRG). Deterrent high power microwave weapons will not be discussed in this paper. Integrated Power Systems (IPS) – A Key Enabler for Electric and Directed Energy Weapons Systems Traditional US naval vessels have dedicated and separate prime movers to drive shipboard propulsion and electrical service loads. On a typical warship, nearly 50% of the installed shipboard propulsive power (on the order of 40 MW) is only used to power the ship through the final 5 knots to a ship’s maximum flank bell. Based on a typical operational profile, a ship will only use this power less than 5% of its underway time. These propulsion prime movers are typically mechanically coupled to the propeller or water jet via a shaft and reduction gear box. The significant levels of unused propulsive power capacity have been addressed in the DDG-1000 “Zumwalt” class land attack destroyer. DDG-1000 is the first US warship to employ a sophisticated electrical distribution system to direct the total available installed power (approximately 80 MW) for use in both the electric propulsion motors and to support the full range of shipboard electrical loads. This system, known as the IPS, is a key enabler of a full range of novel shipboard directed energy and electric weapon systems including speed-of-light high energy laser systems and electromagnetic rail guns. Laser Weapons and Sensors The Navy has an increasing interest in laser development and use to improve war-fighting capabilities in all facets of its operational scope. While funding for these programs must be weighed against other Navy priorities, funding requests for laser Science and Technology (S&T) programs, including transformational opportunities, are consistent with a long-term development path. Since other nations are aggressively developing advanced Directed Energy (DE) capabilities, the Navy’s current cautious laser development path increases the likelihood of technological surprise from near-peers and also jeopardizes achieving potential advantage that could be realized by laser systems currently under development. Age of the Battleship Surface Warfare Battleship Aircraft Carrier Diversity Gun Strategy Dreadnaught AEGIS Man-of-War Futures WWII Age of the Missile Shooter Standard Missile Tomahawk Two Dimensions ESSM & RAM Guns Missiles & Guns Tartar Talos AEGIS Terrier WWII Today Age of the Electric Ship Missiles DDG-1000 High Power Laser Three Dimensions CG(X) Missiles & Guns & Guns Electric Weapons EM Gun Next Gen AEGIS Combatant Low Power Laser EM Launch WWII Today 20XX Chart Courtesy of Neil Baron Figure 1: The evolution of Naval Weapons (Chart courtesy of Neil Baron) Why Lasers? Why Now? Laser weapon systems comprise a set of technologies that offer unique new capabilities. Unlike earlier weapon systems driven by the threats of the cold war era, those of today are driven by capability requirements because the threat is not dogmatically shaped. Figure 1 depicts the evolution of weapons in the surface Navy. Broad response capacity must be available to cope with the unexpected, innovative, low- tech surprise. The potential for use of directed energy in weapons, sensors and deterrent systems takes on new importance in this scenario especially when juxtaposed with the promise of multi-megawatt power availability from the shipboard electric plant. When placed in the context of the electric ship, electrically pumped laser weapons and their associated laser-based sensors, offer the potential for blinding sensors, providing protection against ballistic missiles and an ability to handle hard-to-discern, short-timeline anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM). More generally, laser weapons enable delivery of scalable levels of energy at both tactically and strategically relevant distances enabling the accomplishment of new missions and generating entirely new classes of effects during naval battle engagements and on the battlefield. They also offer unique solutions to many of the most serious threats and enable safer accomplishment of hazardous missions. Compared to traditional weapons, laser weapons offer significant benefits including: non-lethal, long-range force application capabilities, lethal target effects, potentially unlimited magazines and significantly smaller logistics footprints than non-DE weapon systems; although some specialized support equipment will be required. Furthermore, there are advantages of reduced operational costs and lower manpower requirements because of automated battle management systems using state-of-the-art electronics. Laser weapons destroy a target either by heating the target surface to the weakening point and causing it to fail under operating stress, or by burning through the skin to destroy underlying critical components and/or subsystems. Additionally, the laser may be used to attack energetic material in a target and cause low-order detonation, a primary destruction method. In all military applications, laser weapons, laser sensors and laser deterrence and communications systems proffer significant force multiplication and thus can enable future commanders to accomplish greater numbers of missions more effectively and in less time, consistent with Force Net and Sea Strike strategies. Surface Navy Laser Development Vision BLOCK 1 BLOCK 1A BLOCK 2 BLOCK 3 (Demo) BLOCK 4 Unphased, Single Block 1 + Improved Solid State Laser, FEL with Good BQ; FEL with Good BQ; High Mode, Low BQ, Low Power Unphased Single Good BQ; Modest Modest Power, Beam Power; Beam Director ~1m em Power Fiber Laser Mode Low BQ Laser with Laser Power; Beam Director ~ 1m yst S with 30-50cm Beam Sensor Jamming Director 30-50 CM Director Capability • Counter Rocket • EO IR Counter Measures • CRAM • Ballistic Missile •OTH Platform TAMD & Soft Artillery Mortar (CRAM) Defense Target Strike* • Optical Augmentation, EO • Asymmetric Threats • Asymmetric Threat Sensor Detection & •Supersonic High-G ASMD • Counter-Armed UAV • EO Sensor Damage Disruption (self defense) y • Counter MANPAD • Laser Designator / Range • Crossing ASCM t •Transonic ASMD li Finder bi (self defense) • (Laser Radar) & pa a Periscope Detection C y • Dazzler / Non-Lethal r a t • Visual ID / Non- li i Cooperative Target M Recognition C RS C r C p N D N i S FN I T F rro h i S F H L II rs LD i AC s M D A R LASE O E H y L I S TT P a t A E l l P U BE I N I e P D NTR eed I SH F A RAM R RAM SH L h D THEL C IN L C F g JHPSSL ME E i L CO Y B FE HELLA E HER H M M NC A TES- F A R A A ech D A HA D M T BEA L OT M N M E AL Figure 2: A Laser Development Path. Laser Development Roadmap Figure 2 shows a long-term laser development path for the DE&EW Program in terms of block segments. Goals must include overcoming socialization issues, assessing the utility of, developing and eventually integrating a megawatt-class, hard-kill laser weapon system into the very stressing shipboard environment. In terms of weaponization, the FEL is the laser device of choice and “holy grail” for weaponization in the 2020 time frame. However, there exist many nearer-term potential naval applications for kilowatt-class solid-state laser (SSL) and high-power microwave (HPM) weapons.