Uncertain future: military may be souring on laser weapons.

• Author: Jean, Grace V.
• Position: Laser Technology

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The Pentagon's enthusiasm for laser weapons is not what it used to be.

Disappointing technical performance, competing budget priorities and uncertainty about the military's future missions could jeopardize funding for laser weapon programs in the years ahead, experts say.

Just a year ago, the Pentagon's science advisors warned that a lack of progress in the development of directed-energy weapons has resulted in a significant decline in interest and support for these technologies. The panel of advisors, known as the Defense Science Board, pointed out that not a single directed energy system has been fielded to date, and that there are fewer programs currently under way than there were a decade ago.

One of the toughest technical challenges is producing lasers with enough lethal energy to surpass conventionally powered weapons, says Philip Coyle, a senior advisor at the Center for Defense Information and a former director of weapons testing at the Pentagon. "It's really hard to beat the amount of energy in a rifle bullet, let alone even more powerful weapons systems," he says. To do so with a laser requires a large and heavy system that is not conducive to the rigors of the battlefield.

Military laboratories and contractors have spent decades trying to boost the power in laser systems while trying to pare down the package, with limited success.

"It's not easy and nobody has really succeeded yet," says Coyle.

Some contractors who have long been developing such systems insist they are making progress. To them, the debate isn't about whether directed energy weapons will become a reality, but when.

Lasers abound in civilian industries. But most of those systems operate at energy levels that are inadequate for weaponization. "The fragility of the industrial base for directed energy is very real," says Mike Rinn, rice president and program director at The Boeing Co.

Boeing is the prime contractor for the Missile Defense Agency's airborne laser, a megawatt-class chemical laser that is intended to shoot down ballistic missiles from a modified Boeing 747 aircraft. It requires unique components and materials to deal with intense concentrations of energy and laser light, says Rinn. "You're dealing with millions of watts of power, and the materials want to heat up," he says. "If they heat up, they can distort the beam."

In order to destroy a ballistic missile with a laser, the system must generate high power over extended periods...