The E-Bomb: How America's New Directed Energy Weapons Will Change the Way Future Wars Will Be Fought

Light-emitting weaponry first was portrayed by Flash Gordon and moved through science fiction warfare scenarios to Star Trek and beyond - now, after over twenty years, the U.S. is about to deploy a new generation of weapons which discharge light-wave energy: a revolution which holds even more potential impact than the a-bomb. Directed energy's science, testing, and military plans are surveyed by a leading expert in directed energy research, who uses simple language to answer basic questions about these weapons, their technology, and their effects. From beam quality to laser distribution and the pros and cons of microwaves, phasing and other scenarios, THE E-BOMB is a thought-provoking portent of the future of military might. Diane C. Donovan, Editor California Bookwatch

Coming from the position of a layman this book works very well. It provides simple explanations of the physics behind directed energy weapons such that people without scientific training can understand how they work and what this implies. This is done with the use of diagrams where necessary to explain the point. The book moves forward steadily and this isn't a book that you will get bogged down in. Chapters describe the technology itself, the problems with it, how far the military has taken it, the current state of the art and the possible future manifestations of it. They also describe the ever present battle between the sceptics and true believers in this technology. The book also includes details and photographs of unclassified projects and demonstrators. In addition, Beason makes clever use of what-if scenarios drawn from all too familiar events to demonstrate the possible utility of directed energy weapons. Overall this book is well written and provides a strong introduction to directed energy weapons that covers both the story so far and the possible futures from the perspective of an advocate for this technology. I doubt that any comparatively accessible books exist on this topic to date. All the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle have been put on the table here and I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in finding out more about directed energy weapons.

The basic concept of virtually all weapons is to apply energy to a target at come distance from the 'shooter.' The energy may be concentrated at the point of an arrow, a bullet, or there may be an energy source located in the projectile such as an explosive. Directed energy weapons do away with this concept. Pure energy is sent to the target with no projectile being involved. At first this was the concept in the so called Star Wars system put forward by Ronald Reagan. It was ridiculed by many, although many people subsequently give it considerable credit for the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since then the Star Wars program was officially cancelled, but under different program names research has continued. Then the devices started to show promise. As they were offensive to the Democrats, Clinton cut the programs back drastically abandoning several promising research tracks. It is now clear that several of these weapons would have been very useful in the urban warfare in Bagdad and Fallujah. Other weapons are designed to destroy the explosive devices being placed along roadsides. This book is a summary of current research being conducted into directed energy weapons. It is written from a somewhat sensationalist approach that to me detracts from the facts they are trying to convey, but this is the current state of research in these weapons. The book is by a research scientist working in these areas.