World Tribune.com

Pentagon banking on lasers for missile defense

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Thursday, June 28, 2001

WASHINGTON Ñ The Bush administration plans to focus on the development of laser weapons as part of U.S. missile defense programs.

Defense officials said lasers will be a key element in destroying incoming ballistic missiles. They said much of the billions of dollars in research being sought by the Bush administration would go into airborne and space-based lasers.

The administration wants $7.9 billion for missile defense in fiscal 2002. This represents an increase of $2.2 billion from that sought by the outgoing Clinton administration under its multi-year plan.

At a congressional briefing on Tuesday, the officials would not say how much money was being sought for lasers. But they said the focus would be on what they termed "directed-energy." This included the use of high-powered microwave systems to destroy missiles in their boost phase or while they were being launched.

Officials said the Pentagon recognized that the technology required further development. The biggest obstacle, they said, was designing a system small enough to fit on an airplane or ship, yet powerful enough to direct a beam that would destroy a missile warhead.

"Future adversaries will increasingly rely on unconventional strategies and tactics to offset the superiority of U.S. forces,'' Edward Aldridge, head of procurement at the Pentagon told the House Armed Services Research and Development Subcommittee. "We must be conscious of these threats as we foster technology breakthroughs to cope with that environment."

Officials said the Pentagon seeks to increase space-based reconnaissance as well as advanced communications. Another goal is for the U.S. military to assure the "generation, storage, use and projection of electrical and other forms of power throughout the battle-space,'' Aldridge said.

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