<HTML>Aufgrund eines Artikels der internationalen Presseagentur Associated Press berichten in den USA zahlreiche Medien über Directed Energy Weapons bzw. anti-personen Mikrowellenwaffen: Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today und mehrere Dutzend anderer Zeitungen sowie TV-Sender. Damit dürften allein in den USA 20-30 Millionen Leser und TV-Seher erreicht werden.
HoustonChronicle, July 9, 2005
Directed-energy weapons on horizon
They can either incapacitate or kill their target at the speed of light
By BRIAN BERGSTEIN Associated Press
Auszüge:
ARLINGTON, VA. - For years, the U.S. military has explored a new kind of firepower that is instantaneous, precise and virtually inexhaustible: beams of electromagnetic energy. "Directed-energy" pulses can be throttled up or down depending on the situation, much like the phasers on Star Trek could be set to kill or merely stun.
Such weapons are now nearing fruition. But logistical issues have delayed their battlefield debut — even as soldiers in Iraq encounter tense urban situations in which the nonlethal capabilities of directed energy could be put to the test...
The hallmark of all directed-energy weapons is that the target — whether a human or a mechanical object — has no chance to avoid the shot because it moves at the speed of light. At some frequencies, it can penetrate walls.
Since the ammunition is merely light or radio waves, directed-energy weapons are limited only by the supply of electricity..
Shooting without killing
The flexibility of directed-energy weapons could be vital as wide-scale, force-on-force conflict becomes increasingly rare, many experts say. But the technology has been slowed by such practical concerns as how to shrink beam-firing antennas and power supplies. Military officials also say more needs to be done to assure the international community that directed-energy weapons set to stun rather than kill will not harm noncombatants.
Such issues recently led the Pentagon to delay its Project Sheriff, a plan to outfit vehicles in Iraq with a combination of lethal and nonlethal weaponry — including a highly touted microwave-energy blaster that makes targets feel as if their skin is on fire...</HTML>
