APS: Star Wars 'A Decade or More Away'

Editor's Note: On April 23, the American Physical Society released the findings of a special study group on the science and technology of directed energy weapons such as those proposed in the Strategic Defense Initiative. The 424-page report concludes that the technology for these weapon systems would have to improve by factors of 100 to 1 million or more before they would perform acceptably. The following excerpts are taken from the executive summary and first chapter of the report. The Ameri

Written byAps Study Group

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The APS charged the Study Group to pro duce an unclassified report, which would provide the membership of the Society, other scientists and engineers, as well as a wider interested audience, with basic technological information about DEW. It is hoped that this report, detailing the current state of the art and the future potential of DEW for strategic defense purposes, will serve as a technical reference point for better-informed public discussions on issues relating to the Strategic Defense Initiative.

We estimate that all existing candidates for directed energy weapons (DEWs) require two or more orders of magnitude, (powers of 10) improvements in power output and beam quality before they may be seriously considered for application in ballistic missile defense systems. In addition, many supporting technologies such as space power, beam control and delivery, sensing, tracking, and discrimination need similar improvements over current performance levels before DEWs could be considered for ...

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