Winning the War: Advanced Weapons, Strategies, and Concepts for the Post-9/11 World
288
Winning the War: Advanced Weapons, Strategies, and Concepts for the Post-9/11 World
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Overview
Twenty-second century historians will note that a new World War began on 9/11/2001. In reality, it began much earlier. Competing value systems and the lust for natural resources will precipitate an inevitable clash of civilizations. Currently, we face elusive foes-foes who play by other rules-and in fact, we are already engaged in brutal, truly asymmetric conflict with varied forms of fighting; terrorism is but an isolated part.
The increasing number of polymorphic hostilities requires revolutionary and unconventional responses. Special operations are the norm. Nanoscale, biological, and digital technologies have transformed how we fight future wars. Tactical lasers that zap pinpoint targets at twenty kilometers are being developed, as is the millimeter-wave Active Denial System that causes intense pain to those exposed. The "Mother of all Bombs" has been dropped, as have thermobaric weapons that destroy caves and bunkers. Robots roam the battlefield while exotic sensors catalogue nearly every facet of our lives. Paralyzing electrical shock weapons are in the hands of police. Even phasers on stun are closer than you think.
Winning the War details the technologies and concepts necessary to ultimately determine the outcome of this global conflict. Via realistic scenarios from recovering tourists kidnapped by terrorists, to bringing down drug cartels in the Amazon, and even preventing Armageddon in the Middle East, Winning the War provides an insider's view into how these futuristic weapons will be used and into the complexities of modern warfare. Bold and controversial measures are prescribed, including the essential nature of absolute domination of space. Winning the War makes clear that drastic and innovative actions will be necessary to ensure our national survival.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781429970129 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | St. Martin's Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 04/01/2007 |
| Sold by: | Macmillan |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 288 |
| File size: | 443 KB |
About the Author
Colonel John B. Alexander's extensive military experience includes commanding Green Berets in Vietnam as well as conducting research and development in advanced weapons. He developed the concept of Non-Lethal Defense at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and his work has brought him into contact with the Director of Central Intelligence and members of Congress, White House, and National Security Council staff. As NATO became interested, he served as a US representative on three international studies. He is currently the science director for a private research organization in Las Vegas and a consultant to CINC US Special Operations and is a member of the National Research Council Committee for Assessment of Non-Lethal Weapons Science and Technology.
After retiring from the Army, Dr. JOHN B. ALEXANDER joined Los Alamos National Laboratory where he was instrumental in developing the concept of Non-Lethal Defense. As a program manager, he conducted non-lethal warfare briefings at the highest levels of government including the White House Staff, National Security Council, Members of Congress, Director of Central Intelligence, and senior Defense officials. In 2003 he served as a mentor to Afghan Ministry of Defense senior officials through the Office of Military Cooperation–Afghanistan. He has trekked remote areas of Tibet including the Mount Everest Base Camp, went to Timbuktu in the Sahel in West Africa, tracked gorillas in Rwanda, met shamans in the Amazon, and in 2010 traveled across cartel controlled areas of Central America. His books include UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities, Future War and Winning the War.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
"PHASERS ON STUN"
EVER SINCE DISCUSSION OF nonlethal weapons began, the analogy with the world-famous Star Trek weapons has been pandemic. Captain James T. Kirk's line "Phasers on Stun" has been repeated as both headlines and in the text of most articles about these systems. To be sure, the Phaser, with its ability to temporarily incapacitate sentient beings, destroy materials it strikes, and kill only if necessary, would be an ideal weapon. Of course, it uncannily allows 100 percent recovery of the targets for which the stun setting is selected. The Phaser is small, light, and versatile and holds seemingly infinite energy. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist. But that does not mean that attempts are not being made to develop such a system. Even if some pretty advanced thinking is perfected, the handheld weapon is a long way off.
In the past five years non-lethal weapons have taken some big leaps. The initial push was rightfully to get weapons into the hands of troops that were deployed on peace support operations. Even in the military, few people understand the complexity of transitioning a new technology into a fielded weapon. Pressured by exigent circumstances, developers are urged to accelerate new technologies. Once this is done, almost inevitably some unexpected consequence occurs and the developers are blamed for lack of diligence. Remember Agent Orange?
THE ADVANCED TACTICAL LASER
Totally eclipsing the entire Department of Defense non-lethal weapons budget is Boeing's emerging Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL). This program seems to be growing by leaps and bounds and transitioned from tens of millions of dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars in a single year. We must hope the technology will be able to keep pace.
The theoretical concept is easy. A large laser is placed aboard an aircraft, creating a photon-emitting gunship, not unlike the AC-130H Spectre. Instead of the death-bringing 105mm howitzer supported by various forms of rapid-firing guns, the ATL shoots a devastating light beam.
Of course the basic concept has been around at least since science fiction was in its infancy. Edward Teller, in 1967 as a member of the Air Force Science Advisory Board, suggested a fleet of aerial battleships. The problem has been making it work. A description of employing lasers as non-lethal weapons can be found in Future War. The notion of using high-energy lasers has been explored for decades. It was believed that they would be a logical weapon for air defense purposes. With lasers being fired at the speed of light, no aircraft could evade them once they had been acquired.
There were early successes. By the 1970s military tests proved that a laser could cut off the wing of an aircraft in flight. Of course these tests were conducted against drones, as the glide path of a plane without wings is like that of a rock. Despite all the excitement, there were two overarching problems. One was the size of the laser. Since lasers are inherently inefficient, they tend to be very large in order to generate sufficient power to do damage to a target. The second problem was air. As the laser beam propagated through the atmosphere it had a heating effect on the air molecules. This was exacerbated whenever fog or dust was in the air, and obscuration is very common on battlefields. Thus the beam becomes scattered and therefore ineffective. To project a laser beam through the relatively dense air meant an ever-increasing demand for power. Near sea level, the amount of power required was raising almost exponentially to reach beyond three kilometers.
The tactical problem on the ground was very simple. Lasers could be defeated easily. As missiles could reach much farther than three kilometers, attacking aircraft would have the standoff distance necessary to safely shoot at and eliminate the laser weapon before it could be engaged.
However, the same problems did not exist at high altitudes, and the Air Force kept working on the technologies. For years they proposed the Airborne Laser Laboratory (ALL). The mission was to show that lasers were viable weapons for an airborne missile defense system. As early as 1981 they successfully tested airborne carbon dioxide lasers against a drone, and twenty-six months later they shot down five Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. Unfortunately, those operational tests did not lead to further development. Despite attempts by researchers to keep the program alive, it remained unfunded.
With the Strategic Defense Initiative a new approach was taken. The Airborne Laser (ABL) developers mounted a Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL) on a larger aircraft. They also installed a new optical system capable of projecting a beam hundreds of kilometers while compensating for any atmospheric disturbance. These tests proved that laser weapons had the technology necessary to acquire an ICBM in boost phase. The ABL could also maintain the tracking necessary to deposit sufficient energy to bore a hole through the missile and destroy the warhead. Still, the system required a large aircraft such as a modified Boeing 747 to hold the laser. Also encouraging was that engineers demonstrated they could boost the power output. In just five years a 400 percent increase was accomplished.
And then came the Advanced Tactical Laser. The intent of this Boeing lead project is to put a 300-kilowatt COIL laser on smaller aircraft such as the V-22 Osprey or a CH-47 helicopter. The developers claim that they will be able to place a four-inch spot at up to twenty kilometers. The ATL would operate at a wavelength of 1.315 microns. The laser, its chemical fuel, and the laser beam director would be sized to fit on an aircraft platform. For the initial version of the ATL, the targets would be selected by a human operator who views the scene through a separate aperture coaligned with the laser beam director. The operator would control laser pointing through use of some sort of manual designator. In more advanced versions of ATL, target selection could also be accomplished automatically using target-recognition and tracking software.
There are several issues to be resolved. It is believed that the ATL, using advanced adaptive optics, can beat the atmospheric turbulence problems that have prevented lasers from propagating near the surface. This means a deformable mirror will compensate for the distortion with 341 actuators that change at a rate of 1,000 per second. It is this enhanced accuracy that relegates the ATL to the non-lethal weapons category. In fact, if dwell time is increased this system becomes very lethal and hard targets such as weapons can be destroyed. It is hoped that through beam steering the operators will be able to selectively engage pinpoint targets and avoid humans who may be located in the immediate proximity. As early as 1999 technical sanity checks to determine if the ATL could destroy targets concluded that it could hit and melt a target at fifteen to twenty kilometers in a few seconds.
The next problem is whether the military will accept the danger of having the fuel for the COIL on an aircraft. The COIL fuel is comprised of a number of caustic chemicals that require careful storage and handling. It is a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and potassium hydroxide that combines with chlorine gas and water to produce the chemical reaction to power the laser. In general, caustic chemicals are not approved to be carried on aircraft.
Finally, there is the payload. The ATL is designed to strike multiple targets. In fact, the Boeing diagram for concept of operations shows the laser engaging seventy-two different targets in forty seconds. These targets vary from soft tires (thirty-two in eight seconds) to rockets, and machine guns that require two seconds per object. However, that's all there is. Forty seconds is the entire payload carried by this aircraft. Once depleted, the ATL must be flown to a rearming point. The conceptual question is whether the military will be willing to pay a huge amount of money to develop a system with such limited applications. There may be special missions that justify the expense of this system, and in an unusual twist U.S. Special Operations Command has become the program sponsor.
Recently battlefield lasers took another gigantic step forward when it was demonstrated that they could destroy incoming artillery shells in flight. As these rounds travel in excess of 1,000 miles per hour, acquiring them is very difficult. Then it is necessary for the laser to depose sufficient energy to destroy the round. While the laser was developed by TRW in the United States, the work was done for Israel for the purpose of hitting Katyusha rockets, which are often fired from Lebanon.
THE ACTIVE DENIAL SYSTEM
The most notorious of the new non-lethal weapons is a millimeter wave device that projects a beam that results in pain. Once it was officially unveiled as the Vehicle Mounted Active Denial System (VMADS) in late February of 2001, the press had a field day with the news. The National Post headline read: "U.S. Energy Beam Lightly Scorches Protestors." Inside the Navy, a normally service-friendly publication described the VMADS as a ray gun and focused on possible adverse health effects. And the Gannett News Service called it "Crowd Control Cookery."
In response to the attack on the USS Cole, consideration was given to placing this system on board naval vessels. Since they would not be placed on vehicles, the decision was made to shorten the name to the Active Denial System (ADS). In reality, the ADS, developed under the able program leadership of Kirk Hackett at the Phillips Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, is a major step forward for non-lethal weapons. While the effective range has not been revealed, the ADS can reach out hundreds of meters. The effect — nearly instantaneous pain felt by targeted individuals — is well understood empirically. There is more to be learned on the biological mechanism of such heating and how people in groups will respond once exposed to the RF beam.
Contrary to the wild claims of unknowledgeable news writers, the millimeter wave beam does not threaten to cook victims who fail to get out of the way. Operating at about ninety-five gigahertz, the very short wavelength only penetrates the skin about one-sixteenth of an inch. This is sufficient to attack the pain receptors near the surface of the skin but is believed to do little physical damage.
In fact, Phillips Laboratory has done extensive testing to ensure that the weapon would be safe to use on humans. The possibility of eye damage is frequently mentioned in news articles. Most of the authors' information came from so-called experts who had never seen the ADS or been involved in any of the testing but still felt a need to give their personal opinions. Recognizing the potential for concern long before the press raised the issue, animal tests with direct injection by the beam were conducted. The power levels used were well above any that humans would be exposed to and failed to induce any permanent damage.
In the interest of personal knowledge I had an opportunity to experience the effects of a demonstration model. Like other tests of non-lethal weapons I've participated in, I would put this in the one time learning category. The beam hit my hand, causing immediate and substantial pain. As soon as the beam was removed, the pain ceased. That is exactly what is needed for motivating people through pain compliance. The effects that need to be studied include the response of individuals and groups when exposed to a system such as ADS. Operators must ensure that people have adequate avenues of exit and the system is not employed to impose punishment.
While billed as a device that can fit on an HMWWV, known to the public as a Hummer, the test model at Kirtland takes up two large vans. Power and cooling take up much of the room, and there is a large steerable antenna that sits on top. Plans are to reduce the size dramatically, and some optimists even believe that someday there will be a handheld version.
The ADS meets the critical test. It is far better than a rock. The beam will move across a crowd and quickly convince them to disperse. Simple countermeasures are unlikely. Covering oneself so there is no exposed skin restricts both the ability to see and movement. It also clearly demonstrates intent to the peacekeeping forces and would permit escalation in the level of force authorized.
In my view the ADS could play a significant role in combat in urban areas. As discussed elsewhere in this book, the probability of fighting in cites is extremely high. In cities the distance between adversaries is very short, varying from tens to a few hundred meters. One of the biggest dangers to troops is an enemy sniper. To acquire a target, the shooter must look down his sights. Even though a good sniper chooses a position with minimal exposure, he must get a direct view of his target. The ADS can be used to sweep an area. The beam is invisible, leaving no indication where it is striking. The pain initiated by this weapon is sufficient that once exposed, the sniper will not be able to maintain eye contact with his target. Further, the ADS operator does not need to know where the sniper is located except for his general area. As most casualties occur while troops are crossing open areas, the ADS will prove to be an effective area suppression weapon.
THE PULSED ENERGY PROJECTILE
There is another class of high-energy laser systems designed for antipersonnel application. While these are a long ways off, Col. George Fenton, USMC (Ret.), director of the JNLWD, has literally introduced these as "Phasers on stun" during several briefings. These are systems designed not to cause damage directly but to produce a kinetic shock through a laser-induced plasma. One such proposed system being developed by the Mission Research Corporation is the pulsed energy projectile (PEP). PEP would utilize a pulsed deuterium-fluoride (DF) laser designed to produce an ionized plasma at the target surface. In turn, the plasma would produce an ultrasonic pressure wave that would pass into the body, stimulating the cutaneous peripheral afferent nerves in the skin to produce pain. It would also act on the peripheral efferent nerves to induce temporary paralysis. In addition, PEP will produce shrapnelless flash/bang effects that can distract, flash-blind, and disorient humans.
The proposed PEP system would accomplish this at ranges of up to 500 meters. However, thus far laboratory tests have only been conducted at about the one-foot range. Those produced 270 Joules and acoustic (pressure) levels of 170 dB, which is sufficient to cause the desired effects. In addition, the PEP is being considered for use as blunt munitions. Test measurements show that the impact on the body would be very significant when compared with other systems. They have recorded peak pressure over 300 pounds per square inch. This is more than 200 psi more than the PepperBall rounds discussed later, in "'Dust 'Em; Then Bust 'Em!'" If PepperBall hurts, the PEP would probably be incapacitating. However, unlike beanbag shotgun rounds, the PEP impact would not penetrate the rib cage. The developers believe that they will be able to control the impact pressure and have rheostatic effects.
Considerable work will be required before this system is ready for prime time. Current designs also have the PEP on a dedicated HMMWV. The range must be greatly extended and bio-effects cataloged. The military will have to determine if they are willing to accept a system that employs DF, a very dangerous substance, on the battlefield.
RIDE THE BUFFALO
"Ride the buffalo," a quote attributed to Hans Marrero, former Chief Instructor, Hand to Hand Combat, for the U.S. Marine Corps, is well known to the thousands of people who have experienced the effects of the M-26 TASER. While some assailants have been able to shrug off the electrical jolt from previous TASERs, the new law enforcement model will put you down.
For an excellent example of the M-26 in action see Collateral Damage, starring the epitome of toughness, Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the movie, Schwarzenegger becomes appropriately irate with some terrorists who had killed his wife and son. While attempting to avenge their senseless deaths, police enter the room and zap Arnie with the TASER. As would happen in real life, he goes down hard. Serendipitously, we met with Rick Smith, CEO of TASER International, and his father, Phillips Smith, chairman of the board, immediately following a screening of the movie. My wife, Victoria, reviews movies and we saw Collateral Damage before it was released. The Smiths had sent several TASER stun guns to Warner Brothers for the movie but had no idea about their use. We noted that they could not buy better advertising.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Winning The War"
by .
Copyright © 2003 John Alexander.
Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
| Acknowledgments | ix | |
| Raid | xi | |
| Prologue | 1 | |
| Part 1. | The Tools of War | |
| 1. | "Phasers on Stun" | 11 |
| 2. | You Can Run, But You Can't Hide | 41 |
| 3. | The Lethal Legacy | 61 |
| Part 2. | The Real World | |
| 4. | The Nile | 89 |
| 5. | Ports of Call | 99 |
| 6. | Another World | 105 |
| 7. | Himalayan Holiday | 115 |
| 8. | The War we Want to Fight | 131 |
| 9. | The War We Will Fight | 143 |
| Part 3. | Plan A: Win the War on Terror | |
| 10. | The Root of All Evil | 171 |
| 11. | Power of the Press--A Strategic Weapon | 181 |
| 12. | The Epitome of Precision | 197 |
| Part 4. | Plan B: The Event Horizon | |
| 13. | Rethinking Space Missions | 213 |
| 14. | Six Sigma Solutions | 225 |
| 15. | Winning World War X | 245 |
| Epilogue | 261 | |
| Appendix | The Importance of Defining the Conflict | 275 |
| Notes | 277 | |
| Index | 297 |