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handle is hein.crs/goveeah0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Defense Primer: Directed-Energy Weapons Both the 2018 National Defense Strategy and the House Armed Services Committee's bipartis an Future ofDefense Task Force Report have identified directed energy as a technology that could have a significant impact on U.S. national security in the years to come. As the Department of Defense (DOD) continues to invest in directed-energy (DE) weapons, Congress may consider implications for defense authorizations, appropriations, and oversight. Overview DOD defines DEweapons as those using concentrated electromagnetic energy, rather thankinetic energy, to incapacitate, damage, disable, or destroy enemy equipment, facilities, and/or personnel. DE weapons include high-energy lasers (HEL) and high-powered microwave (HPM) weapons; other DEweapons, such as particle beamweapons, are outside the scopeof this In Focus. HELs might be used by ground forces in short-range air defense (SHORAD), counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS), or counter-rocket, artillery, and mortar (C-RAM) mis sions. The weapons might be used to dazzle (i.e., temporarily dis able) or damage s atellites and sensors. This could in turn interfere with intelligence-gathering operations; military communications; and positioning, navigation, andtiming systems used for weapons targeting. In addition, HELs could theoretically provide options for boost-phase missile intercept, given their speed-of-light travel time; however, experts disagree on the affordability, technological feasibility, and utility of this application. In general, HELs might offer lower costs per shot and- as suming access to a sufficientpower supply-deeper magazines compared with traditional munitions. (Although a number of different types of HELs exist, many of the United States' current programs are solid state lasers, which are fueled by electricalpower. As a result, the costper shot is equivalent to the costofthe electricalpowerrequired to fire the shot.) This could in turn produce a favorable cost- exchange ratio for the defender, whose marginal costs would be significantly lower than those of the aggressor. Similarly, HPM weapons could provide a nonkinetic means of disabling adversary electronics and communications s y s tems. These weapons could potentially generate effects over wider areas than HELs, which emit a narrower beam of energy. As a result, some analysts have notedthat HPM weapons might provide more effective area defense against missile salvos and swarms ofdrones. In addition, some reports posit that an HPM weapon might be responsible for Hav ana Syndrome-the termus ed by some to describe a collection of symptoms experienced by U.S. Department of State personnel stationed abroad. While a National Academies of Sciences (NAS) consensus study report concluded thatan HPM weaponprovidedthe most plausible explanation of these symptoms fromthose studied, the NAS committee noted that it cannot rule out otherpossible mechanisms. The U.S. governmenthas neither identified the source of the symptoms nor attributed themto the actions of any particular government or organization. Directed-Energy Weapons Programs A number of countries are investing in directed-energy weapons programs. This In Focus discusses a selection of unclassified DEweapons programs in three leading military powers: the United States, China, and Russia. United States The DOD has a number of DE development programs underway, requesting at least $578 million in FY2022 for unclassified DEresearch, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) and at least $331 million forunclassified DE weapons procurement. For additional information about specific U.S. DE weapons programs, see CRS Report R44175, Navy Lasers, Railgun, andGun-Launched Guided Projectile: Background and Issuesfor Congress, by Ronald O'Rourke, and CRS Report R45098, U.S. Army Weapons- Rela tedDirectedEnergy (DE) Programs: Background and Potential Issuesfo r Congress, by Andrew Feickert. Many of these programs are intended to support the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering's (OUSD[R&E]) Directed Energy Roadmap. According to a presentation in 2020 by DOD Principal Director for Directed Energy Dr. Jim Trebes, who leads the department's DE efforts, the roadmap articulates DOD's objective of [achieving] dominance in DE military applications in every mis s ion and domain where they give advantage. The roadmap additionally outlines DOD's plan to increase power levels ofDEweapons fromaround 150 kilowatts (kW-a unit of power), as is currently feasible, to around 300kW by FY2022, 500 kW by FY2024, and 1 megawatt (MW)by FY2030. Forreference, although there is no consensus regarding theprecise powerlevelthat would be needed to neutralize different target sets, some analysts believe thatlasers of around 100kW could engage unmanned aircraft systems, s mall bo ats, rockets, artillery, and mortars, whereas lasers of around 300kW could additionally engage cruise mis siles flying in certain profiles (i.e., flying across-ratherthan at-thelaser). Lasers of1 MW could potentially neutralize ballistic missiles and hypersonic weapons. In addition to the DEroadmap, OUSD(R&E) manages the High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI), which 9 July 20, 2021