Space age missiles under attack

Professor Paul Rogers, of the University's Department of Peace Studies, has contributed a paper to one of the leading transatlantic defence journals on the development of a new class of directed energy weapons such as airborne and space-based lasers.

These weapons may attain extraordinary degrees of accuracy and speed, and they have major implications for the conduct of war in the coming decades. In his paper, Professor Rogers argues that directed energy weapons may appear to give a huge advantage to the possessor, but thinks that this could be misleading.

He said: "The space-based laser, for example, could attack targets on earth with impunity, but the reality could be that opponents would turn to forms of asymmetric warfare, including paramilitary attacks using bio-weapons. Thus a presumption of military superiority makes it less likely that a state possessing such weapons would be interested in conflict prevention, and could be lulled into a false sense of security.

"Even so, some of these weapons are in an advanced state of development. The airborne laser, co-produced by Boeing, TRW and Lockheed Martin is scheduled for its first test within three years. It is based on a powerful 2-3 megawatt short wavelength Chemical Oxygen-Iodine Laser mounted on a modified 747 and with a weapons range of up to 400 miles against boost-phase ballistic missiles."

The paper will be published in a forthcoming issue of Defence Analysis.

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