Directed-energy weapon

A directed-energy weapon (DEW) is a ranged weapon that damages its target with highly focused energy without a solid projectile, including lasers, microwaves, particle beams, and sound beams. Potential applications of this technology include weapons that target personnel, missiles, vehicles, and optical devices.^[1][2]

In the United States, the Pentagon, DARPA, the Air Force Research Laboratory, United States Army Armament Research Development and Engineering Center, and the Naval Research Laboratory are researching directed-energy weapons to counter ballistic missiles, hypersonic cruise missiles, and hypersonic glide vehicles. These systems of missile defense are expected to come online no sooner than the mid to late-2020s.^[3]

China,^[4][5][6][7] France,^{[8][9][10][11]} Germany,^[8][9] the United Kingdom,^[12][13] Russia,^[14][15][16] India,^[17][18][19] Israel,^[20][21][22] and Pakistan^[23][24][25] are also developing military-grade directed-energy weapons, while Iran^{[26][27][28][29]} and Turkey claim to have them in active service.^[30][31][32] The first use of directed-energy weapons in combat between military forces was claimed to have occurred in Libya in August 2019 by Turkey, which claimed to use the ALKA directed-energy weapon.^[33][34] After decades of research and development, most directed-energy weapons are still at the experimental stage and it remains to be seen if or when they will be deployed as practical, high-performance military weapons.^[35][36]