Muting the Hype over Hypersonic missiles: The Offense-Defense Balance — Jun 2, 2019
Using microwaves (EMP) to fry the missile electronics & lasers to burn them
Hypersonic weapons have many in the US military on edge. Due to their speed, they significantly reduce reaction time, have sufficient kinetic power to cause significant destruction even without a payload, and are difficult to intercept. Hypersonics can bypass defense systems.
While hypersonic weapons travel at an extremely fast rate of approximately 2 miles per second, the speed of the Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile, they still pale in comparison to the speed of directed energy weapons (which travel at the speed of light, 186,282 miles per second).
Directed energy weapons such as lasers & high-power microwaves address the threat of hypersonics. Lasers are capable of destroying targets using a focused beam of energy, & high-power microwaves are an invisible wave of electromagnetic energy capable of frying microprocessors.
Hypersonic weapons are fast, but they are not instantaneous. When used against moving targets, hypersonic weapons need to have some form of onboard guidance, which in turn necessitates electronic circuits to do computations and make guidance adjustments.
These circuits are highly susceptible to high-power microwave damage. Additionally, the beam width of high-power microwaves is significantly wider than that of a weaponized laser, which requires less time to be used for targeting.
Although lasers are extremely effective, when it comes to countering hypersonic weapons, they are limited by line of sight, limited range & power requirements. So, when talking about defending against hypersonic weapons, high-power microwaves are the more logical choice.
And because hypersonics are so fast, they struggle with maneuvers in the final seconds against small fast-moving targets. This is due to maneuverability limitations at high speeds. Hypersonics are most effective for large, slow-moving or fixed targets such as aircraft carriers.
Areas outfitted with high-power microwaves can provide area denial capabilities for high-value target areas against hypersonic weapons. A source power of 9.5 megawatts could deliver the power density required to damage a hypersonic weapon at a target 25 miles away.
High-power microwave technology is not without weaknesses. Its effective range is based on the power density present at the target, a number of factors that affect this figure are transmitter power, feeder loss, antenna gain, range, path loss & effective isotropic radiated power.
These factors really boil down to two design elements: environment and range. These limitations can be used to create a versatile weapon that can defeat hypersonic weapons in most cases.
Whether it is hypersonic weapons or high-power microwave technology, no one technology can exist for long without a countermeasure. Still, hypersonics and other weapons will continue to entice nations with the promise of easy answers that can reduce the fog and friction of war.
