Developed over the past half decade under a program called Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP), the technology for a steerable counter-electronics weapon will be “available” in 2016.
It can target electronics well enough to fly over a city and shut down electronics in a single building.
Tests over the past few years have proved the concept; now the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is working to get the technology into a test missile. By 2016, the lab plans to design, develop and test a multishot, multitarget, high-power microwave package aboard an AGM-86 conventional air-launched cruise missile.
Beyond that, AFRL’s roadmap for high-power microwave (HPM) weapons calls for integrating the technology onto “maybe, a JASSM-ER-type weapon” in the mid-2020s and aboard “small reusable platforms” such as the F-35 or advanced UAVs by the end of the decade.
It’s unclear whether such weapons will actually enter production.
USAF Lab Chief Expects To Test EW Missile in 2016
by Bradley Peniston
http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140916/DEFREG02/309160030/USAF-Lab-Chief-Expects-Test-EW-Missile-2016
On the convention center screen, an animated cruise missile flew over a shadowy cartoon city. A beam of high-power microwaves emitted from its nose — and the target building went dark. More significantly, the ones around it stayed lit up.
Developed over the past half decade under a program called Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP), the technology for a steerable counter-electronics weapon will be “available” in 2016, said Maj. Gen. Tom Masiello, who commands the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).
“It can target electronics well enough to fly over a city and shut down electronics in a single building,” Masiello said Tuesday at the Air Force Association’s annual conference here.
Tests over the past few years have proved the concept; now the AFRL is working to get the technology into a test missile. By 2016, Masiello said, the lab plans to design, develop and test a multishot, multitarget, high-power microwave package aboard an AGM-86 conventional air-launched cruise missile.
Beyond that, Masiello said, AFRL’s roadmap for high-power microwave (HPM) weapons calls for integrating the technology onto “maybe, a JASSM-ER-type weapon” in the mid-2020s and aboard “small reusable platforms” such as the F-35 or advanced UAVs by the end of the decade.
It’s unclear whether such weapons will actually enter production; there’s no program of record yet, he said.
But his own opinion is clear; he talked about the HPM concept in “Game Changers,” a presentation that also included discussions of hypersonics and autonomous systems.
Last year’s test flight of the X-51 hypersonic test vehicle achieved Mach 4.8 and 200 seconds of ramjet power — far beyond the previous record of seven seconds.
“That really put hypersonics on the map,” Masiello said. “It really added a lot of momentum to the program.”
As for increasingly sophisticated autonomy, Masiello said, “This has the potential to dwarf everything.”
But he took pains to make clear: “It’s not about taking the airman out of the weapon system, it’s about making an effective team.”