Subject: ＥＥＥ会議（イラク攻撃用の新兵器）
Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2003 00:12:45 +0900
From: "kkaneko" <kkaneko@eagle.ocn.ne.jp>

各位

今回の対イラク戦争で使われる兵器は、第一次湾岸戦争時と比べあらゆる点で格段に
強化されたものであるが、とくに注目される新兵器は、人を殺傷せず、もっぱら敵の
電子機器を破壊することを目的とした「エネルギー兵器」(directed-energy
weapons)であるというＮｅｗYork Timesの特集記事（２月21日）をご披露します。　
長いので最初の3分の１程度に留めますが、ご関心のある方は次のサイトで全文をど
うぞ。　また、電子工学等に詳しい方は、この記事を読んでの感想や解説をお願いで
きれば幸いです。小生にはちょっと手におえませんので。
金子熊夫
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/20/technology/circuits/20warr.html?th

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Weapons That Disable Circuitry May Get First Use in Iraq
By SETH SCHIESEL


As the United States readies for a possible conflict in Iraq, many of the
star weapons from the Persian Gulf war of 1991 are back and deadlier than
ever. The smart bombs are smarter. The stealth planes are sneakier. Even the
ground troops are better equipped than they were a dozen years ago.

Yet according to military experts, the biggest technical revelation of
another war in the region may not be improvements to old systems but rather
a new category of firepower known as directed-energy weapons.

Think invisible lasers, using high-powered microwaves and other sorts of
radiation rather than the pulses of visible light common in science fiction.
These new systems, which have been under development in countries including
Britain, China, Russia and the United States for at least a decade, are not
designed to kill people. Conventional bombs, guns and artillery can take
care of that.

Rather, most of the directed-energy systems are meant to kill electronics,
to disrupt or destroy the digital devices that control the information
lifeblood of modern societies and modern military forces. By contrast,
traditional jamming equipment blocks communications gear from functioning
but does not actually damage the device.

"If there is a war in Iraq, there is no question in my mind that we will see
the use of both directed-energy and radio-frequency weaponry,'' said John
Arquilla, a professor of defense analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School
in Monterey, Calif., referring to both the new sorts of weapons and
traditional jamming technology. "Over the last several years, a great deal
of research has been undertaken in this area both by the United States but
also by other countries, not all of them allied with us."

That is why, like the genie escaping its bottle, directed energy may harbor
danger for the United States itself, not just for its adversaries. With its
increasing reliance on digital communications and information systems, the
United States is perhaps the most vulnerable potential target for
directed-energy devices, military experts say.

But for the moment, most directed-energy specialists are concentrating on
the possible uses of the technology against Iraq.

For instance, military experts say that the United States or Britain could
use cruise missiles or commando units to deliver a directed-energy weapon
within a few thousand feet of an Iraqi control bunker that happened to be
close to a large civilian population. If the weapon functioned properly, it
would disable or destroy the electronics inside the bunker without the risks
associated with a conventional missile attack or bombing.

As the government works on new battlefield and continental missile-defense
systems, directed-energy research is also helping to develop energy beams to
be used to shoot down missiles.

And while directed-energy weapons are not generally meant to kill people,
there are certainly antipersonnel applications. In addition to the
anti-electronics weapons, other directed-energy systems under development
are meant to use microwaves to make people feel pain in the outer layer of
the skin without generally causing physical damage. That pain is intended to
inspire an instinct to flee.

In describing the use of such systems, which are meant to be mounted on a
truck or perhaps on an all-wheel-drive Hummer vehicle, weapons experts
constantly evoke "Black Hawk Down,'' the book and film that describe the
chaotic 1993 United States military intervention in Somalia. In Somalia,
United States soldiers had little way to disperse angry groups of civilians
without firing.

"I can see something like this being especially effective someplace like
downtown Baghdad,'' said Christopher Hellman, a senior research analyst at
the Center for Defense Information, a think tank in Washington. "If one of
Saddam Hussein's tactics is going to be to flood Baghdad with civilians,
this could be really nice to have.''

"I think that one is pretty close,'' to operational deployment, Mr. Hellman
added. "If it's even remotely close, I'd bet they're working 24-7 to get it
ready.''