Citation

Nature 2012; 489(7415): 177-178.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1038/489177b

PMID

22972256

Abstract

n the 1940s, with the Second World War in full swing, Japanese scientists sketched out a plan to build a microwave weapon to shoot down enemy bombers. That idea, perhaps the earliest description of an electromagnetic bomb, encapsulates much of what military officials still hope to achieve with such weapons: disabling electronics (or, in some cases, people) using a powerful energy beam, without causing any collateral physical damage. The US military's attempts to make a practical weapon based on this idea have so far resulted in only one system — at least as far as it has revealed publicly. The Air Force has built the Active Denial System, a non-lethal high-power microwave weapon supposedly able to deter an angry mob by creating the sensation of being burned.

For decades, the US military has conducted much of its research on such weapons in secret. It has often hinted that it is on the verge of a breakthrough, yet high-power microwave weapons are noticeably absent from modern battlefields and scenes of civil unrest. The military, for the most part, won't discuss its progress — or lack thereof — citing secrecy in the name of national security.

There is nothing unique about the classification of this research: nuclear weapons, stealth aircraft and satellite reconnaissance systems were all developed in secret. Although such furtiveness can legitimately protect US weapons and capabilities, it can also prevent much-needed dissemination of scientific research. And it has all too often concealed a lack of progress.

Language: en