How 'Revolutionary' Is CHAMP, New Air Force Microwave Weapon?

[unhappycamper]

http://defense.aol.com/2012/11/28/how-revolutionary-is-champ-new-air-force-microwave-weapon/

How 'Revolutionary' Is CHAMP, New Air Force Microwave Weapon?
By David Axe
Published: November 28, 2012

The targets were buildings packed with humming computers. A missile streaked overhead and, at preset coordinates, it fired concentrated beams of energy. Computers short-circuited, the lights flickered out and even cameras monitoring the rooms shut off. The missile had turned off all the power in the targeted buildings.

This first successful test of the three-year, $40-million Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) at a Utah test range on Oct. 16 marked a big step forward for technology that has been in development for more than four decades.

The potential of CHAMP and other so-called Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) weapons is enormous, in theory. They could allow an army to bloodlessly disable select portions of an enemy's military capabilities, potentially winning a fight without a lethal shot being fired.

But CHAMP itself, a collaboration between the Air Force Research Laboratory, defense giants Boeing and Raytheon plus Ktech, a small company Raytheon acquired last year, does not necessarily herald "a new era in modern-day warfare," as Keith Coleman, the CHAMP program manager at Boeing Phantom Works, claimed in a press release. Boeing declined to comment for this story.

[MADem]

1. Hmmmm! Time will tell, I guess....

Geis believes the cat is out of the bag, and CHAMP is a harbinger of a future where EMP weaponry is common. "The point at which we believe these systems are a threat is the point at which we should be hardening up front," he warns. He estimates that will happen by the 2040s, some 80 years after scientist Charlie Martin created the first pulsed power almost by accident.

[orwell]

2. But...

...will it make popcorn?

[tech3149]

3. Thanks again uhc you always post the best military articles

This story really piqued my interest since I worked in electronics. I can understand the dangers of HPM and EMP but every weapon system will be quickly defeated by effective, and sometimes, much cheaper counter measures. I'm only part way through the article but it already seems that CHAMP is more hype than reality.