Directed-energy weapons like lasers and microwaves are the future of defense

If the Pentagon intends to be laser-focused in its goal to improve directed-energy weapons, it has just a few years to decide whether it wants to invest heavily in the new technology, according to the former director of the Missile Defense Agency. “There are some things that kinetic weapons will not be able to do” now or in the future, says Henry “Trey” Obering, an executive vice president at consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton in McLean, Va., who leads the company’s directed energy innovation team. Directed-energy weapons attack their targets with focused energy, and include including laser weapons, microwave weapons, and particle beam weapons. Obering says the Pentagon — should it get its $700-billion-plus spending boost — could afford to throw additional resources toward the laser weapons and the like. It’s an investment, much like the one the Pentagon made years ago to smart, laser- or GPS-guided munitions as opposed to dumb bombs that paid off, starting with Operation Desert Storm.