Electric fires seminar focuses on future battlefields

By Jeff Crawley, Fort Sill CannoneerMarch 5, 2015

Railgun
1 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Electric Fires Seminar
2 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – The Fires Center of Excellence's Capabilities Development and Integration Directorate hosted an Electric Fires Seminar with military and defense researchers Feb. 24-25, 2015, at Knox Hall here. Col. Gregory Dewitt, CDID director, is in the center of ... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT SILL, Okla. (March 5, 2015) -- The Fires Center of Excellence's Capabilities Development and Integration Directorate (CDID) hosted an Electric Fires (EF) Seminar Feb. 24-25 here, that was also streamed to 10 Department of Defense installations around the country.

Col. Gregory Dewitt, CDID director, welcomed 40 representatives in Knox Hall from the U.S. military and defense research and scientific communities to the open discussion on EF capabilities and technologies across the DoD, and how the Army might incorporate them into its field and air defense artillery missions.

Electric fires consists of a couple concepts, said Maj. Michael Burke, CDID's Requirements Determination Division, EF/Science and Technology chief. One, it is the application and science of directed energy, such as lasers and microwaves, to neutralize threats like cruise missiles and unmanned aerial systems (UAS). Second, it encompasses electromagnetic launch technologies, which use a magnetic field created by electricity to launch artillery projectiles without the use of explosives or propellants.

The EF focus is on the Army battlefields of 2025 and beyond, Burke said. Still, its applications would be relevant in today's asymmetrical warfare against rocket, artillery and mortar (RAM) attacks, and counter-UAS surveillance.

Some of the agencies represented were the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and all the U.S. armed forces, the major said.

Presenters spoke about high energy particle beams, high power microwaves, laser weapon systems, ground-based area defense and directed energy on-the-move, hypervelocity projectiles, electro-chemical-thermal guns, and electromagnetic launches, according to the seminar agenda.

"Essentially, our idea was: Let us know what research and science and technology efforts you have going on whether at your lab or at your organizations, and to let us know how you think this technology may be used in the future from a fires warfighting perspective," Burke said.

The briefings were tailored toward the warfighter and answered: Who would gain from employing this technology? What capability gaps could these technologies fill? When will this technology be available?Where could this technology be employed? and Why should we take notice of this technology?

"The Air Force Research Laboratory walked us through and showed us how we might use this operationally," Burke said, "whether we use it in the asymmetrical warfare fight, or use it to counter some enemy capabilities -- which is a big one for us." These include counter-intelligence, surveillance and reconnnaissance; and counter-RAM.

Different EF technologies are in various stages of development, Burke said. The Army Space and Missile Defense Command has a prototype of a High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator that they are testing against mortars and UASs. The Navy is testing electromagnetic launchers called railguns, Burke said. It also is testing a shipboard Laser Weapon System (LaWS) that has successfully tracked, engaged and destroyed UASs in flight.

One of the greatest benefits from EF technologies will be cost effectiveness, he said.

A lot of the cost of, say, the directed energy system would be in research and development, Burke said. "But after the technology is being used on the battlefield you get on the right side of the cost curve. You don't want to fire a million-dollar missile at a UAS when you could knock it down with cheaper means."

Maj. Gen. John Rossi, FCoE and Fort Sill commanding general, wants to get EF technologies demonstrated on the West Range here, Burke said. CDID is working on an environmental assessment and once completed, then prototype directed energy and electromagnetic launches can be demonstrated at Fort Sill.

"The seminar was a success," Burke said. "We now have a better understanding of where the science and technology communities are with these (EF) programs, and a better insight of how these programs can be used for the future force and the future fires force to prevent overmatch from an enemy."