The E-Bomb: How America's New Directed Energy Weapons Will Change the Way Future Wars Will Be Fought (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "DIRECTED ENERGY (DE) WEAPONS-lasers, high-power microwaves (HPMs), and particle beams-have come of age..." (more)
Key Phrases: airborne laser laboratory, laser fuel, beam control system, Active Denial, United States, Defense Department (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dramatic book title notwithstanding, there is no e-bomb. The military is testing, however, a series of directed energy weapons ranging from lasers to microwaves. Beason, a physicist and the associate director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, offers a spirited defense of these new weapons and their likely impact on the battlefield. He traces their development over the past three decades and notes that they are now on the threshold of deployment. Despite his enthusiasm for technological solutions to military threats;"The size of the army matters," he writes, "but technology wins wars";Beason concedes that lasers and microwaves are not without their critics, including leading scientists and military officers. Nevertheless, he believes that doubts can be dispelled by addressing people's natural fear of new technology. Beason argues that directed energy applications are already commonplace;LASIK surgery, DVD players, etc.;and explains the science in terms that ordinary people can grasp, despite the occasional references to Fresnel equations. He also gives the reader a peek at some of the directed energy weapons that the military is currently testing, including Active Denial, a nonlethal, low-power microwave weapon that can be mounted on a Humvee. Despite Beason's cheerleading style, this is a solid introduction to directed energy weapons. (Oct.)
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Review

"A concise, detailed and fascinating history and explanation of directed energy weapons." -- The Santa Fe New Mexican 10/16/2005

"An excellent read...I highly recommend it to military officers past and present." -- Checkpoints, December 2005

"Highly authoritative…Admirably clear…with examples that anyone can relate to." -- Rusi Defence Systems, Spring 2006

"Makes a convincing case for directed-energy weapons...A subject well worth pondering and reading about." -- Roanoke Times, 12/04/05

"The most comprehensive and up-to-date depiction of the revolutionary change that is about to happen." -- Naples Daily News 10/16/2005

A thought-provoking portent of the future of military might. -- Midwest Book Review, May 2006

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (September 26, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306814021
• ISBN-13: 978-0306814020
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #965,934 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Informative and Enjoyable read, November 19, 2005

By	Chris (Australia) - See all my reviews

Coming from the position of a layman this book works very well. It provides simple explanations of the physics behind directed energy weapons such that people without scientific training can understand how they work and what this implies. This is done with the use of diagrams where necessary to explain the point. The book moves forward steadily and this isn't a book that you will get bogged down in.

Chapters describe the technology itself, the problems with it, how far the military has taken it, the current state of the art and the possible future manifestations of it. They also describe the ever present battle between the sceptics and true believers in this technology. The book also includes details and photographs of unclassified projects and demonstrators. In addition, Beason makes clever use of what-if scenarios drawn from all too familiar events to demonstrate the possible utility of directed energy weapons.

Overall this book is well written and provides a strong introduction to directed energy weapons that covers both the story so far and the possible futures from the perspective of an advocate for this technology. I doubt that any comparatively accessible books exist on this topic to date. All the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle have been put on the table here and I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in finding out more about directed energy weapons.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Introduction, but Only That., February 11, 2006

By	Jay Dugger "Sometimes the delete key serves b... (Distance is dead, but location is lively.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Not too bad a book, but definitely an introductory text. It also has some curious gaps. For instance, it entirely omits Raytheon's VIGILANT EAGLE system for airport defense. It makes very little mention of contributions to DEW from the EW community. Other Active Denial System (ADS) it omits all energy-based non-lethal weapons. Finally, it makes very little mention of HPM-based EM threats. I expected it to at least survey the threats of EMP.

If you really want to learn about this subject, start with this book, and move on to your public library. Read the first few chapters of Jane's All The Worlds Fighting Ships and Jane's All The Worlds Fighting Aircraft for weapons systems principles. From there, move on to periodicals and read through the last fifteen years or so of Aviation Week's articles on EW/EMP/HPM. Finally, read the Executive Summary of the report by the EMP threat commission.

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Concept in Weapons Whose Time is Coming, November 8, 2005

By	John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The basic concept of virtually all weapons is to apply energy to a target at come distance from the 'shooter.' The energy may be concentrated at the point of an arrow, a bullet, or there may be an energy source located in the projectile such as an explosive.

Directed energy weapons do away with this concept. Pure energy is sent to the target with no projectile being involved. At first this was the concept in the so called Star Wars system put forward by Ronald Reagan. It was ridiculed by many, although many people subsequently give it considerable credit for the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Since then the Star Wars program was officially cancelled, but under different program names research has continued. Then the devices started to show promise. As they were offensive to the Democrats, Clinton cut the programs back drastically abandoning several promising research tracks.

It is now clear that several of these weapons would have been very useful in the urban warfare in Bagdad and Fallujah. Other weapons are designed to destroy the explosive devices being placed along roadsides.

This book is a summary of current research being conducted into directed energy weapons. It is written from a somewhat sensationalist approach that to me detracts from the facts they are trying to convey, but this is the current state of research in these weapons. The book is by a research scientist working in these areas.