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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.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

The Santa Fe New Mexican 10/16/2005
"A concise, detailed and fascinating history and explanation of directed energy weapons." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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First Sentence:
DIRECTED ENERGY (DE) WEAPONS-lasers, high-power microwaves (HPMs), and particle beams-have come of age. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
airborne laser laboratory, laser fuel, beam control system, alternating magnets, relay mirror, air force researchers, advanced chemical laser, gas dynamic laser, tactical laser, missile skin, rected energy, asymmetric advantage, terahertz radiation, laser program, logistics tail, chemical lasers, war fighters, energy weapons, laser weapon, nuclear effects, nonlethal weapons, charged particle beams, microwave tubes Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Active Denial, United States, Defense Department, Gulf War, Northrop Grumman, World War, Cold War, Phillips Lab, Department of Defense, White Sands Missile Range, Argon Gas-ion, Los Angeles, Missile Defense Agency, Bill Baker, Kirk Hackett, Krypton Gas-ion, Soviet Union, Los Alamos, New Mexico, San Francisco, Strategic Defense Initiative, Air Force Weapons Laboratory, Buck Rogers, Don Lamberson, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory New!
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