{"id":17007,"date":"2020-05-20T20:36:36","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T20:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2020\/05\/20\/griffin-extremely-skeptical-of-airborne-lasers-for-missile-defense\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:08:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:08:51","slug":"griffin-extremely-skeptical-of-airborne-lasers-for-missile-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/battlefield-tech\/2020\/05\/20\/griffin-extremely-skeptical-of-airborne-lasers-for-missile-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"Griffin \u2018extremely skeptical\u2019 of airborne lasers for missile defense"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The Defense Department\u2019s top technology expert now believes using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/smr\/federal-budget\/2019\/03\/13\/missile-defense-review-ambitions-not-reflected-in-mdas-94b-fy20-budget\/\" target=_blank>airborne, directed-energy weapons<\/a> for missile defense is unlikely to work, and that it\u2019s not worth spending research and development funds on the effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m extremely skeptical that we can put a large laser on an aircraft and use it to shoot down an adversary missile, even from fairly close,\u201d Mike Griffin, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/outlook\/2019\/12\/02\/pentagon-rd-boss-the-challenge-of-our-time\/\" target=_blank>undersecretary of defense for research and engineering<\/a>, said Wednesday on a call arranged by the Washington Space Business Roundtable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt has been done as an experiment, but as a weapon system \u2014 to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2017\/11\/07\/coming-in-2021-a-laser-weapon-for-fighter-jets\/\" target=\"_blank\">equip an airplane<\/a> with the kinds of lasers we think necessary, in terms of their power level, and all their support requirements, and get the airplane to altitudes where atmospheric turbulence can be mitigated appropriately \u2014 that combination of things doesn\u2019t go on one platform.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSo I\u2019m just extremely skeptical of that,\u201d he added. \u201dSo we\u2019re not spending money on [and] we\u2019re not investing in airborne platforms for shooting down adversary missiles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Griffin\u2019s comments would seem to reflect a change from the Missile Defense Review, a major policy document released in January 2019 that he helped create. The MDR <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/breaking-news\/2019\/01\/17\/space-based-interceptors-and-drones-with-lasers-the-pentagons-missile-defense-review-wish-list-revealed\/\">expressly called for investments<\/a> to test the idea of putting laser weapons on airborne drones, which could loiter around a launch site to take out a missile in its early boost phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Griffin claimed in his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/pentagon\/2018\/01\/18\/griffin-interested-in-airborne-missile-defense\/\">January 2018 confirmation hearing<\/a> that airborne, directed-energy weapons for missile defense was \u201cvery feasible,\u201d saying: \u201cIt was feasible many years ago to do it. What we have lacked in the missile defense arena until recently was the will; not the technology, not the means.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The idea of using airborne, directed-energy systems to intercept ballistic missiles goes back a decade, most notably to the Air Force\u2019s Airborne Laser program, which ran a successful test in 2010 before being discontinued. There are a number of directed-energy projects <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/naval\/2019\/05\/23\/when-it-comes-to-missile-killing-lasers-the-us-navy-is-ready-to-burn-its-ships\/\" target=\"_blank\">that are ship<\/a>&#8211; or ground-based currently underway within the Defense department, but Griffin did not comment on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tom Karako, an expert on missile defense issues with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, believes Griffin\u2019s comments are a \u201cmarked change\u201d from what was in the MDR. But, he noted, Griffin\u2019s comments are \u201clikely very focused on the near term. In other words, he\u2019s explaining that they need more R&amp;D investment now, not quite ready for prototyping and fielding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Griffin did note \u201cthere are applications for space platforms that could well be quite productive\u201d when it comes to directed-energy weapons for destroying enemy missiles. And he stressed that his organization, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, is \u201ccertainly not\u201d giving up on directed energy, even as it recalibrates the projects on which it\u2019s focused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Tuesday, Mark Lewis, one of Griffin\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/artificial-intelligence\/2020\/05\/19\/dod-developing-best-practices-for-ai-programs\/\" target=\"_blank\">main deputies<\/a>, described the office\u2019s ongoing efforts to develop directed-energy systems as attempts to add capabilities, not mirror existing efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe key is they\u2019re not going to be replacing things we can already do with kinetic weapons. If the gun already does something and it does it better than the laser, there\u2019s no point in the laser or the microwave system,\u201d Lewis said, adding that counter-drone systems are an area of high potential for laser weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Said Karako: &#8220;The understandable caution about operational requirements for more stressing, higher-end missions should not preclude progress for lower ones, including counter-UAS and [counter-rocket, artillery and mortar]\u201d capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Griffin on Wednesday emphasized that his office is trying to ensure laser technology is applicable to the end user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOne of the things that in R&amp;E we are focusing on, and I think frankly is well overdue (and some of the reason why it\u2019s overdue is my fault), but we have not invested enough on understanding lethality and different modes of lethality for directed energy,\u201d Griffin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve not invested enough in the operational studies that, you know, if I gave a war fighter a weapon of X number of kilowatts, you know, how and in what circumstances could you use it, and where is it better than a kinetic weapon and where is it not? The operational assessments just have not received as much attention as they should.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I\u2019m extremely skeptical that we can put a large laser on an aircraft and use it to shoot down an adversary missile, even from fairly close,&#8221; says Mike 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