The U.S. Army is looking for a directed energy (DE) weapon or weapons that could be developed relatively quickly to generate more enthusiasm for the technology, according to a service official.

While the service is exploring more than a dozen DE technologies in the belief that such weapons have significant potential, many of the Army's weapons developers will be more likely to focus on DE as a solution to their needs when the technology is successfully demonstrated in a realistic setting, said Army Col. James Pierson of the Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC).

During the Army's recent directed energy summit, service officials agreed on the need to identify "low-hanging fruit" that could be turned into an "early success," said Pierson, who helped organize the high-level meeting.

The summit, held April 13-14 in Colorado Springs, Colo., brought together about 85 leaders of Army organizations to kick off development of a strategic plan for the service's DE programs (DAILY, April 13). The plan, which the Army hopes to complete by the end of September, is intended to set research priorities for lasers and other DE weapons.

Several significant DE systems already are vying for Army attention and funding, but each faces technological hurdles.

While Sparta Inc.'s Zeus, a Humvee-mounted laser system, has destroyed unexploded ordnance in Afghanistan, it still has significant limitations, including its reliance on other forces to detect ordnance, Pierson said late April 16.

The Army is expected later this year to award a contract to Northrop Grumman Corp. to build a prototype of the Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL). But while a fixed-site demonstrator has successfully shot down artillery shells and Katyusha rockets, the size of the chemical laser has to be reduced significantly to make it mobile, which is considered a key requirement for battlefield use.

The Army has expressed interest in the Solid State Heat Capacity Laser (SSHCL) as a potential weapon on ground vehicles, believing it ultimately would have advantages over chemical lasers, including requiring a smaller logistics burden. However, the technology for electrically driven, solid-state lasers is considered even less mature than that of chemical lasers.