The operational employment of directed energy (DE) weapons by U.S. forces is coming on a significant scale, well within the tenure of most current service members. Several DE systems hold promise for incorporation into the inventory within just a few years. The unique features of these weapons provide both special advantages to the military force and unique challenges. A consideration of these advantages and challenges before deployment can accelerate the transforming power of these weapons and minimize the possible downsides. Therefore, it is important that the DoD community consider all aspects of operations, training, and testing of
As a forum for these considerations, a conference was held 20 - 24 March 2006 on the Employment of Directed Energy Weapons. The objective of this Secret level Conference was to investigate issues surrounding the employment of DE weapons. Topics included
The Employment of Directed Energy Weapons Conference was held as part of the Directed Energy Systems Symposium and was conducted in parallel with the Beam Control Conference, the Directed Energy Modeling and Simulation Conference and the High Energy Laser Lethality Conference. Although there were some joint technical sessions between the conferences, each conference in the Symposium was conducted separately and each conference published their proceedings. The final detailed Symposium Program is available for download. The free Adobe Reader is required to view and print the flyer. This conference continued the efforts that began with the Workshop on the Employment Directed Energy Weapons held on 11-13 May 2004 in Newport News, Virginia. Conference Highlights
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