There was a film sequence on nightly news from Vietnam that filled me with disgust the night I first saw it in 1972. Everyone has seen it. Planes swoop low over a village. Napalm cannisters fall and explode. A handful of crying children run out of the village and one naked girl noticeably holds her arms away from her body as she runs.
| June 1972 Photo of Napalm Bombing of Trang Bang / Copyright Nick Ut / The Associated Press |
A soldier tries to pour water from his canteen on her burning arms. The picture shows the indiscriminate use of a well-tested weapon on a civilian population. But at some point, napalm was used in an experimental sense. Pilots had to learn when to release the cannisters and at which altitude and speed for maximum effect. Napalm had a specific tactical use in WWII in fire bombing raids against Dresden and cities in Japan. http://en.wikipedia.org/...
The bombing of Vietnamese villages and battlefields with napalm culminated in worldwide condemnation for the U.S. government and led in 1980 to a U.N. Convention against the use of this weapon. Nevertheless, in the 1940s, the experimentation and testing of napalm began without regard to whether the weapon would later be condemned. Essentially, this is a story, long told, of how technology has raced ahead of our development of social ethics to restrict or eliminate weaponry, not to mention warfare.
We are at a similar phase of testing and deploying a new generation of weapons.
This diary exposes the testing and use of Laser weapons in Iraq. Therefore, I am arguing there are reasons for conducting this war beyond the unstated official need to create a client state in Iraq to extract oil concessions. There was a pressing traditional reason for this war that is wrapped up with how the Pentagon operates in cycles to keep all the centipede legs of its military industrial complex in rhythm. The research and development stage with a proof of concept demonstration is a regular occurrence in the Pentagon. DARPA projects focus on new technologies some of which have an immediate military application. These move into a late stage testing before procurement phases. If the military takes keen interest, a new weapons system may undergo many changes. Once a weapon is developed, tested at weapon ranges, and funded by Congress, it is deployed.
The military battlefield provides a final stage of refinement, because testing grounds can never provide a realistic assessment of a weapon's properties under combat conditions. Tests don't replicate real life perfectly. In addition, the climate in the Middle East is extreme and weapons may malfunction. Afghanistan and Iraq have provided the conditions under which the Pentagon assesses a weapon's use. Tactics change all the time, because enemy forces improvise. New uses of weapons are found to support the tactics and the conditions of fighting.
In the Iraq War, there are five new Laser weapons in the U.S. armory. Another five are in different stages of development. In examining assumptions I had early in this war, I have realized there is momentum supplied by the weapons cycle that drives the Pentagon to believe that newer and newer weapons will overcome the limited results of the war objectives. The planners need to test the weapons that can eventually detect IEDs. They need to learn whether a broadly aimed Laser can disable a hostile force or blind enemy combatants temporarily. Each of the weapons listed below, once deployed in Iraq, confirms or disconfirms a hypothesis on its effectiveness. I don't think there is any consideration given to the ethics of using these weapons.
This war permits everyone to examine the reasons for fighting in Iraq and the pretexts given for the war. Regardless of how the war is drawn down, what will be changed if there is not a new understanding that weapons development will continue apace? If there is to be a new American politics that ends the war, will it be robust enough to eliminate a weapons procurement process that is propelling this country into permanent war?
Laser Weapons Tested in Iraq
1. PHASR. Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response Rifle. The military claims the laser weapon temporarily disables the vision of drivers. The Los Angeles Times reported on May 18, 2006 that lasers which blind humans fall afoul of the Geneva Convention. However, the DOD believes that this weapon protects American soldiers from drivers who fail to stop at roadblocks or who approach convoys too closely.
http://www.newscientist.com/...
http://www.latimes.com/...
http://www.latimes.com/...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
2. Tactical High Energy Laser, THEL. (Northrop Grumman) This weapon can shoot down rockets and mortars using a concentrated light beam. The weapon is guided by an infra-red detection mechanism that can first "see" a projectile. Computers calculate the trajectory of the object and aim the Laser. The weapon may have been tested in Iraq in 2003 against human targets near the Baghdad airport. This is a well designed and powerful weapon jointly developed with Israel initially to negate rocket attacks from Lebanon.
http://portland.indymedia.org/...
http://www.missilethreat.com/...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/...
http://www.st.northropgrumman.com/...
http://www.st.northropgrumman.com/...
3. Tactical Relay Mirror System. This technology stems from the old Star Wars program in the early 1980s. A large laser can shoot over the horizon or behind hills or other obstacles by bouncing the beam emission off a computer-oriented mirror that angles the beam's path to its target. Visualize the billiards-like calculations that are required to angle the mirror accurately. The mirror may eventually be attached to a Predator aircraft. Projected to deploy in Iraq in late 2006.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/...
http://www.janes.com/...
4. Laser-based Unexploded Ordinance and Landmine Neutralization. Zeus System. The weapon detects and disables IEDs or mines. Deployed in Afghanistan in 2004, but reported to be in use in Iraq beginning in 2005.
http://www.zeus.sparta.com/...
http://www.defensetech.org/...
5. EGBU-27 Laser Guided Bomb. Raytheon. This next generation precision weapon was used early in March 2003. The bomb is guided by a Laser with GPS corrective feedback to the navigation system.
http://www.hilltoptimes.com/...
Laser Weapons Under Development But Not Known to be Used in Iraq
6. Thermobaric Weapon. This is a laser guided bunker buster weapon that is capable of penetrating the ground and cement structures. It explodes and creates a pressure wave that collapses tunnels and bunkers. Humans experiencing the pressure wave or high temperature would die. First used in Afghanistan. Unknown use in Iraq.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/...
7. Laser Pain Ray Weapon, officially the Active Denial System. Raytheon. This weapon bores its beam just under the skin to create intense pain. The weapon may be coupled with an acoustic component that deafens crowds. A laser scanner simultaneously can look for snipers. These weapons systems are mounted on Humvees. Confused deployment picture.
Raytheon works to fix heat-ray in time for Iraq test next year
http://www.defensetech.org/...
http://www.defensetech.org/...
http://www.defensetech.org/...
http://www.rainews24.it/...
http://english.ohmynews.com/...
8. LIPC. This experimental weapon uses lasers to induce an electrical charge that surges like lightning toward a human target or vehicle. Essentially, this is an updating of the Tesla Coil demonstrated in high school physics classes, but used against human attackers. Deployment unknown.
http://www.ionatron.com/...
9. PIKL/Solid State Lasers. Another experimental weapon used to burn or destroy the surface of small targets. Tested in the 1990s on wet chamois to simulate skin. The developer (Los Alamos and other labs) sees its use for military operations in urban areas. Deployment unknown.
www.dtic.mil/ndia/smallarms/Moore.pdf
10. Airborne Laser Radar. Harris Corporation. This technology creates 3-D images of terrain. Each image is compared to previously stored images. Discrepancies in the 3-D images may signal enemy troops or their supplies. Of course, the signal difference may be an Iraqi goatherd and his flock. The shape of the discrepancy (the technology uses software for shape and pattern analysis) may trigger a software determined attack by Predators or other UAV aircraft. The entire system is carried on board the UAV. There are many other military contractors working on this project. Deployment unknown. The Swedes have developed their own system and they provide a good description of the technology's capabilities.
http://www.harris.com/...
There will be two additional segments to follow this diary in the coming weeks. The second diary will look at other new weapon types that military planners have rolled out. The third will examine military strategies being tested and the need for actual battlefield conflict each decade to train a cohort of junior officers and give them leadership experience under fire. These are additional rationales for this war.