Re: Boeing and Raytheon to develop high-power microwave missile
AFRL explores electronic disruption with CHAMP follow-on
The Air Force Research Laboratory is moving ahead with its plans to miniaturize the Counter-electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile, following the release of a recent call for research information for high-powered electromagnetic cyber applications.
AFRL will leverage HPEM technologies for cyber and electronic warfare, according to a January broad agency announcement posted on Federal Business Opportunities. The work will include continued experiments in back door and front door coupling, multiple microwave pulse concepts and demonstrations for Black Dart and Vigilant Hammer exercises, the BAA states.
While AFRL has long pursued back door and front door coupling, the laboratory is continuing to shrink the size of those technologies, Don Shiffler, HPEM core technical capability lead for the AFRL Directed Energy Directorate, said in a March 15 interview with Inside the Air Force.
"All of the components to make the system work have gotten smaller," he said. "So I can put this on an air platform or ground-based [platform], and it's not the size of a building, and make it work."
Front door coupling consists of radiation which enters through an aperture of a system, such as an antenna, that is explicitly designed and intended to receive HPEM pulses, Air Force spokesman James Fisher said in a March 17 email to ITAF. Back door coupling occurs using apertures in a system that were never meant to receive or transmit energy, but high power can be applied to the electronic systems so they are disrupted anyway, he said.
"An example of such coupling would be HPEM radiation that enters through the cooling vents of a desktop computer," he said.
The research would also explore single and multiple microwave pulse concepts, which focuses on how HPEM systems emit electromagnetic waves in packets of energy. Single pulse concepts employ one pulse in a single burst, while repetitive pulse concepts employ multiple pulses in a single burst, Shiffler said. A single pulse might be employed to attack one computer system, while multiple pulses could cover a larger area, he said. The multiple pulse concept would be a new capability that AFRL would develop, he said.
The study would also examine the effects of natural phenomena on electronic systems. Natural radiation could include a lightning strike or Whistler waves associated with Aurora Borealis, Fisher wrote.
Contractors would apply these concepts during two Defense Department exercises: Black Dart and Vigilant Hammer, which focus on counter unmanned aerial vehicle concepts and cyber operations, respectively. In theory, CHAMP could be used to disrupt a drone, Shiffler said.
"These drones do fly around with little computers in them," he said. "So anything with a computer could be fair game."
While AFRL continues its CHAMP miniaturization work, Congress has pushed the Air Force to field the proven technology on a platform in the near-term. The Air Force demonstrated the computer-killing CHAMP system in 2012 on a Conventional Air Launched Cruise Missile, but has steered away from immediately fielding it on Boeing's CALCM. Instead, last year AFRL Commander Maj. Gen. Thomas Masiello proposed miniaturizing the CHAMP technology and fielding it on Lockheed's extended-range Joint-Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile.
Fiscal year 2017 budget documents also highlight AFRL's mission to miniaturize CHAMP. In FY-15, the Air Force continued development of smaller, lighter, high-power electromagnetic systems. In its FY-17 research and development budget request, the service plans to start designing smaller, higher power technology for the next-generation high-power microwave through FY-16 and complete designs in FY-17.
AFRL focuses on research and does not have the responsibility to transition the CHAMP technology to the warfighter, Shiffler said. He did not comment on whether the smaller CHAMP technology would fly on the JASSM-ER, but said the laboratory would squeeze the technology onto whichever platform the warfighter demands.
"The big challenge is, you're trying to fit 10 pounds of junk into a five-pound bag," he said. "In terms of the time scale, we would like to think we would have a prototype of some kind in three to six years, but the problem is I can't predict the course of research so you can't schedule a breakthrough." -- Leigh Giangreco