1、Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessmentswww.CSBAonline.org1667 K Street,NW,Suite 900,Washington,DC 20006Tel.202-331-7990|Fax 202-331-8019BackgrounderJanuary 2009 Near-Term ProsPecTs for BaTTlefield direcTed-eNergy WeaPoNs By Thomas Ehrhard,andrew Krepinevich,and Barry Watts For more than a dec
2、ade,the Center for Strategic and Budgetary assessments(CSBa)has closely followed emerging technologies that,integrated with new operational concepts and organizational structures,offer the potential to fundamentally change how advanced militaries fight.Such changes in the conduct of war constitute w
3、hat has come to be called a“revolution in military affairs,”or RMA.The German militarys development of Blitzkrieg in the years between the two World Wars(1918-1939)constitutes one of the more familiar examples of an RMA.Visionary officers integrated tanks,radio communications,and tactical aircraft w
4、ith opportunistic deep-penetration tactics and the flexible,combined-arms structure of the Panzer division in ways that still influence how we conduct combined-arms warfare.directed-energy Weapons:more than“interesting Toys?”Lasers have long been considered a technology that could give rise to a new