La US Air Force denomina a \u00e9ste proyecto ” Counter-Electronics Advanced Missile Project,” (CHAMP). El objetiv del mismo, es el desarrollo de un arma con la capacidad de destru\u00edr o inhabilitar las defensa a\u00e9reas del enemigo, empleando “sistemas de armas de energ\u00eda Directa”, transportadas por misiles de crucero volando a baja altura.<\/p>\n
Mientras los sistemas tradicionales de guerra electronica, ten\u00edan como prioridad interferir los radares del enemigo, el sistema CHAMP busca destru\u00edrlos, inhabilitando as\u00ed el empleo de las armas asociadas al sistema de Defensa A\u00e9rea.<\/p>\n
The Air Force calls it the Counter-Electronics Advanced Missile Project, or CHAMP, intended to cripple enemy air defenses with directed-energy beams coming off a low-flying cruise missile.<\/p>\n
While traditional counter-electronics warfare weapons such as the Navy\u2019s EA-18G Growler, a version of the F\/A-18 Super Hornet, seek to jam enemy radar, the CHAMP is meant to destroy them. The Air Force talked up the program at the \u201cDirected Energy to D.C. Exhibition\u201d in the Pentagon courtyard Tuesday.<\/p>\n
At Kirtland Air Force Base near Albuquerque, the Air Force Research Laboratory has taken a Boeing AGM-86 Air Launched Cruise Missile and rigged it to have the motor feed a high-power microwave to pulse directed energy beams through an antenna to carry out a \u201cfunctional kill of adversaries\u2019 military electronic and communications systems.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt only works now off a B-52,\u201d the bomber that currently carries the AGM-86 cruise missile, said Lt. Nicholas Quartermont of the Air Force Research Laboratory, but the service is also working on adapting the CHAMP system for weapons that can be launched by the F\/A-18 and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.<\/p>\n
Boeing announced an initial successful test of CHAMP in 2012 and the Air Force plans to test a multi-shot, multi-target, steerable version of the system later this year.<\/p>\n
In a press release after the 2012 test, Boeing said, \u201cthe CHAMP missile navigated a pre-programmed flight plan and emitted bursts of high-powered energy, effectively knocking out the target\u2019s data and electronic subsystems.<\/p>\n
\u201cCHAMP allows for selective, high-frequency radio wave strikes against numerous targets during a single mission,\u201d the release states.<\/p>\n
The advantage of the system, according to the Air Force, is that \u201cthe precision targeting affects electronic targets while avoiding damage to structures or risk to lives.\u201d<\/p>\n