Light Warfare

Raytheon’s Quiet Eyes is one of several examples of new directed energy weaponry, a munitions class that includes lasers, highpowered microwaves and particle beams. Spending on surface-to-air missile-zapping will average $830 million a year over the next decade, estimates Teal Group, a defense consultancy, up from $450 million today. Directed energy technology is wellrooted in many of the 2,900 “threat reduction” research programs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. “We see a future in lower-cost systems, and Raytheon has both a head start and a very solid production base already with its [Sidewinder] missiles,” says David Rockwell, a senior electronics analyst at Teal. “It could be a big deal for them.”