

Well-known defense and homeland security analyst James Jay Carafano, PhD, has a solution to the pirate crisis: Lasers.

Which should come as no surprise. Since the Heritage Foundation Senior Research Fellow thinks the answers to all kinds of security questions – from Russian mortars to Hezbollah missiles to jihadists' bombs to pirates' boats – lie in lasers and other so-called "directed energy weapons."

In 2004, for instance, Carafano suggested using "directed energy weapons to protect critical infrastructure." America's "power plants, transportation hubs, and telecommunications facilities [are] becoming increasingly vulnerable to precision missile attacks," he warned. The solution: "directed-energy weapons (DEWs), which include lasers, microwaves, electromagnetic pulses, and high intensity radio frequency waves." The next year, Carafano declared lasers to be one of the "future of anti-terrorism technologies."

Then, in 2006, Carafano penned a "WebMemo" entitled, "Defanging Hezbollah: A Directed Energy Defense Could Help." Ray guns like the Tactical High Energy Laser, he suggested, would be ideal for blasting the terror group's rockets. "Congress should provide emergency supplemental funding to rush THEL into production," he wrote. Later that year, Carafano made similar arguments in several other papers.

In 2007, he suggested that the Navy should rely on nuclear reactors, in part because they could supply energy for "new, power-intensive weapons systems like rail-guns and directed-energy weapons." This August, Carafano then declared that the "Russia-Georgia War Highlights Need for Directed-Energy Defenses," too. THEL and the like would be perfect for zapping the Russian mortars raining down on Georgia.

And now, Somalia. In his latest WebMemo, "Pentagon Should Battle Pirates and Terrorists with Laser Technology,"

Carafano is disappointed that "the Pentagon is still reluctant to field these weapons because they cannot achieve the power and mobility the military thinks it needs for many battlefield missions." But fighting pirates don't require high-powered lasers, like the THEL.

Less-potent lasers "would be effective for addressing a range of threats." The weapons "could, for example, disable the engines of small boats." Or they could "detonate shoulder-fired missiles before they strike their targets." Or they could "trigger IEDs [improvised explosive devices] from a safe distance before they threaten passing convoys," Carafano offers. Why, there's practically nothing the ray guns can't do.

[Photo: Heritage Foundation]