(Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dvids/" target="_blank">DVIDSHUB</a>)

Last week the Pentagon revealed

the existence of a new weapon in the war against roadside bombs: a beam of radio-frequency energy that can detonate hidden Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) at a distance.

And its creators say the potential does not stop there—the beam could be also used to set off other types of warheads before they reached their target. In theory it might be used to set off ammunition before the enemy even has a chance to fire. "The capabilities are not limited to improvised devices," Lee Mastroianni, program manager at the Office of Naval Research (ONR), told Popular Mechanics.

There are many counter-IED devices that work by jamming the command signals to bombs that are triggered by a radio signal. These are collectively known as Counter Radio-controlled Electronic Warfare, or CREW. And there have also been some other technologies, such as the Army's Blow Torch, which use a high-powered beam of microwaves to damage the bomb's electronics. But the new device targets the explosive itself.

In one sense the technology is very old. As far back as 1895, the Indian scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose gave a demonstration in which he ignited gunpowder from a distance with microwaves. (A search on YouTube shows the modern version using gunpowder in a microwave oven—don't try that at home.) In 1924, British inventor Harry Grindell Matthews claimed that he had developed a weapon using the same principle, an antiaircraft ray that could set off explosives and blow up attacking bombers. "Death Ray Matthews" became a popular figure with the press, although he never convinced government scientists that the device worked.

The problem has always been delivering enough energy fast enough to cause an explosion. Lasers are a more obvious way of doing this than radio waves, and Boeing's Laser Avenger has been tested as a means of destroying IEDs. But a laser will only be able to target visible IEDs on the surface, whereas the new technology is effective against concealed explosives that may be behind layers of other material.

The ONR remain tight-lipped about virtually every aspect of the technology, which is highly classified. But there are enough details to piece together a fascinating picture of the new device.

Radio-frequency devices can output extremely powerful, short-duration bursts of energy using a technology known as a Marx Generator. This uses a number of capacitors that are charged in parallel and then discharged simultaneously in series. Texas Tech University's Center for Pulsed Power and Power Electronics has been working on this area under contract for the ONR, with the specific aim of developing pulses strong enough to defeat IEDs. Their 3-million-volt Marx Generator is the size of a bus, and it is probably not a coincidence that the anti-IED beam weapon is said to be the size of a tractor-trailer. The TTU team is also working on a one-shot pulse generator the size of a coffee can and antennas suitable for carrying and directing an intense burst of energy lasting less than a billionth of a second.

There are many questions about the new device, such as the range, width of the beam and the types of explosives that it will work on. However, whatever the capabilities of the current system (which are classified), the next one may be different. "As with any radio-frequency system, the directionality and beam width are design parameters that influence the overall system design and can be tailored, based on application, during the design phase," Mastroianni says.

It may prove impossible to generate a beam with a long enough range to be effective, and, at this early stage, other game-stopping technical issues may arise. Then there are also the issues that can come up when first using new weapons. Pre-detonating roadside bombs may cause all sorts of damage, for example, which may be blamed on the team setting the bomb off instead of on those who planted it. However, if (as has been suggested) an airborne version could sweep the road ahead of convoys, it could make things much more difficult for the bombers. Especially if they happened to be next to their bombs when the device flies overhead.

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