In article ,
"Ed Huntress" wrote:

"Winston" wrote in message
news:41m1j.25967$9h.16202@trnddc07...
Ed Huntress wrote:
"Leon Fisk" wrote in message
...
(...)

I can think of lots of ways to defeat what we are trying to
create, I suspect the bad guys can too (shrug).


Excuse me for jumping in at this late date, but what are you guys trying
to do, transmit a lot of radio-wave energy to IEDs? If so, you're going
to have to get 'way up into the microwave region to transmit any
significant energy, right? E=hf or E=hv, where h is Planck's constant and
all that.

If I'm missing the point, then never mind. d8-)

You got it Ed.

I figure a 200 W microwave amplifier should result in ca 100 KW ERP at the
feed horn of a 30" diameter parabolic dish. After allowing for space
attenuation and shielding, would it reduce the IED to carbon quickly
enough to make it safe?

Practical microwaves are not my department; I only have brushed with
theoretical stuff, from long ago when I was studying for a radar
endorsement.

You may want to look at the millimeter-wave (95 GHz) Active Denial system,
V-MADS, to see if it provides any clues. They don't seem to transmit much
power, just enough to heat up the target (human) to an uncomfortable degree.
And the systems tested for missile defense run around 4 trillion Watts: a
12-16 million Amp pulse with a rise time of 400 nanoseconds. These are
powered by big flux compressors.

I guess the needs here fall somewhere in between. d8-) There's a lot of
comment that's been published on microwave weapons, so it should be
researchable.

The problem is more fundamental. While high-power microwaves (HPMs) can
and have set ordinance off, it's very random as it depends on accidental
resonances and shielding flaws and is in any event quite inefficient.
Safety regulations are designed to make a low rate essentially zero, to
cut down on fratricide. However, the natural low rate is really too low
to be militarily effective.

Nor is the enemy stupid - if we start neutralizing too many IEDs with
HPM, pretty soon IEDs will have improved shielding. Shielding is far
cheaper than deployment of sufficient HPM gear, making the economic
tradeoff unattractive. Some other way will be found.

Joe Gwinn