PENETRATION AIDS

THE ADVENT OF DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPON (DEWS) HAS GENERATED NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR HIGH TECHNOLOGY WARFARE. THESE NEW WEAPON CONCEPTS, RANGING FROM HIGH ENERGY LAERS TO NEUTRAL PARTICLE BEAMS, WILL, UNDOUBTEDLY HAVE A MAJOR IMPACT ON THE SHAPE OF FUTURE STRATEGIC MISSILE OFFENSE AND DEFENSE. WHILE DEWS SHOW LITTLE PROMISE AS A DEFENSE AGAINST ATTACKING REENTRY VEHICLES, THE DEPLOYMENT OF A SYSTEM OF DEFENSIVE DEWS BY THE SOVIET UNION MAY SERIOUSLY DEGRADE MISSION EFFECTIVENESS OF U.S. PENETRATION AIDS. THIS IS DUE NOT ONLY TO VULNERABILITY OF CERTAIN PENAIDS TO DIRECTED ENERGY BUT ALSO THE POSSIBLE USE OF DIRECTED ENERGY TO DISCRIMINATE BETWEEN RVS AND PENETRATION AIDS. WE PROPOSE TO ESTABLISH U.S. PENAID VULNERABILITY TO DESTRUCTION AS WELL AS TO DISCRIMINATION BY THREAT DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPONS AND ANALYZE THE IMPACT ON PENAID EFFECTIVENESS. WE WILL THEN EXAMINE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INVENTIVE COUNTERMEASURES TO THESE WEAPONS. TO ACCOMPLISH THESE TASKS, WE WILL CONSTRUCT FIRST ORDER COMPUTER MODELS OF POSSIBLE WEAPON-TARGET INTERACTIONS AND INSERT THEM INTO AN EXISTING HIGH LEVEL SPACE-BASED DIRECTED ENERGY SYSTEMS SIMULATIONS.