SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2018, Issue No. 10
February 12, 2018

Secrecy News Blog: https://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/

ARMY DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPONS, AND MORE FROM CRS

U.S. Army efforts to develop directed energy weapons -- such as lasers and microwave weapons -- are surveyed in a new report from the Congressional Research Service.

Such weapons are probably years away from actual deployment by the Army, if indeed they ever become practical options.

"While DE weapons offer a variety of advantages over conventional kinetic weapons including precision, low cost per shot, and scalable effects, there are also some basic constraints such as beam attenuation, limited range, and an inability to be employed against non-line-of-sight targets which will need to be addressed in order to make these weapons effective across the entire spectrum of combat operations," the CRS report said.

The status of some directed energy programs is obscured by secrecy, CRS said. "The classified nature of most of DOD's HPM [high-power microwave] programs... makes public and academic examination of these programs problematic."

The first DoD laser weapon ever to be approved for operational use was deployed aboard the USS Ponce (now decommissioned), according to the U.S. Navy.

See U.S. Army Weapons-Related Directed Energy (DE) Programs: Background and Potential Issues for Congress by Andrew Feickert, February 7, 2018.

Other new and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service include the following.

Egypt: Background and U.S. Relations, February 8, 2018:

Iran: Politics, Human Rights, and U.S. Policy, February 8, 2018:

Yemen: Civil War and Regional Intervention, February 7, 2018:

Rwanda: In Brief, February 7, 2018:

The 10-20-30 Plan and Persistent Poverty Counties, February 8, 2018:

Medicare Trigger, February 8, 2018:

Women in Congress, 1917-2018: Service Dates and Committee Assignments by Member, and Lists by State and Congress, February 6, 2018:

Federal Spending on Benefits and Services for People with Low Income: In Brief, February 6, 2018:

Introduction to U.S. Economy: The Business Cycle and Growth, CRS In Focus, December 13, 2017:

ARMY VISUAL SIGNALS

Soldiers need to be able to communicate on a noisy, dangerous battlefield even when conventional means of communication are unavailable.

The US Army has just updated its compilation of hand and flag signals to help that need.

One configuration of flags signifies "Chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear hazard present." Or a soldier may need to signal "I do not understand."

See Visual Signals for Armor Fighting Vehicles (Combined Arms), GTA 17-02-019, US Army, February 2018.

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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.

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