Energy beam weapons in space unlikely

There does not seem to be much of a future for the idea of space-based directed energy systems as weapons for destroying satellites and ballistic missiles. Such weapons may just about be feasible. But they are certainly not practical today, and they won't be for at least 20 years. Even if they are eventually proven practical, their effectiveness could be greatly reduced by relatively simple countermeasures. Also, they would be highly vulnerable themselves, prohibitively expensive as a ballistic missile defense system, and likely to destabilize the already shaky nuclear weapons balance between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. These are among the major findings of both Richard L. Garwin of IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center and Kosta Tsipis of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's physics department. Both scientists spoke on these high-energy laser and particle beam systems earlier this month in Toronto at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Both ...