Beam Propagation Model Selection for Millimeter-Wave Directed Energy Weapons

Modeling and Simulation (M&S) can be used to explore the design trade space of directed energy weapons. M&S can be particularly helpful when that trade space is influenced by a large number of parameters and when acquiring field data to explore those parameters requires a large amount of resources. One example involves the Active Denial Technology (ADT) system, a non-lethal, counter-personnel, directed energy weapon that outputs high-powered, millimeter wave electromagnetic energy for crowd control, patrol/convoy protection, and perimeter security. The accompanying figure shows a photograph of a current ADT demonstrator (left) and a conceptual drawing of a future iteration of ADT (right).