Press release from Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology

Connecticut small business Electron Optics Development Co, LLC has announced that US patent 7,282,727 was issued October 16, 2007 for a new type of ballistic missile defense.

According to inventor Michael Retsky, this device will be space-based and can deliver trillion watts/cm ² energy bursts of electrons that are sufficient to destroy a ballistic missile over 1000 km away. The main advantage is that the device can fire an intense burst of electrons every second for weeks. This rapid-fire ability is important since a major problem in missile defense is that a missile might deploy many decoys that are difficult to distinguish from the single or even multiple warheads. Such tactics can overwhelm defensive systems. The new device can strike all suspicious objects many times over. No other ballistic missile defense system in the world has that capability. It is not for lack of effort since the US military has spent over $100 billion on missile defense.

The use of an electron beam to destroy missiles in space was studied extensively in the 1970s but then abandoned after two supposedly unsolvable problems were identified.

First, during the 10 microseconds while the beam is travelling to the target, it spreads from its initial diameter of 1 cm to an unacceptably large 5 m due to the mutual repulsion of the individual electrons. The second problem identified was that it was impossible to aim the beam since it was invisible and deflected by the somewhat variable earth’s magnetic field.

The invention solves the beam-spreading problem by reversing the optics. That is, the beam starts at a diameter of 5 m and is directed slightly inward so that it focuses to 1 cm at the distant target. To solve the aiming problem, an array of satellites or test targets accompanies the device for periodic calibration of the trajectories of electron beams.

The electron generator is quite large (150 to 300 m long and 5 m diameter) but low in mass. The parts can be rolled up to fit inside a Shuttle bay for transport to orbit. The device is unmanned so not nearly as expensive as the International Space Station. Energy is stored in flywheels.

Of course the US has many other pressing vulnerabilities but at present, our cities are not safe from a determined enemy that has access to ballistic missiles and nuclear, chemical or biological warheads.