Time magazine has a report on what could be the next high-tech weapon making its debut in the war on Iraq: the HPM, or high-power microwave. The classified weapon is capable of delivering an electronic pulse of as much as two billion watts, a pulse which would basically fry sensitive electronic circuitry, chips, and hardware without harming personnel (except for those with pacemakers). As the story points out, an early, less effective version of this was employed in the Gulf War and Yugoslavia by showering a target with Carbon fiber strips that short out electronics and power plants, but obviously this weapon packs a much bigger punch. I have to say that I just love the nickname given to the HPM by its engineers: “Dial-A-Hurt.”
