We live in a technological world, so much so, that if our electronics all stopped working, the world would shut down. With that in mind, the Air Force has begun testing its newest weapon, and it’s not designed to kill humans.
Instead, its focus is on electronics. The Air Force Research Laboratory is conducting two months of testing, along with the Office of Navel research on High-Powered Joint Electromagnetic Non-Kinetic Strik Weapons or HiJENKS. HiJENKS is a five-year project that can be used to destroy electronics in a very targeted fashion.
Before HiJENKS, there was another High-Powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project known as Champ. What these two share in common is that they are designed to disable electronics without using any physical force. It’s not an easy task to create a weapon that can disable electronics without the use of any physical force.
However, HiJENKS can fry electronics by using bursts of microwave energy. HiJENKS was created as an improvement to CHAMP, which was built to fit in the case of a bomber-launched cruise missile. Currently, there isn’t much that has been released to the public regarding HiJENKS form. “We’ll start looking at more service-specific applications once we’ve done this test that demonstrates the technology,” says Jeffrey Heggemeirer, the chief of AFRL’s high-power electromagnetics division.
“Heggemeier said the program hasn’t yet designated a platform for the weapon, but noted HiJENKS’ smaller footprint means it could be integrated on a wider range of carrier systems,” reported C4ISRNET.
No matter how this weapon develops, it could be a very powerful and dangerous weapon. However, amid battle, it could prove beneficial, at least in some capacity. For now, we can only speculate as to how it would work in battle because as it stands, it is still in the developmental and testing stages.