Plan for a laser weapon verification research program

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Plan for a laser weapon verification research program

T. J. Karr

Currently there is great interest in the question of how, or even whether, a treaty limiting the development and deployment of laser weapons could be verified. The concept of cooperative laser weapon verification is that each party would place monitoring stations near the other party's declared or suspect laser weapon facilities. The monitoring stations would measure the ''primary laser observables'' such as power or energy, either directly or by collecting laser radiation scattered from the air or the target, and would verify that the laser is operated within treaty limits. This concept is modeled along the lines of the seismic network recently activated in the USSR as a joint project of the United States Geologic Survey and the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The seismic data, gathered cooperatively, can be used by each party as it wishes, including to support verification of future nuclear test ban treaties. For laser weapon verification the monitoring stations are envisioned as ground-based, and would verify treaty limitations on ground-based laser anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons and on the ground-based development of other laser weapons. They would also contribute to verification of limitations on air-, sea- and space-based laser weapons, and the technology developed for cooperative verification could also be used in national technical means of verification. 2 figs., 4 tabs. (ERA citation 15:034845)