POWER HUNGRY.

This article reports that the U.S. Navy's nascent fleet of electric ships can be the technological bridge that moves directed energy from large, earthbound systems to full-scale, highly mobile weapons. Quentin E. Saulter, directed-energy program officer for the Air Warfare and Weapons Department at the Office of Naval Research, commented that new advanced electric-propulsion systems that can generate 30 megawatts or more of electricity are planned for the DD(X) destroyer, CG(X) guided-missile cruiser, littoral combat ship and CV(X) aircraft carrier. Advocates of the technology contend that within a decade, some of these weapons could be among the main armaments on Navy ships. But to make directed energy a tactical weapon, it must be mobile, an ongoing problem for the large and power-hungry directed-energy weapons under development. Electric-kinetic applications include rail guns and free-electron lasers. INSET: INFO ATTACK.