ABSTRACT
The rapid development of high-power microwaves (HPMs) during the 1980s was due to the availability of a technology base that had been developed for other applications. Figure 5.1 shows the subsystems of an HPM device operating in an HPM facility. Pulsed electrical systems, referred to as pulsed power, were developed in the 1960s to enable nuclear weapons effects simulation and hydrodynamics testing.1 Later, inertial confinement fusion became a driver for pulsed power technology. Initially, HPM largely made use of existing pulsed power equipment to perform experiments. Today, as HPM systems are being fielded on mobile platforms, the pulsed power systems used are very compact and custom to the application.2 Advances in energy storage devices used in pulsed power systems ensure that future systems will be increasingly compact; see Table 5.1 and Figure 5.2.
