NPBW - NPBW

…The Navy was in charge of the Chair Heritage project, and built a high-current electron accelerator with an acceleration energy of 50 MeV at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to carry out experiments, but it was eventually converted to use for exciting free electron lasers. (2) Neutral particle beam weapon (NPBW) This method accelerates and focuses negatively charged hydrogen ions, neutralizes them at the final stage of launch, and turns them into a near-light-speed hydrogen atomic beam. It cannot be used in the atmosphere because of collisions with air atoms, but in a vacuum there is no diffusion due to particle repulsion, as occurs in electron beams, and no orbital instability due to geomagnetic fields, so it was expected to be used to intercept long-distance targets in space. The Army promoted development under the White Horse project, and in 1987 experiments were conducted in space, and as a result, it was confirmed that the characteristics of re-radiation caused by neutral particles colliding with a target differed depending on the material of the target, and the unexpected result was that it was more effective in distinguishing between real warheads and decoy warheads than in intercepting and destroying ballistic missiles. …

*Some of the terminology that refers to "NPBW" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…海軍がチェアヘリティジChair Heritage計画を担当し，ローレンス･リバモア国立研究所に加速エネルギー50MeVの大電流電子加速器を建設して実験を推進したが，最終的には自由電子レーザー励起用に転用された。(2)中性粒子ビーム兵器neutral particle beam weapon(NPBW)　負電荷の水素イオンを加速･集束し，発射の最終段階で中和して準光速の水素原子ビームとする方式で，大気中では空気原子との衝突のため使用できないが，真空中では電子ビームに生ずる粒子間反発による拡散も地磁気による軌道不安定もないため，宇宙空間の遠距離目標要撃用として期待された。陸軍がホワイトホースWhite Horse計画のもとに開発を推進し，1987年には宇宙空間での実験が行われ，その結果として中性粒子が目標に衝突して生ずる再放射の特性が目標の材質によって異なることが確認され，弾道ミサイルの要撃破壊よりも，実弾頭と囮（おとり）弾頭の識別に有効という予想外の成果が得られている。…

※「NPBW」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報