Beyond kinetic strikes: opportunities for UAV-borne directed energy in disrupting asymmetric extremist networks

As the world has embraced digital communications technologies, extremist networks have moved significant operational functions online to avoid and minimize the impact of kinetic targeting in governments’ counterterrorism campaigns. The challenge for governments has been striking a balance between physical and online interdictions to disrupt and degrade terrorist organizations. This study presents a comparative analysis of kinetic and Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) payloads for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the context of counterterrorism operations. It concludes that UAV-borne DEWs offer a novel capability to disrupt online extremist networks while minimizing the risks of civilian casualties and operational blowback.