The $9 million High Energy Research and Technology Facility (HERTF) at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, is designed to develop weapons using high-power microwaves (HPM), high-energy advanced pulsed power (including explosive-pumped devices), and very- high-energy plasmas. Such weapons could disrupt or destroy electronic equipment aboard satellites by irradiation from directed energy sources. It may eventually be used for ASAT experiments or an early operational system.

The facility is located in a remote canyon in the Manzano Mountains in the south-east portion of Kirtland. It is designed to withstand blasts and intense radiation. The facility has a four-story-high bay laboratory, 25 m by 45 m, with concrete roof and walls 1.3 m thick. Up to 450 kg of high explosive can be detonated in an area below the high bay to produce hundreds of megajoules of electrical energy needed for advanced experiments.

• 433 - Federation of American Scientists Web Site, . HTML when accessed: http://www.fas.org/