“I do not believe there are direct military actions that could dissuade or prevent the regime from pursuing ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons without risking a response that could devastate Seoul,” Mark Gunzinger, a former Air Force B-52 bomber pilot and current senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments told The National Interest.

“I do not believe there are direct military actions that could dissuade or prevent the regime from pursuing ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons without risking a response that could devastate Seoul,” Mark Gunzinger, a former Air Force B-52 bomber pilot and current senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments told The National Interest.

“If the B-21 goes down the path of the B-2 and it has a slowly decreasing number of aircraft required — say if it goes from 100 to 50 to 21 — then … the per-unit costs would go up,” said Mark Gunzinger

“I don’t think 100 kW would be enough to zap cruise missiles out of the sky, (but) 100 kW — and even lower — may be sufficient to blind/degrade some weapon sensors,” causing them to miss, said directed energy expert Mark Gunzinger, of the Center for Strategic & Budgetary Assessments. 

“We need to push technology forward” and do it faster than historic advances in fielding new weapons capabilities, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. William Moran said at the Directed Energy Summit, cohosted by Booz Allen Hamilton and the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment

“This is an important advance for the Russians, and will increase their operational flexibility/ability to respond to changing conditions in the battlespace and pop-up target opportunities,” Mark Gunzinger, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analyses airpower analyst and former B-52 pilot, told The National Interest. “That said, I don't think it's as significant as having the ability to retarget weapons once they are in flight.  Yes, I'm sure they will develop this capability.  Moreover, while both functionalities are a step forward, I think future weapons that have the capability to collaborate with each other in flight could be game changers.”