The Air Force Research Lab, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base has awarded General Dynamics Information Technology a research contract for bioeffects research of directed energy effects.

The contract, announced Friday, is worth more than $30,8 million, provides for research on directed energy systems to assist in transitioning Department of Defense technologies.

Work will be performed at Joint Base San Antonio, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and is expected to be complete by Nov. 28, 2025.

It is supposed that General Dynamics was tasked with performing research into directed energy bio-mechanisms and human effectiveness analysis and integration under the U.S. Air Force’s Directed Energy Bio-effects Research (DEBR) program.

According to the Air Force Research Laboratory’s website (link opens in PDF), DEBR aims to quantify the effects of directed energy weapons (optical radiation, radio frequency radiation, microwave radiation, and electromagnetic propagation) in order to “develop non-lethal weapons and the defensive means to protect our own men and women from this type of weapon.”

Research work will cover directed energy weapons, directed energy bio-mechanisms and radio frequency bio-effects models and simulations.