Microwave weapons are already practical for ant-missile systems. Are they? Do post details.

Raytheon has one for shoulder fire type missiles SAM around Baghdad airport-experimental.

There are supposed to be similar devices usable for crowd control. As a form of "town control" I'd put one on a squadron of UAVs and fly them around, cooking everything electrical for about 24 hours before troops move in. This could help suppress cell phone and radio detonated IEDs and simple communications gear. Would be cleaner than bombs, also.

MW weapons are highly efficient for; 1. Disrupting electronic systems, ranging from comm to guidance systems on missiles. However, EMP-hardened systems shrug off the MW's effects. Also, old-fashioned "dumb" weapons, like rockets or bombs with ordinary (non-electronic) fusing, are basically invulnerable; no electronics= nothing to affect. 2. Disrupting hostile individuals or crowds. MW emissions at a sufficient level can badly disrupt the central nervous system, the results ranging from disorientation, headache, and unconsciousness (the classic SciFfy "stunner" effect) to death, due to literal "cooking" of the tissues, especially within the brain itself. This is why such applications are referred to as "less-than-lethal", as opposed to "non-lethal". (It's also why your microwave oven can't be turned on unless the door is firmly shut.) The only major drawback at present is that the MW emitter itself, plus power systems, isn't exactly small or light. The "crowd-control" system that AMC was experimenting with has to be mounted in a Humvee. Cheers. eon

Also pretty much relegates your local hospitals and health clinics to Civil War-era medical practices, don't it?