Designed to allow operators to neutralise targets such as roadside bombs and other unexploded ordnance at a safe distance (300 metres, 984 ft), the first battlefield ray gun, or direct energy weapon, has now been deployed to an active theatre of operations, probably Iraq. It is called Zeus, after the Greek god of sky and thunder. It is not designed to kill. Currently, explosives, such as that contained in rocket-propelled grenades, are often used but these can miss and are expensive. Up to about 12 more may well be deployed in the field by the end of 2009.