The term "annular confinement beam" refers to a secondary revolving field that surrounds a stream of particles as they travel through space designed to ensure that the particles remain collimated, contained, cohesive,  or on course toward a target. These jacketing beams can be composed of magnetic fields, subspace fields, gravity fields, or a host of other particle or wave interactions. The only definitional requirement is that they prevent the "leak" or dissipation of beams as they travel through space.

Annular confinement beams find use in a variety of applications and are not simply limited to use for weapon guidance. A type of annular confinement beam is used to boost and maintain transporter signals (left), others are used in tight beam communications, and still others extend the effective range of weapons such as turbolasers, phasers, or even superlasers (right).