Posted on 07/21/2005 5:50:53 PM PDT by Panerai
Scientists are questioning the safety of a Star Wars-style riot control ray gun due to be deployed in Iraq next year.
The Active Denial System weapon, classified as "less lethal" by the Pentagon, fires a 95GHz microwave beam at rioters to cause heating and intolerable pain in less than five seconds.
The discomfort is designed to prompt people caught in the microwave beam to move away from it, thereby allowing riot-control personnel to break up and manage a crowd.
But New Scientist magazine reported Wednesday that during tests carried out at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, participants playing the part of rioters were told to remove glasses and contact lenses to protect their eyes.
In another test they were also told to remove metal objects such as coins from their clothing to prevent local hot spots from developing on their skin.
"What happens if someone in a crowd is unable for whatever reason to move away from the beam?" asked Neil Davison, coordinator of the nonlethal weapons research project at Britain's Bradford University.
"How do you ensure that the dose doesn't cross the threshold for permanent damage? Does the weapon cut out to prevent overexposure?"
The magazine said a vehicle-mounted version of the weapon named Sheriff was scheduled for service in Iraq in 2006 and that U.S. Marines and police were both working on portable versions.
They're right. It's too risky. So are rubber bullets, tear gas, and riot batons.
We'd better just stick with JDAMs.
Hey Jihadists, make sure to wear your aluminum foil undies with the shiny side out for maximum protection.
Yup, Way tpoo risky, Just drop a ....... MOAB
From the people who brought you the microwave oven, a people nuker.
Tough noogies.
My sheriff, for one, will be very disappointed to learn that a non-lethal weapon is being nick-named "sheriff."
He thinks rubber bullets are for kids to play with and is proud that he once burned down a house with a tear-gas cannister. The perp who was holed up in the house, he proudly notes, came out and surrendered.
Why, are the scientists planning on getting a little rowdy at their next convention?
That the German Microwave ... it seats 300
HEY ! when I said "nuke 'em"
I meant "NUKE THEM !"
I'm more concerned about a future Dem administration deciding to use it to make the next Freep "move along"
The problem with easily-used less than lethal weapons is that they are more likely to be used in gray-area situations
One of these should be standar operating procedure during every G-8, WTO, Republican National Convention, etc.
Feel the burn.
Well, if the bad guys would just wrap themselves in a thin metal mesh (with openings about 1mm or smaller - like what one has in the doors of microwave ovens) on top of regular clothing (or blanket) then one would have to fry them for a long time point-blank to get the desired effect. Say, 10kW beam (probably less), with few degrees divergence. At 100 yds a 3° (probably wider) beam would have diameter 5 yds, ca 19 square yds cross-section [again, real beam would probably be wider]. 500W/sq.yd maximum. So, the mesh would have to be heavy enough to dissipate a few hundred watts. Doable.
I wouldn't care if the friggin' ray vaporized those mutts!
You have to wonder about the wisdom of using non-lethal weapons when the result might be to cripple or disfigure. In some parts of the world that will get you a vendetta worse than if you'd just made a clean kill. 'course the rioters make no bones about the fact that their trying to KILL our troops.
Use one of those and I'll need the big zoom lens on the camera to film at a safe distance.How about loading up a airport fire truck with pepper spray-that should give a nice soaking for the unruly.
"Hey Jihadists, make sure to wear your aluminum foil undies with the shiny side out for maximum protection."
Please be sure to send the same courtesy notifications Reid, Kennedy and Kerry.
I think Kennedy and Kerry wear THEIR tinfoil undies for perverted purposes, but, hey, who can say for sure?
(I don't think that Reid has any WAY to commit perverted purposes.)
"Riot control ray gun worries scientists"
Worries me, too, that we may not use them
on the scientists who are worried.
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