Posted on 01/24/2007 9:48:01 PM PST by NormsRevenge
MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. – The military calls its new weapon an “active denial system,” but that's an understatement. It's a ray gun that shoots a beam that makes people feel as if they are about to catch fire. Apart from causing that terrifying sensation, the technology is supposed to be harmless – a non-lethal way to get enemies to drop their weapons.
Military officials say it could save the lives of innocent civilians and service members in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
The weapon is not expected to go into production until at least 2010, but all branches of the military have expressed interest in it, officials said.
During the first media demonstration of the weapon Wednesday, airmen fired beams from a large dish antenna mounted atop a Humvee at people pretending to be rioters and acting out other scenarios that U.S. troops might encounter in war zones.
The device's two-man crew located their targets through powerful lenses and fired beams from more than 500 yards away. That is nearly 17 times the range of existing non-lethal weapons, such as rubber bullets.
Anyone hit by the beam immediately jumped out of its path because of the sudden blast of heat throughout the body. While the 130-degree heat was not painful, it was intense enough to make the participants think their clothes were about to ignite.
“This is one of the key technologies for the future,” said Marine Col. Kirk Hymes, director of the non-lethal weapons program at Quantico, Va., which helped develop the new weapon. “Non-lethal weapons are important for the escalation of force, especially in the environments our forces are operating in.”
The system uses electromagnetic millimeter waves, which can penetrate only 1/64th of an inch of skin, just enough to cause discomfort. By comparison, microwaves used in the common kitchen appliance penetrate several inches of flesh.
The millimeter waves cannot go through walls, but they can penetrate most clothing, officials said. They refused to comment on whether the waves can go through glass.
The weapon could be mounted aboard ships, airplanes and helicopters, and routinely used for security or anti-terrorism operations.
“There should be no collateral damage to this,” said Senior Airman Adam Navin, 22, of Green Bay, Wis., who has served several tours in Iraq.
Navin and two other airmen were role players in Wednesday's demonstration. They and 10 reporters who volunteered were shot with the beams. The beams easily penetrated various layers of winter clothing.
The system was developed by the military, but the two devices currently being evaluated were built by defense contractor Raytheon.
Airman Blaine Pernell, 22, of suburban New Orleans, said he could have used the system during his four tours in Iraq, where he manned watchtowers around a base near Kirkuk. He said Iraqis constantly pulled up and faked car problems so they could scout out U.S. forces.
“All we could do is watch them,” he said. But if they had the ray gun, troops “could have dispersed them.”
As a side note, deploying the guard to the LA riots with no ammunition for their weapons was a bluff which worked (not that I'd have done it).
This millimeter beam weapon sounds like a typical military-industrial response, too expensive and delicate, but lots of CASH for them that make it.
A better idea, at least for crowd control in a riot : put some slickery stuff like aqua gel in the water cannon spray. You take FRICTION, as in foot TRACTION, for granted; ever slipped and fell on ICE? So with the street surface suddenly like ice/grease, a mob of rioters becomes a writhing mass of WORMS, squirming and cursing, but going nowhere...a better, non-lethal solution than zapper-beams.
Harder to hit a crowd with at 500 yard though. Plus you would not have an infinite supply of 'ammo' like this electronic device does.
Another weapon for a politically correct war. Once this goes live, machine guns will be banned.
You are probably right, but right now, they aren't even allowed to listen in on phone calls. It might come off a little harsh to ZAP Americans that we can't even wiretap.
It would only be accepted to ZAP those pesky Christians that have guns and believe Christ is returning per the Janet Reno memo. The Waco Zapper got a little out of hand.
Interesting advancement:
This will allow the enemy to fight another day.
And franklly, I have concern it will be used against America's own citizens.
More likely they'll turn it on American civilians for crowd control or give it to the police. Yes, I can definitely see that happening. Police are already tasering people. Looks like this ray gun will be their next new weapon of choice.
We're talking about different situations. This E beam is a sort of sniper rifle, it hits hostiles one at a time. I'm referring to a hostile CROWD of hundreds, even thousands, of rioters that need non-lethal treatment.
Hit them with super slickery water, either from a water cannon vehicle or helicopter drop, and suddenly ground friction is GONE = writhing, squirming mass of people not going anywhere until it evaporates off. By then their testosterone levels have returned to much lower values.
Being a relatively large dish on a humvee makes it a juicy target for RPGs, enemy sniper shots...how much does this unit cost to manufacture and deploy vs the ubiquitous RPG in Iraq? Back to the drawing board guys....
Actually there was an internicine battle over resources at the end of the Cold War the civillian side called it the "Peace Dividend" The remaining money was snatched up by Ft Bennnings Light Fighter, mental Judo devotees. The cost of Mechanized forces is tremendous. It is much more expensive to train a Tanker or Mech Infantrymen than any Special Feces Soldier when you include his equipment and platform costs. By adopting the light fighter modality the US Military specifically the Army was able to spend money on new "High Tech" equipment and not on maintaing legacy systems like the M48-M60 Series Medium Tanks M113 Gavin Armored Personel Carrier, The M1 Heavy Tank, Bradley etc. The systems are expensive and require continuoous trainiing to operates successfully. The Light Fighters delusion is that they can fight the earth and the enemy with what is on their backs. The reality is the use of Light Fighters where they are expected is a guarantee of causalties as no man regardless of how he is trained can resist High Explosives. No man regardless of his training can run 45 MPH nor carry 10 tons of munitions. You see light fighter is a sound concept for conducting a delay or a raid or even an ongoing hearts and minds campaign in a relatively low intensity environment. But they are completlely vulnerable to what we face in Iraq especially which is now a Proxy war between the US And Iran.
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BTW it is a complete mistake to think of "Hearts and Minds" as a proven doctrine. It remains and unproven theory and one with considerable evidence of it's failure.
As a side note, deploying the guard to the LA riots with no ammunition for their weapons was a bluff which worked (not that I'd have done it)
It was no bluff it was an act of personal cowardice on the part of Commanders who betrayed the trust of their troops.
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It would be interesting to see which method worked better in ACTUAL field conditions. How much does this E beam weapon cost vs a terrorist w/an RPG or mortar? I mean, really, do we think they won't be shooting BACK at us? As to the slickery water hose on sandy roads/areas, easily checked out w/o millions in tests...inexpensive low tech often works just as well as expen$ive high tech to do the job of non-lethal calming of a mob.
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