Posted on 07/17/2010 9:38:46 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
The Active Denial System (ADS) is a non-lethal weapon designed to disperse violent crowds and repel enemies.
It uses a focused invisible beam that causes an "intolerable heating sensation", but only penetrates the skin to the equivalent of three sheets of paper.
The discomfort causes whoever it's pointed at to immediately start moving away. They often scream but the US military says the chance of injury from the system is 0.1%.
It's already been tested more than 11,000 times on around 700 volunteers. Even reporters have faced the heat-ray.
Limit deaths
Lt. Col. John Dorrian, a US military spokesperson, says the kit is now in Afghanistan but no decision has yet been made on its use.
There's been much talk about the need to keep civilian casualties in Afghanistan to a minimum. The heat-ray gun could help.
The beam produced by the ADS can travel more than 500m (1,640ft) and is seen as an important new way to limit unnecessary deaths and minimise war zone casualties.
Developers also say it could also be adapted to other operations, like fighting drug smuggling at sea and general peacekeeping operations.
Research is continuing to make the system smaller, lighter and less expensive, says the Pentagon's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Nails work pretty good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfuK2MFmxnM
I’d have a hard time believing that, especially out of the Marine Corps. They might use it as I once heard another Marine Officer many years ago describe the Corps’ stance on non-lethal weapons: “We’ll use them if they help us close with and destroy the enemy.”
I could see plenty of situations where that might be applicable. For one, the enemy sometimes mix in with crowds of unarmed civilians - dispersing that crowd makes things a lot simpler.
Also, the suggestion that the device is used for “area denial” suggests another potentially valuable application in urban warfare - the denial of “dead space” like blind alleys and side streets to the enemy. Since that has traditionally been a role for artillery and other indirect fire weapons, this could fall under “reducing unnecessary casualties”.
This is mostly speculation on my part, but I have a hard time seeing Marines restraining themselves to using microwaves on enemies firing on them with AK-47s and RPGs.
The thing is tailor made for riot control. And once a police department has one, it will appear at any demonstration as their way of saying "move along".
Consider the Islamic fondness for human shields. This allows us to convince the human shields to go elsewhere, fast. As they are running, snipers can engage the bad guys more easily.
I should clarify that I’m not giving this thing my unqualified endorsement (for whatever that would be worth).
This isn’t a “battlefield innovation” of the kind Americans have always developed to adapt to the enemy and win wars. I don’t think it was purposefully developed in response to observed enemy tactics in Afghanistan - in fact, I’m pretty sure it was in development well before we ever contemplated invading Afghanistan.
Therefore, its use might be driven more by bureaucratic politics than by actual battlefield utility, much like a lot of other ill-conceived weapon systems. Still, if the Marines can find a good use for it, then I say give it a chance.
I should also say that my personal experience in modern urban warfare is limited to urban warfare training and doctrine in the 90s, and I assume those have changed as a result of our military’s experience over the last decade. I don’t have any personal experience concerning what our men are facing in Iraq and Afghanistan and what tactics they’re using. All I know about those wars is from what I’ve read and from veterans I’ve talked to.
Assuming this thing proves effective, it will be interesting to see how the enemy adapts to it.
It might drive enemies into cover who would otherwise be in the open, but it might also serve to help pin them down and impair their ability to fire back effectively. I hope it doesn’t just help enforce better movement discipline among the enemy (speaking of which, it might be an interesting training tool for our own guys in that regard).
If it’s really effective, I could see the enemy attempting to counteract it through drug use. A guy hopped up on PCP or meth could possibly resist its effects to some degree.
Ah well, interesting to speculate how it might play out, but we’ll see in actual combat.
I suggest it is X-Band, 8-12.4 GHz and modulated with square waves, triangular waves,and power swept fast. The feed arms to the feed horn to the refleftor suggest a cp modulation to linear.
Still, anybody hit with 300KW X-band won't need to visit a barber again.
I wonder how well a golf umbrella with a layer of aluminum foil would do as a ready shield against this?
I assume it would work, but it would probably degrade the combat effectiveness of the person carrying it.
If aimed correctly, it will reflect the RF back into the feed and and cause a hot standing wave that will burn up the parametric amplifier’s klystron tubes.
With all respect, you really do not know what you are talking about. I worked at the company that builds the damn thing, and know just wee bit about propagation. O2 and H2o absorption bands are way below 95 GHz.
Once delivered to the theater, am sure a few good troops will figure how to hook it up in series to a few hundred batteries for "enhanced" capabilities.
:-)
Now, there might be some power limiters that the creative grunt can bypass, in an "emeegency", yeah, that's the ticket.
Oh, here is another hint to help you with the antenna design: it is a Cassegrain arrangement.
If it is mechanical, some GI's with time and a few beers will dream up the solution to put that baby on "fry" mode.
BTW, regards your handle, rode the right side for 4 months before I had my own ship to crew.
Yeah...the kit is PRESENT in Afghanistan...
I was on both sides, CH-46. Preferred the left side, further forward and not as busy without the hatch right there and usually a crew chief peering about through it.
While I was still with fixed wings, not directly involved, but the night crew (I was day crew) maintaining the Mk-4 gunpods decided to crank off a few 20mm rounds out toward the hills in Chu Lai. You could do that with the ground test gear.
Or rigging up a 19 shot 2.75" rocket pod on a jury-rigged tripod. Ripple fire was impressive, particularly as the blast of each rocket leaving kicked the whole mess up a bit each time. Scared hell out of us that it would go vertical before empty.........
LOL, Goose pimples even.
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