I'm such a geek...
Posted on 03/31/2004 4:38:30 AM PST by billorites
US troops are to be armed with a stun gun that uses a baby's high-pitched scream to bring the enemy to its knees.
The gun, which will be issued to marines in Iraq this month, fires "sonic bullets" that can be targeted like a torch beam.
Anyone hit with a full blast would suffer excruciating pain, permanent deafness and some form of cellular damage. A prolonged blast could kill.
The "Secret Scream" gun as it is called, could revolutionise the way US troops deal with snipers, suicide bombers and riots in the turmoil of post-war Iraq.
The actual sound used is a recording of a baby's scream played backwards.
"For most people, even if they plug their ears, it will produce the equivalent of an instant migraine," said Woody Norris, chairman of American Technology Corporation, the Californian company that has produced the weapon.
"It will knock some people to their knees."
Near human pain threshold
While the sound gun will normally be fired at just 110 decibels - a level that causes the human skull to vibrate - it can travel as far as 300 yards at 145 decibels.
The human threshold of pain is usually between 120 and 130 decibels.
Pentagon sources said it would be used in Iraq as an alternative to bullets to break up riots or protests, to stop suspects approaching check points and force snipers from buildings or caves.
The manufacturer tested the gun on volunteers last month.
No one could stand a 110 decibel blast for more than a few seconds.
Previous attempts to use acoustic weapons have failed because the sound travelled in every direction, affecting the operator as well as the enemy.
Individuals can be targeted
But the Secret Scream's ultrasound wave allows the operator to target one or two key individuals in a crowd.
"Tear gas lingers long after you've fired the canisters. This, you switch it off and it's gone," Mr Norris said.
The weapon consists of two parts, a megaphone the size of a commercial satellite dish mounted on an armoured vehicle, and a computerised operating system that aims and controls the sound waves.
There is a smaller version that can be held in the hand, similar to the soundwave gun used by Tom Cruise in the movie Minority Report.
The Secret Scream sends out two ultrasonic waves at different frequencies.
Each set of waves is too high to hear, but they generate audible sound when they overlap. The effect is called "acoustical heterodyning".
Secret Pentagon research
A secret division in the Pentagon has been financing research on futuristic weapons for more than 15 years.
This is the first to go into operation. Retired US marine Colonel Peter Dotto, a weapons consultant, said the gun would be "terrific for repelling suicide bombers and for rousting terrorists from their hideouts".
"Because the sound ricochets in tight, enclosed areas, it would make it very uncomfortable for Al Qaeda terrorists to stay in caves," he said.
"They would have to come out, and they probably would come out with their hands over their ears."
Let's put a big honkin' Linear amp on it and see if we can hit 160db, maybe we can get them to explode!!!
Also in development is a diaper gun.
Sounds good on paper. Until you realize that sound pressure level will drop with the square of the distance from the sound source. Even within the confines of a cave (which will channel the sound and prevent the energy from dissipating in space), there will be natural attenuation that will quickly diminish the effectiveness of any acoustic weapon. And that's discounting any artificial attenuation created by the enemy (such as doors and baffling).
Furthermore, this device requires the focused interaction of two sonic "beams": it is the harmonics generated at the intersection of these two beams that creates the disabling acoustic energy. The only way these two beams can be effectively focused is in free space (i.e., open air); you can just shoot them both down a tunnel and expect them to come together down in the terrorist's living room.
A far better tool to have in the warriors "toolbox" for clearing out tunnels and underground bunkers is the subterranean-detonating nuclear bunker-buster bomb. But the Liberals have quashed that one because it isn't happy-happy, friendly-friendly enough.
That's easy: they were about to pass the baby to Kerry for a campaign photo op...
Anyone hit with a full blast would suffer excruciating pain, permanent deafness and some form of cellular damage.
LOL...I can see it now....
Interregator: OK, Mohamad, we gotcha fair and square. Now where's the rest of your evil band?
Mohamad: Huh? Huh? I see your lips moving, did you say something?
Having been around the little darlings a time or two - rest assured you don't need to "collect" anything.
Meant to write: "you can't just shoot them both down a tunnel and expect them to come together down in the terrorist's living room.
I'm such a geek...
Bring it to a Heavy Metal show, people will laugh at it. ;-)
they established a new standard in ear splitting power by breaking their Guinness record for loudest band in the world. Two sound specialists officiated, measuring and documenting with painstaking care as Manowar shook the city, playing live at a staggering 129.5 decibels through 10 tons of amplifiers and speakers measuring 40 feet in length and 21 feet in height.
http://www.metalstorm.ee/bands/view_band.php?band_id=manowar
What even more creapy is thinking about an opposing force capturing or stealing a few of these weapons and learning how to use them against us in the field...
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