Pain Ray Going Airborne [HMMV with millimeter-wave beam penetrates skin, water molecules bubble]

Defense Tech ^ | Nov 15/16, 2004 | unknown

[Mike Fieschko]

It was only a matter of time, I guess. First, the Air Force builds a real-life, microwave-like pain ray. Then, it gets a company to strap that real-life, microwave-like pain ray to the back of a jet.

For years, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has been working on a millimeter-wave beam that penetrates a 64th of an inch beneath the skin. That causes the water molecules there to bubble. And that hurts like hell; people tend to run -- fast -- in the other direction. Small wonder, then, that non-lethal weapons experts call this "Active Denial System" the "holy grail of crowd control."

Active Denial been tested on people a bunch of times. A Humvee-mounted prototype is about to start undergoing trials. And now, Active Denial is going airborne.

AFRL handed Palo Alto's Communications & Power Industries a four year, $7 million contract, according to the Hilltop Times -- the in-house paper of Hill Air Force Base.

Dr. Diana Loree, the project officer for Active Denial, said four AFRL directorates are involved in developing this airborne capability: directed energy here; propulsion and vehicles at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; and human effectiveness at Brooks City-Base, Texas.

Experts from directed energy, as the lead directorate, focuses on the systems engineering and radiating system development, she said. Propulsion directorate experts focus on the airborne power generation and conditioning required for the radiating system. Vehicles directorate scientists and engineers put their efforts toward Active Denial's thermal management and aircraft integration issues while human effectiveness experts focus on biological effects research.

[Mike Fieschko]

(The author (not me) writes in the first person. This isn't mine.)

[ravingnutter]

Awesome...thanks. Our company does some of the human effectiveness research at Brooks and we have been looking at getting involved in the Directed Energy field. Will forward this to the boss...

[GraniteStateConservative]

Microwave Islamists on high for 2-3 minutes.

[akorahil]

Wasn't there an article on this a little while ago on FR? I recall, as the thing that stood out to me was that they had to develop a generator the size of a beer keg that had a FIVE MEGAWATT OUTPUT. (Or something akin to that...)

By no means am I an electrical engineer, but that, to me, sounds like a HUGE amount of power in a small package...

[headsonpikes]

Reminds me of the government death-machine used to kill the goats with sound-waves in 'Atlas Shrugged'.

Not a good reminder at all.

[boycottliberalhollywood.com]

This is all fine, but I hope it comes with a huge knob you can crank wayyyy past the "SAFE" mark. Does it have a "BROIL" setting?

[Mike Fieschko]

Reminds me of the government death-machine used to kill the goats with sound-waves in 'Atlas Shrugged'.

Heh. That similarity didn't occur to me. Wasn't that like a xylophone or piano? The physicist died when it blew up, IIRC.

[asgardshill]

This is all fine, but I hope it comes with a huge knob you can crank wayyyy past the "SAFE" mark.

It goes to "11".

[SBOinTX]

That is a lot of power... it only takes one point twenty one gigawatts to travel in time

[boycottliberalhollywood.com]

Medium-rare, please.

[boycottliberalhollywood.com]

...a four year, $7 million contract,

I wish I could have gotten that contract. Directed Energy Weapon, 7 mil, no problem!

"Gentlemen, behold, this tiny brass cannister holds a small charge of a very potent compound. When struck, a small igniter at the base of this cannister will cause the compound within to expand at a tremendous rate; propelling this little lead piece at the front at speeds beyond mach 1! This companion device holds this cannister, and provideds a convenient mechanism for directing the energy (well, really, directing the mass) in the desired area. Makes for great crowd dispersal. As an added bonus, the device even produces a rather loud report, which tends to scare off angry mobs."

[babyface00]

Yeah, but how well does it heat up a cup of water, or make popcorn?

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping

[fredhead]

Put it a low power setting and you can sterilize liberals so they can't reproduce and continue to contaminate the world.

[TXnMA]

"Brooks City-Base, Texas"

New one on me! But a bit of Googling confirmed my suspicion that the fancy name refers to the old (since WWI) Brooks AFB near San Antonio.

Makes sense to do the application R&D there, because it is the home of the Brooks Aerospace Medical Center...

[TXnMA]

Mike,

My guess is that much of the energy would be absorbed/dissipated by mud-brick walls. Otherwise, it would be most useful in flushing islamoterrs out into the open where they can be attacked from above...

[Chemist_Geek]

I recall, as the thing that stood out to me was that they had to develop a generator the size of a beer keg that had a FIVE MEGAWATT OUTPUT. (Or something akin to that...)

Wow. The size of a beer keg?

[white trash redneck]

They should be careful - they could put somebody's eye out!

Seriously, there is a lot of work on using hyperthermia (heat) in cancer treatment, and the lens of the eye is very sensitive. Expect to see cataracts in people who get zapped with this thing.

[akorahil]

I will see if I can find that article again, but they made it out to be that size, if not a little bigger.

[Gritty]

I wonder what this does to eyeballs?