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.”
Non-Lethal Weapon Makes Targets Feel Like They're on Fire (ABC whines about non-lethal weapons) ^
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1751053/posts
Posted by ikez78
On News/Activism ^ 12/09/2006 1:17:23 PM PST · 46 replies · 1,418+ views
"...so, if you feel like you're about to catch fire, don't worry, men--it's just a harmless non-lethal weapon designed to freak you out."
Call me old fashioned, but I long for the good old days when our murderous enemies felt like they were on fire because they were indeed on fire.
I can't understand war without death of the enemy and surrender when we have killed all but the ones begging to convert to Christians.
If you put this ray on them and capture 200000 of them, where do you put them? When you let them go, they still want to kill you. You kill them,... 2 problems solved.
(And you're right.)
Regards.
I wish they would modify the weapon so it would burn a cross on the enemy's forehead with the message "Jesus loves me". A hot flash is just not enough!
Cool, but will they DANCE?
I used to see Charlie Callas a lot on the street in Ft. Lee New Jersey, where I often worked. He lived in one of the small mid-rises on Center Ave./ He was the bane of the old ladies in his building, for his lewd antics and noises and the dirty jokes he often offered in the elevators coming or going. I once saw him in a strip mall on Lemoine Ave., standing on the sidewalk outside the plate glass window of a bagel shop, with his trademark tongue-hanging-out, wildly moving both arms and mid-section in movements simulating intercourse, while the woman sitting at the table closest to the window looked at him wide-eyed, her mouth open, gasping, with her food dropping off her fork.
Their beebers will be stuned...
"Pork, The Other White Meat" would make a good second choice.
That was the first question that popped into my mind.
Yeah, but it's a good way to seperate out the enemy from their civilian shields in a crowd situation. If you have soldiers fire on every crowd that has a single rock chucker in it, it may be more than a little counterproductive.
It will not take long for the Muzzies in Iraq to figure this one out.
If we get our troops involved in police activities, we'd better give them the tools for the job. That means being able to start non-lethal and quickly escalate to lethal. If our soldiers cause too much collateral damage we'll create more insurgents than we can kill (politically, not technically).
I understand, and appreciate the need for such weapons, but I can envision a scenario where our weak-kneed pols will end up deploying our folks with nothing but nonlethal weapons as a show of our good intentions. Remember, between 1945 and 1950 we intentionally limited the types of armaments we supplied to the South Koreans, as well as our own men on the peninsula to demonstrate to the commies that we had no offensive intentions in that region. Within a day of the war's beginning we were scouring the theater for artillery and antitank weapons. Likewise, we went into Somalia with good intentions and a lack of killing power locally available.
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