US Army heat-ray gun in Afghanistan

BBC News ^ | 7/18/2010 | Dan Cairns

[DemforBush]

I've seen demonstrations of this thing. It appears to work quite well. Not sure if Afghanistan is the best application for what is essentially a crowd-control device, though.

On a somewhat/not really related note...years ago I heard a story about somewhat similar effects associated with the Smerch radar system used on the MiG-25 Foxbat. The story goes that pilots were forbidden to activate the radar while still on the ground in part because the energy from the pulse (the Smerch could put out over 500 kilowatts) could kill animals wandering outside the fences at the airbase.

Dunno if there's any truth to that tale, but I always thought it sounded cool. :-)

[Rodamala]

Coming soon to a tea party rally in your town!

[Rodamala]

Oh... and all the people at the tea party rally will be billed $10 for the suntan.

[Sarajevo]

The Active Denial System (ADS) is a non-lethal weapon designed to disperse violent crowds and repel enemies.

I haven't heard of human wave attacks in Afghanistan yet. I don't think this would work well against a moving point target.

[WKUHilltopper]

Can it heat up frozen burritos?

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

I think it can

[WKUHilltopper]

“I agree. This weapon can be used against US citizens”

I think you mean “will”. Look for one rolling down Main Street USA any day now.

[Waco]

Crap cannon goes back to Tesla, on 1 stting all male fill their bloomers, at the 2nd setting all females fill their bloomers,,,talk about crowd control.

[AzNASCARfan]

Sounds like they need to put it to work on the southern border... set it up on the smuggling trails and let it rip... Oh sorry, forgot who was running this country...

[puppypusher]

Active denial system ha?How about a neutron bomb activation?Now that would be a real active,Not to mention radio active denial system.

The one thing about it though is it will work and your enemies will not be soon returning.

[GenXteacher]

Agreed. This is not a weapon of war- it is a weapon to crush dissent.

[Mr. Lucky]

On the whole, a cariage mounted quad-fifty does a more reliable job.

[JimRed]

Limit deaths? OK, in situations where innocent individuals could become collateral damage, but failing to kill the terrorists simply means that they’ll be back.

[kbennkc]

Crap cannon goes back to Tesla, on 1 stting all male fill their bloomers, at the 2nd setting all females fill their bloomers,,,talk about crowd control.

Love me some Nicky Tesla inventions. I wish he would have had Ron Popeil's PR skills and patent lawyers.

[hosepipe]

LOL....

[dtrpscout]

Cross-firing .50 M2s work wonders dispersing crowds, too.

[doorgunner69]

Heard the same about birds flying in front of the old SPS-48 (3-4 Megawatts) and now the SPY-1 series. Just drop out of the sky. Tightly focused microwave energy is a nasty thing.....

[The Pack Knight]

This could have some "creative" uses....

[The Pack Knight]

Wait a minute. I thought the purpose of going to war was to kill people and break things. That’s the unofficial motto of the US Marine Corps, isn’t it? I thought we were supposed to maximize enemy deaths, not minimize them. What am I missing here?

Killing unarmed civilians is generally frowned upon in modern warfare, even when those civilians might be sympathetic to the enemy. When we have an enemy that routinely uses such civilians as human shields, I can see why a device like this might be useful.

[ottbmare]

It sounded in the article as if they were going to be using it not just on civilians but on actual enemy forces, too.