Sound to make an army flee (New Sonic Weapon uses Baby's Cry)

The Scotsman ^ | Mon 24 Jun 2002 | Foreign Staff

[Gaston]

A NEW sonic weapon being developed for the Pentagon makes use of one of the most fearsome sounds known to humans: a baby crying.

Once aimed at the enemy, a focused beam of the familiar noise, played backwards, will be painful enough to make enemy soldiers run for their lives, according to its developers. They call it the ‘‘sonic bullet’’.

There are 50 soundtracks to choose from, and they are played at 140 decibels. That is akin to standing beneath a passenger jet as it takes off. Hardly surprising, then, that the weapon causes an intense headache in its victim.

For years armies have used sound, speech, or radio broadcasts as a propaganda weapon. US troops invading Panama blasted the besieged General Manuel Noriega with loud rock music. Nazi Germany used sound in torture.

But the "hypersonic sound system" beams sound along two ultrasonic signals to produce noise only when they hit the target. The weapon’s user doesn’t hear a thing.

It has been suggested for use in crowd-control, to clean al-Qaeda terrorists out of caves, or as a ship-to-ship device that goes one better than the shot across the bows.

A hand-held version of the weapon - a thin tube about a yard long, dubbed a "directed stick radiator" - might in theory be used against hijackers in a plane cockpit, though the bouncing beams could deafen passengers as well.

The firm which developed the system, American Technology Corporation, has won approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to market it. It also hopes to offer the device for use in drinks machines. Someone in front of one would hear the sound of a can opening with an enticing fizz.

[Gaston]

I would like to have one of these and aim it at my neighbor with a recording of his own dog.

[Jeff F]

Hmmm... At a mere 70 decibels, Hillary's voice is more than enough to make most thinking creatures turn heal and run.

[capt. norm]

You're right. Hillary's voice could crack a paper cup.

[wku man]

Or the little Generation.com punk down the street who insists on thumping his car stereo as he pulls into and out of the driveway. But I think taking a shotgun to the punk's stereo would be more satisfying.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[joesnuffy]

I fought back...John Phillips Sousa martial music...and those punks really hate hearing "The Halls of Montezuma" played through loud speakers...hehehehe

[KuernoDeChivo]

That reminds me of an old Kate Bush song....

---

Kate Bush Discography
Song Index
Experiment IV

We were working secretly for the Military
Our experiment in sound
Was nearly ready to begin
We only know in theory what we are doing
Music made for pleasure
Music made to thrill
It was music we were making here until.....
Chorus

They told us all they wanted was a sound
That could kill someone from a distance
So we go ahead
And the meters are over in the red
It's a mistake in the making

From the painful cries of mothers to
The terrifying scream
We recorded it and put it into our machine.....

Chorus

It could feel like falling in love
It could feel so bad
But it could feel so good
It could sing you to sleep
But that dream is your enemy
We won't be there to be blamed
We won't be there to snitch
I just pray
That someone there can hit the switch

But they told us all they wanted was a sound
That could kill someone from a distance
So we go ahead and
The meters are over in the red
It's a mistake we have made

Uuh, uuh, uuh, uuh
And the public are warned to stay off

---

[Budge]

I'd like to have one to aim at the cars that you can hear from many blocks away.

Oh well, the drivers and passengers will probably be deaf by the time they reach 30 anyway, assuming they can hear that fire truck headed right toward them.

[john in missouri]

What gets me is the people who pull up next to you at the stoplight with (c)rap music blaring at a deafening volume.

[boris]

50 soundtracks, eh?...A Madonna track would be one candidate. Some Heavy Metal, mixed with Rap, and one part auto-crash. Mix it down.

Rosie "singing" the Star Strangled Banner (backwards or forwards, makes no difference). Other candidates?...

[snippy_about_it]

Worse than a baby crying is a rabbit screaming.

[LouD]

Here's a solution to the obnoxious car stereo twits, courtesy of Popular Mechanics...

E-BOMB

In the blink of an eye, electromagnetic bombs could throw civilization back 200 years. And terrorists can build them for $400.

BY JIM WILSON

Lead illustration by Edwin Herder

The next Pearl Harbor will not announce itself with a searing flash of nuclear light or with the plaintive wails of those dying of Ebola or its genetically engineered twin. You will hear a sharp crack in the distance. By the time you mistakenly identify this sound as an innocent clap of thunder, the civilized world will have become unhinged. Fluorescent lights and television sets will glow eerily bright, despite being turned off. The aroma of ozone mixed with smoldering plastic will seep from outlet covers as electric wires arc and telephone lines melt. Your Palm Pilot and MP3 player will feel warm to the touch, their batteries overloaded. Your computer, and every bit of data on it, will be toast. And then you will notice that the world sounds different too. The background music of civilization, the whirl of internal-combustion engines, will have stopped. Save a few diesels, engines will never start again. You, however, will remain unharmed, as you find yourself thrust backward 200 years, to a time when electricity meant a lightning bolt fracturing the night sky. This is not a hypothetical, son-of-Y2K scenario. It is a realistic assessment of the damage the Pentagon believes could be inflicted by a new generation of weapons--E-bombs. The first major test of an American electromagnetic bomb is scheduled for next year. Ultimately, the Army hopes to use E-bomb technology to explode artillery shells in midflight. The Navy wants to use the E-bomb's high-power microwave pulses to neutralize antiship missiles. And, the Air Force plans to equip its bombers, strike fighters, cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles with E-bomb capabilities. When fielded, these will be among the most technologically sophisticated weapons the U.S. military establishment has ever built. There is, however, another part to the E-bomb story, one that military planners are reluctant to discuss. While American versions of these weapons are based on advanced technologies, terrorists could use a less expensive, low-tech approach to create the same destructive power. "Any nation with even a 1940s technology base could make them," says Carlo Kopp, an Australian-based expert on high-tech warfare. "The threat of E-bomb proliferation is very real." POPULAR MECHANICS estimates a basic weapon could be built for $400.

An Old Idea Made New The theory behind the E-bomb was proposed in 1925 by physicist Arthur H. Compton--not to build weapons, but to study atoms. Compton demonstrated that firing a stream of highly energetic photons into atoms that have a low atomic number causes them to eject a stream of electrons. Physics students know this phenomenon as the Compton Effect. It became a key tool in unlocking the secrets of the atom. Ironically, this nuclear research led to an unexpected demonstration of the power of the Compton Effect, and spawned a new type of weapon. In 1958, nuclear weapons designers ignited hydrogen bombs high over the Pacific Ocean. The detonations created bursts of gamma rays that, upon striking the oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere, released a tsunami of electrons that spread for hundreds of miles. Street lights were blown out in Hawaii and radio navigation was disrupted for 18 hours, as far away as Australia. The United States set out to learn how to "harden" electronics against this electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and develop EMP weapons. America has remained at the forefront of EMP weapons development. Although much of this work is classified, it's believed that current efforts are based on using high-temperature superconductors to create intense magnetic fields. What worries terrorism experts is an idea the United States studied but discarded--the Flux Compression Generator (FCG). A Poor Man's E-Bomb An FCG is an astoundingly simple weapon. It consists of an explosives-packed tube placed inside a slightly larger copper coil, as shown below. The instant before the chemical explosive is detonated, the coil is energized by a bank of capacitors, creating a magnetic field. The explosive charge detonates from the rear forward. As the tube flares outward it touches the edge of the coil, thereby creating a moving short circuit. "The propagating short has the effect of compressing the magnetic field while reducing the inductance of the stator [coil]," says Kopp. "The result is that FCGs will produce a ramping current pulse, which breaks before the final disintegration of the device. Published results suggest ramp times of tens of hundreds of microseconds and peak currents of tens of millions of amps." The pulse that emerges makes a lightning bolt seem like a flashbulb by comparison. An Air Force spokesman, who describes this effect as similar to a lightning strike, points out that electronics systems can be protected by placing them in metal enclosures called Faraday Cages that divert any impinging electromagnetic energy directly to the ground. Foreign military analysts say this reassuring explanation is incomplete. The India Connection The Indian military has studied FCG devices in detail because it fears that Pakistan, with which it has ongoing conflicts, might use E-bombs against the city of Bangalore, a sort of Indian Silicon Valley. An Indian Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis study of E-bombs points to two problems that have been largely overlooked by the West. The first is that very-high-frequency pulses, in the microwave range, can worm their way around vents in Faraday Cages. The second concern is known as the "late-time EMP effect," and may be the most worrisome aspect of FCG devices. It occurs in the 15 minutes after detonation. During this period, the EMP that surged through electrical systems creates localized magnetic fields. When these magnetic fields collapse, they cause electric surges to travel through the power and telecommunication infrastructure. This string-of-firecrackers effect means that terrorists would not have to drop their homemade E-bombs directly on the targets they wish to destroy. Heavily guarded sites, such as telephone switching centers and electronic funds-transfer exchanges, could be attacked through their electric and telecommunication connections. Knock out electric power, computers and telecommunication and you've destroyed the foundation of modern society. In the age of Third World-sponsored terrorism, the E-bomb is the great equalizer.		In the 1980s, the Air Force tested E-bombs that used cruise-missile delivery systems. PHOTO BY AVAIATION WEEK & AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY To ignite an E-bomb, a starter current energizes the stator coil, creating a magnetic field. The explosion (A) expands the tube, short-circuiting the coil and compressing the magnetic field forward (B). The pulse is emitted (C) at high frequencies that defeat protective devices like Faraday Cages. ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOHN BATCHELOR

[LouD]

Worse than a baby crying is a rabbit screaming.

Music to my ears; It means I got the little bugger before he did more damage to the garden!

[Budge]

Frightening!

[inquest]

Somehow, I think we could adapt and still get by better than most third-world countries. Our superiority doesn't come from electricity, you know.

[SSN558]

That will work. All the enemy soldiers will flee towards the nearest bar, where of course they will be captured. They could probability increase the effectiveness of this weapon by placing open baskets of dirty diapers in front of powerful fans and blowing the smell into the caves.

Straight from DARPA out of the box thinking.