Microwave beam weapon to disperse crowds 19:00 24 October 01 Jeff Hecht, Boston Tests of a controversial weapon that is designed to heat people's skin with a microwave beam have shown that it can disperse crowds. But critics are not convinced the system is safe. Last week, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in New Mexico finished testing the system on human volunteers. The Air Force now wants to use this Active Denial Technology (ADT), which it says is non-lethal, for peacekeeping or riot control at "relatively long range" - possibly from low-flying aircraft. ADT uses a 2-metre dish to create a narrow beam of microwaves that can be scanned across a crowd or even aimed at individuals. AFRL is using infrared photography to analyse the heating effect on the volunteers' bodies. AFRL says that the 3-millimetre wavelength radiation penetrates only 0.3 millimetres into the skin, rapidly heating the surface above the 45 °C pain threshold. At 50 °C, they say the pain reflex makes people pull away automatically in less than a second - it's said to feel like fleetingly touching a hot light bulb. Someone would have to stay in the beam for 250 seconds before it burnt the skin, the lab says, giving "ample margin between intolerable pain and causing a burn". more crowds?? I'm thinking, taliban troops? or better yet turn the heat up in a few caves... rH
Damn WTF? Frying human beings? I mean I have no problem if used on the Taliban, but I dont think it should be used on regular protestors.
I mentioned this over a month ago, along with the sonic weapons. The sonic weapons come in two forms: a truck-mounted weapon and a fence. The effects range from nausea and headaches to death (it can crush organs). They've got all sorts of exotic sh*t like this in the works.
I believe if you re-check your links, the truck version isn't yet functional. When I first heard of this device it seemed really nasty, but apparently they're pretty solid with not causing perminant harm or death. This is something that not many other 'non-leathal' weapons do. Of course, what happens to the guy with the 'metal pacemaker' or the 'metal plate in his scull'. One time I tried to re-heat a Wendys burger in my microwave. Unfortunately, I failed to consider that thin metal film that they put on the wrapper. Best light show I've ever created. Sparks and flames flying everywhere!
More on the beam weapon... http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/dailynews/pentagon010301.html I found this one while looking for the beam weapon, never heard of it myself: a super stink bomb for crowd dispersal - http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/world/dailynews/stink010705.html How do I post images? I've got a rendering of the truck-mounted beam weapon, but...
