US military develops new ray gun

[Red October]

MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Georgia (AP) -- The military's new weapon is a ray gun that shoots a beam that makes people feel as if they will catch fire.

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 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 U.S. troops might encounter.

The crew fired beams from more than 500 yards (455 meters) away, nearly 17 times the range of existing non-lethal weapons, such as rubber bullets.

While the sudden, 130-degree Fahrenheit (54.44 Celsius) heat was not painful, it was intense enough to make 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 that helped develop the weapon. "Non-lethal weapons are important for the escalation of force, especially in the environments our forces are operating in."

The system uses millimeter waves, which can penetrate only 1/64th of an inch of skin, just enough to cause discomfort. By comparison, common kitchen microwaves penetrate several inches of skin.

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.

Two airmen and 10 reporters volunteered to be zapped with the beams, which easily penetrated various layers of winter clothing.

The system was developed by the military, but the two devices being evaluated were built by defense contractor Raytheon.

Airman Blaine Pernell, 22, 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 often pulled up and faked car problems so they could scout U.S. forces.

"All we could do is watch them," he said. But if they had the ray gun, troops "could have dispersed them."[QUOTE]

[Sentinel]

A new weapon technology in the hands of the imperialist US army is always bad news, being a potential advantage for them in battles against anti-imperialist forces.

Sounds also alarmingly like the next type of weapon cops could be using against demonstrators here at home.. :(

[Janus]

The military has actually been developing these types of directed energy weapons for some time. And I believe that development has been speeded up so that these weapons could actually be used by the Coalition forces in Iraq so as to reduce casualties.

The active-denial system weapon is designed to transmit a narrow beam of electromagnetic energy to heat the skin without causing any permanent damage. The beam is sent out at the speed of light by a transmitter measuring 10 by 10 feet. An intense burning sensation continues until the transmitter is turned off or the targeted individual moves outside of the beam's range.

[piet11111]

i thought mivrowave weapons where banned.

anyway to me this sounds like a weapon made to look harmless on paper only to get beefed up in combat so that poeple do get burned to death.

also the military tested some railguns link (http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007/012007/01172007/251373/index_html?page=1)


Normally, new weaponry tends to make defense more expensive. But the Navy likes to say its new railgun delivers the punch of a missile at bullet prices.


Elizabeth D'Andrea of the Office of Naval Research said a 32-megajoule lab gun will be delivered to Dahlgren in June.

Charles Garnett, project director, called the projectile fired by the railgun "a supersonic bullet," and the weapon itself is "a very simple device."

He compared the process to charging up a battery on the flash of a digital camera, then pushing the button and "dumping that charge," producing a magnetic field that drives the metal-cased ordnance instead of gun powder.

The projectile fired yesterday weighed only 3.2 kilograms and had no warhead. Future railgun ordnance won't be large and heavy, either, but will deliver the punch of a Tomahawk cruise missile because of the immense speed of the projectile at impact.

Garnett compared that force to hitting a target with a Ford Taurus at 380 mph. "It will take out a building," he said. Warheads aren't needed because of the massive force of impact.

but the thing that scares me is this part
Because the gun uses electricity and not gunpowder to fire projectiles, it's safer, eliminating the possibility of explosions on ships and vehicles equipped with it.

if america can put this kind of firepower on a humvee then pretty much any opponent would be screwed.
and because the projectile fired is about the size of a bullet can you imagine how much projectiles they can carry in a humvee :ph34r:

[Janus]

i thought mivrowave weapons where banned.
No, not yet at least.


and because the projectile fired is about the size of a bullet can you imagine how much projectiles they can carry in a humvee
Most directed-energy weapons are meant for use in vehicles. Also, there's still a battery limit for a rail gun.

[Cryotank Screams]

Both interesting, and alarming; if only revolutionaries could get our hands on weapons like these, ;) .

[chimx]

Sounds also alarmingly like the next type of weapon cops could be using against demonstrators here at home..

Maybe it is just me, but this sounds far more pleasant than teargas and rubber bullets. Its interesting that they are calling it specifically "non-lethal", as opposed to the common "less-than-lethal" of stun guns, tasers, and the items mentioned above.

[Kia]

If this is using microwaves then wouldnt this increase the rick of cancer? personally id count anything that gives me cancer as definately lethal......maybe im wrong...i dont know enough about how it works nor microwaves.

on a another note: The Us military wastes its money on some of the most stupid shit ever.....heat ray guns, stealth sharks, spy bees, antimissile defence systems on commercial planes, etc....i cant even imagine how useful all the money poured into this crap would be to such things as healthcare and education.....and funding for the arts.

[Janus]

If this is using microwaves then wouldnt this increase the rick of cancer?
No, you'll need much more higher frequency waves to cause any major damage. But so far there have been no studies on the long term effects of a weapon based on such waves.


Maybe it is just me, but this sounds far more pleasant than teargas and rubber bullets
You can protect yourself to a much better extent against those weapons than against this system.

[Red October]

at present the thing doesnt seem very practical as a weapon in urban combat. the dish is a huge target that could be taken out with relative ease by an rpg or a well placed shot from a large caliber gun.

this also looks like it has potential to be used as a torture device for detainees.

[Global_Justice]

apologies if it has been posted already

The US military revealed a heat-ray gun, the Active Denial System (ADS), to reporters this week.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6300985.stm

:blink: that sounds alot more fucking dangerous than a water cannon

what do you think?

[Question everything]

I wonder if that thing picks up Military channel? :lol:

all I know, is that this "ray gun" looks as useless as it is dangerous (so they are probably going to sell it to the Israelis) :rolleyes: ...


The heat gun's dish could make a target for an RPG

'sides hezbollah got plenty of rockets... they might as well just paint a bulls-eye on it... :P

[loveme4whoiam]

I dunno, if used in areas that are not abundant with RPGs it'll be effective as hell. Imagine this being used as a strike-breaker or to disperse protests :( :angry:

[KickMcCann]

Hmmm, although initially worrysome I am confident that this weapon can be counter-acted and effectively resisted. It is easy to become mesmerized by new technology and weapons, but the fact is new weapons can often times be defeated by obsolete technology.
Do you remember when Yugoslavia (with Russia's assistance) shot down an American Stealth fighter during the Balkan conflict? This seemingly unstoppable aircraft was brought down by using 50-year old "obsolete" Soviet radar which operated at low enough frequency to detect the airplane.
This new weapon sounds pretty nasty against unprotected protesters, but I'm willing to bet we will find away to counter-act it. Perhaps it is simply as wearing a suit of armor, the windows from a microwave oven, or an aluminum or lead shield of some sort. I guess we'll find out eventually though.

[Raúl Duke]

I actually heard of this ray gun before it was even posted in a book about modern weapons; in which they mentioned something like why soldiers/police developed rubber bullets and etc and than mentioned how soldiers found ways to abuse these "non-lethal weapons" like puting coins or pieces of metal in/on the rubber bullet.

When it mentioned the ray gun it mentioned how dangerous it would be to give a cranky soldier/police officer who is tired of the protestors/strikers/etc and how they would use it abusively. Also it mentioned how someone might use it for torture.

[Faceless]

"This has nothing to do with microwaves or microwave cooking or anything like that," he says.
This statement by their PR men is a lie. 1mm rays lie within the microwave range and as such the principle is identical to microwave technology. The difference may be in the frequency of the microwaves, but that does not alter things one bit. Effectively this is for "nuking" crowds.

I think people should take this seriously. Watercannons were initially only used 40 or so years ago, and then because they were supposed to be less lethal; obviously people ended up killed by these things so I wouldn't trust the PR firms.

[WUOrevolt]

The fact that the most powerful military power in the world needs to develop a fucking ray gun just shows that imperialism is losing.

[bcbm]

Pfft, we'll kick this ray guns ass.

[Janus]

apologies if it has been posted already
Merged.

[Pawn Power]

Originally posted by [email protected] 28, 2007 08:21 pm
The fact that the most powerful military power in the world needs to develop a fucking ray gun just shows that imperialism is losing.
I don't know if that really makes sense.

It is not a question of need but the process of continuous technolgical development in order to coerce more people more affectively.

[Kia]

I dont think they designed the ray gun to be used directly against armed forces. If they think theyre going to stop a man with a machine gun or rocket by heating his body up...I think theyre sadly mistaken. The more practical use is to provide protection to troops when dealing with large crowds of people that may get out of hand. Embassies may also find this useful (they already implement a couple of interesting weapons to protect themselves from riots).
As for protesting and dealing with this...I think its little to worry about. A good rock or large okject hurled at it hard enough should be strong enough to either knock it out of position or to do enough damage to decommision it for a period of time.


The fact that the most powerful military power in the world needs to develop a fucking ray gun just shows that imperialism is losing.

Not at all. The fact that they have enough money to spend time on making these things means they are doing rather well....sadly. The US uses billions and billions of dollars on creating new military technology. If they were having trouble buying new guns for instance of getting knew vehicles then I would say that they are loosing.


his statement by their PR men is a lie. 1mm rays lie within the microwave range and as such the principle is identical to microwave technology. The difference may be in the frequency of the microwaves, but that does not alter things one bit. Effectively this is for "nuking" crowds.

Hmm so conflicting opinions on whether or not this will increase cancer or worse? I hope some group takes the time to examine this properly and maybe we can get rid of this thing before it ever sees action. I am not up for getting "nuked" at all. :D

[MrDoom]

I've heard about this for ages.

The problem is that this is a weapon meant for crowd control, not precision. Wide-arc beams can cause objects on the vicinity to become giant capacitors. Such a weapon is too unpredictable in nature for its intended purpose.

[Question everything]

we should all pack lead coats and mirrors on our next protest run!!!!

[Sadena Meti]

Originally posted by Cryotank [email protected] 25, 2007 05:55 pm
Both interesting, and alarming; if only revolutionaries could get our hands on weapons like these, ;) .
All the revo needs is a sniper rifle to shoot the guy with the rail gun humvee. Call it discount shopping.

[Janus]

we should all pack lead coats and mirrors on our next protest run!!!!
No, they won't block anyone against microwaves. Faraday cages can though but that would be impractical to use at a protest.

[Red October]

the dish looks fairly fragile and its a huge target. chuck molotovs or beat it with metal bars and it looks like it would be rendered ineffective. and i this doesnt look very good for public relations if footage of dozens of protesters writhing in pain from a ray gun can be sent all over the world quickly.