Pentagon Looks to Directed-Energy Weapons

[kskiska]

A few months from now, Peter Anthony Schlesinger hopes to zap a laser beam at a couple of chickens or other animals in a cage a few dozen yards away. If all goes as planned, the chickens will be frozen in mid-cluck, their leg and wing muscles paralyzed by an electrical charge created by the beam, even as their heart and lungs function normally.

Among those most interested in the outcome will be officials at the Pentagon, who helped fund Schlesinger's work and are looking at this type of device to do a lot more than just zap the cluck out of a chicken. Devices like these, known as directed-energy weapons, could be used to fight wars in coming years.

"When you can do things at the speed of light, all sorts of new capabilities are there," said Delores Etter, a former undersecretary of defense for science and technology and an advocate of directed-energy weapons.

Directed energy could bring numerous advantages to the battlefield in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, where U.S. troops have had to deal with hostile but unarmed crowds as well as dangerous insurgents.

Aside from paralyzing potential attackers or noncombatants like a long-range stun gun, directed-energy weapons could fry the electronics of missiles and roadside bombs, developers say, or even disable a vehicle in a high-speed chase.

(snip)

Some experts believe the use of directed energy will be limited by international law and treaties.

more…
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2004/aug/01/080106944.html

[mongo]

1. It will be a compasionate facist dictatorship

They are just looking out for all of us.

[papau]

11. Direct energy is what took down Wellstone - the directed "waves"

were tested a year before by the Pentagon (unfortunately for the Pentagon, a populat science media was allowed to discuss how this research could be used in ads that spoke to you but only if you were directly in front of the ad - but somehow our media is not/was not interested in chasing this down).

We had a silence on this research for 2 years after the Wellston murder, but it seems they now feel free to discuss again. I bet our Media will not put two and two together - hell - if the administration told the media that 2+2 =10 the media would print and defend the report.

[ClintonTyree]

2. Imagine..................

how well those would work with demonstrators as well. Yet another tool in the fascist's arsenal. Whoopee!

[oneighty]

5. I bet

republicans be quick to put a ban on that weapon. No?

180

[Monte Carlo]

3. Well, it'd be better than being shot.

Like they did back in the day. I think there is a need to develop effective, yet non-lethal weaponry.

[Robb]

21. "Non-lethal" is a tough term to live up to

...in the industry they still go with "less lethal", because as we've seen people tend to die when police go heavy at demonstrators no matter what they're holding.

It's been a growing field for almost a decade now, and it's getting better, but it's got a loooooong way to go before I'll allow "nonlethal".

[ParanoidPat]

4. TINFOIL! It's not just for head wear anymore!

:evilgrin: It never ceases to amaze me just how stupid the people in the Pentagon are.

[Rose Siding]

6. I propose a new rule

You can only develop weapons that you are anxious to have used on you. Because that's what always ends up happening. What weapon has ever been invented that hasn't been stolen by "the other guy"?

[htuttle]

9. Speaking of that

Of all the militaries in the world, which one do you think would be MOST vulnerable to a directed energy weapon that zaps electronics?

One guess. :eyes:

[customerserviceguy]

15. My weapons suggestion

party_line said: "You can only develop weapons that you are anxious to have used on you."

In that case, I propose an immediate crash program to develop the "Flying Pizzas of Death" weapon. Canadian bacon and pineapple, please, if we need to deal with Islamic terrorists, the threat of CB will pacify them. Friendly fire incidents would disappear, in fact our troops will see it as supportive of their efforts.

If we're going to be the world's "Godfather", why not do it right? ;-)

[MikeG]

7. I hear they're gonna name the new weapon after Reagan.

[Sabriel]

14. They should name it after W

Like the chicken, his heart and lungs function, but otherwise he does nothing useful at all.

[gulfcoastliberal]

8. They've been testing them on small planes for years...

which cost us dearly...

[Massacure]

10. Call me stupid, but can't electronics be hardened against these things?

I don't know if it is possible to protect a human against directed energy, but I think electronics can certainly be hardened.

[steely]

12. "Some experts believe the use of directed energy ....

...will be limited by international law and treaties." <snip>

I guess similar to those out of Geneva governing torture of prisoners. We've all seen how well they've worked.

[phasev]

24. Just like nukes

Just like with nuclear weapons the only people who would have limited access would be the US Military and Israel.

[Sabriel]

13. Creepy parallels to Atlas Shrugged

Except there I believe it was a weapon that used sound waves...and the animal was a goat.

In fact, what's happening right now has way too many similarities to that book. Ewgh.

[daleo]

16. More torture devices

"...sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister and perhaps more prolonged by the lights of a perverted science."

Churchill was talking about the Nazis, but the Pentagon seems to be hankering for the dark ages lately.

[The_Casual_Observer]

17. Why the fuck not?

It's as if they broke open the piggy bank and the candy shop is open is open for business.
Nobody cares anymore, why not squander a trillion or two on something else that is useless and won't work?It least it means good paying jobs for a couple of hundred rw nerd posters on cu and freep.

[truthisfreedom]

18. if i'm not mistaken, a simple tinfoil suit and hat will protect against

these types of weapons. funny, huh?

[daleo]

27. And would a mirror reflect it back at the shooter?

Life gets more and more like a spiderman cartoon every day.

[Jack_DeLeon]

19. neat.

[dbt]

20. Tesla smiles.

What he suspected all along is borne out long after his departure from this plane. The very government that discredited him, painted him as a Mad Scientist, has kept his discoveries alive--and is now looking for ways to use them.

Perhaps this weapon will discourage other Mad Scientists.

:evilgrin:
dbt

[stickdog]

22. I wonder if these weapons have ever been tested on more than chickens ...

At the same Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico, researchers working with Raytheon Co. have developed a weapon called the Active Denial System, which repels adversaries by heating the water molecules in their skin with microwave energy. The pain is so great that people flee immediately.

"It just feels like your skin is on fire," said Rich Garcia, a spokesman for the laboratory who, as a test subject, has felt the Active Denial System's heat. "When you get out of the path of the beam, or shut off the beam, everything goes back to normal. There's no residual pain."

A Humvee-mounted Active Denial weapon is expected to be given to all services by the end of this year for evaluation, with a decision about deployment expected by the end of 2005.


Add in an overriding directional radio navigation beacon (VOR) and you've got yourself a mobile small plane assassination unit. You just park near an overcast airport, draw the small plane off course, and zap the cockpit with microwaves. No fuss, no muss.

I wonder if this has ever been tested ...

[Thor_MN]

28. Not to rain on your parade

But the metal fuselage would absorb/reflect the microwave radiation. Then again, zapping the electronics/killing the engine doesn't really help out the flight characteristics of small planes.

[Minstrel Boy]

23. If the Pentagon is talking about developing them,

they already have them.

[Minstrel Boy]

25. Aug 2 AP: "Lab in NM develops microwave energy weapon"

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - Researchers at the Air Force Research Laboratory in Albuquerque have developed a weapon called the Active Denial System.

The device repels adversaries by heating the water molecules in their skin with microwave energy. The pain is so great that people flee immediately.

Lab spokesman Rich Garcia says it feels like your skin is on fire. He was a test subject.

A Humvee-mounted Active Denial weapon is expected to be given to all services by the end of this year for evaluation. A decision about deployment is expected by the end of 2005.

Researchers at the lab have been working with Raytheon Company to develop the directed-energy weapon.

http://www.kob.com/index.cfm?viewer=storyviewer&id=12758&cat=HOME

[Minstrel Boy]

26. info from the Air Force on "Active Denial":

The Active Denial System (ADS) is a non-lethal, counter-personnel directed energy weapon. It uses breakthrough technologies to provide un-precedented, standoff, non-lethal capabilities at ranges beyond effective small arms range.

ADS projects a focused, speed-of-light milli-meter-wave energy beam to induce an intolerable heating sensation on an adversary’s skin and cause that individual to be repelled without injury.
http://www.de.afrl.af.mil/factsheets/activedenial.html

Does this look like it could have anti-civil disobedience applications?

Prototype Active Denial Vehicle:


Active Denial Technology Hardware Demonstrator:

[JohnOneillsMemory]

29. Wow. An instrument of mass public torture. Burns you with radiation.

Unh...yeah. That's humane, isn't it?

This tech. will be part of the weaponization of space and the ultimite supremecy of the air.

Unbelievably omnipresent torture capability to oppress every living thing on the surface of the planet.

How to stop this? We are so fucked by these power fetishists. We're all chimps with space-bazookas.

[ParanoidPat]

30. The funny thing is that for all the millions of $ that these things cost..

.....they can be easily defeated with something as simple as a copper or aluminum window screen, tinfoil or a foil lined 'space blanket'! :evilgrin:

What's worse, if enough people hold up a reflector aimed back at the truck, you can raise the VSWR (Voltage Standing Wave Ratio) high enough to blow up the transmitter. :)

Yep, TIN FOIL, It's not just for head wear anymore! ;-)