US Non-Lethal Weapon

Those of us outside the USA may have missed this one.. as will have most of those living there!

From: INTERNET:KiP@aol.com

Monday, 26 February 2001 21:14 (ET)

New non-lethal energy weapon heats skin

By KELLY HEARN, UPI Technology Writer WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- 

The Marine Corps is developing a non-lethal weapon that uses electromagnetic 
energy to heat but not permanently burn human skin. The weapon could help 
soldiers counter terrorism threats,control unruly crowds and defend airfields 
and ships.Experts confirmed it was the first time the military had designed 
aso-called "directed energy weapon" for use against human targets.

The weapon concentrates energy into a beam of micro-millimeter waves that 
penetrate clothes to rapidly heat moisture particles in the outermost layerof 
flesh without going deep enough to damage organs. The device reportedly 
causes no permanent damage to the body or to electronic devices such as 
pacemakers.

Dubbed the Vehicle-Mounted Active Denial System, the weapon was revealed in a 
story published first in the Marine Corps Times Monday. Officials at the 
Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate in Quantico, Va. reportedly planned to 
show the classified system to top generals in April. But Monday's story 
scuttled those plans and sent officials scrambling to contain a possible 
public relations fiasco. A Marine spokesmen would not comment on the system, 
saying only that subject specialists would be available for interviews later 
this week.Though detailed information about the weapon's design remain 
classified, the story stated that the weapon would heat a target's skin to 
approximately 130 degrees Fahrenheit in about two seconds. Humans start to 
feel pain at 113 degrees. 

The report went on to say that soldiers could fire the weapon from distances 
exceeding 750 meters (2,250 feet) from their target -- a range that would 
allow them to remain outside the reach of most small armsfire. The weapon 
could be mounted atop a military vehicle or on an aircraft. 

Defense experts told United Press International the Marines especially have 
sought new ways to non-lethally confront large, hostile crowds. Among other 
things, the Department of Defense has looked to lasers, tear gas and rubber 
bullets for less-than-lethal impact. But these have either proven ineffective 
or have attracted consternation from human rights groups.

"Unlike the other three branches, the Marines often are in situations where 
there are lots of innocent bystanders, where they have to control anunruly 
mob," said John Pike, director of Global Security.org, a non-profit policy 
research firm in Alexandria, Va. 

"Tear gas and rubber bullets just have not been effective, so they've want 
something more lethal than those and less lethal than an M16. Whether they 
have found that here remains to beseen."

"One of the fears is that there will be a misapplication of this kind of 
technology, particularly in terms of civilian use," said Chris Hellman, a 
senior analyst for the Center for Defense Information, a Washington 
D.C.-based independent research group that monitors military planning and 
policy. 

"Clearly we've seen military combat weaponry migrate to the civil sector. 
Just walk past any Swat Team and you see what is basically an army unit," he 
told UPI.

The article quoted an official saying that human subjects had been exposed to 
the beams more than 6,000 times under laboratory conditions. 
Furthermore,military researchers had completed a study, which has not been 
released, on the long-term health effects of exposure.

"This puts a non-lethal arrow in quiver of commanders," said Ron Madrid, 
former Marine and an expert on non-lethal weaponry at the University of 
Pennsylvania. "It provides decision makers with options. You can guarantee 
that the Marines were excruciatingly detailed in building in technological 
limiters to keep the system from having a lethal effect,"Retired Major 
General William L. Nash, the former commanding general of the 1st Armored 
Division, told UPI the device will inevitably create a race to build counter 
weapons. 

"The good news is the weapon is non-lethal but the bad news is that for every 
weapon there is bound to be a counter weapon," hesaid. "I can imagine someone 
trying to develop a polymer based shield against this, for example.

"The Defense Department spent nearly $40 million over 10 years to develop the 
technology, said the Marine Corps Times report. The Air Force co-sponsored 
the project, the story said, doing much of the research and development.

--Copyright 2001 by United Press International.All rights reserved. 

Source: http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=163207
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This is quite interesting. It would seem that the goal of an non-lethal option is here. Having said that, and knowing what I know, combined with comments received back from experts in EM Radiation (friends of mine), we have determined that this toy might be quite nasty. You see, unlike the Retired Major General William L. Nash, we know what we are talking about. Firstly, save your polymer solutions for Kevlar vests. Plastic doesn't do a fat lot to microwave radiation. Years of microwave meals should have taught him that. Now, aluminised Mylar is a different matter. Of course, tinfoil (worn under your clothes, lest you really want to be seen!) will reflect or scatter over 99% of the EM coming in. Alternatively, wet yourself. Unless the army have changed the laws of physics, this will rapidly absorb the radiation, and heat your clothes. You will, eventually, start to steam, but there you go. Given that the power is so low, it will take an age. Meanwhile, you put a 30-round clip into the array and the personnel around it, then break the line of sight.

Speaking of sight, you might have a few problems there... See, of all the effects of high levels of radio waves, especially at short wavelengths like these, your eyeballs tend to get cooked first. 

So, the Army doesn't kill you, but that pack of feral dogs does, when they find you 4 hours later, dying from thirst under the desert sun.

Personally, I would rather have been shot fair and square.

Another report on these strange weapons can be found here and is cached here.

A note about the possible systems mentioned in this report are as follows:

1. Super lubricants won't stop planes. They push air, not runway, to start up and stop. That's why the planes reverse thrust when they land. How else can they land on an icy runway? Or a wet one? Or stay up once they leave the runway? I doubt very much you could stop the cars, either. In Italy, just last week, I saw a normal Fiat car drive up a steep, icy road that we could barely walk on, even in boots.
2. Super adhesives kill. It is as simple as that. They glue your mouth and nose and eyes shut, and you die in a few minutes, as badly as anyone who drowns or is smothered while away. Not very non-lethal.
3. "Anesthetics: Short term drugs administerable by injection (darts), inhalants (gas), and/or skin contact (sprays): consider it the humane way to bomb your adversary." Very admirable. Just try it. Outside of a building, it won't work, due to evaporation. In a few cases people will have a bad reaction and die. Others won't even notice it. Soldiers tend to have gas masks, and wear heavy clothes. If you are going to try to shoot a man with a dart gun, when he has a rifle, you need a bloody fast knockdown, to put it mildly.
4. Infra-sound may work. Certainly, what is said about metal fatigue, etc. is true, but the sound levels are in the region of 170+ decibels. They are used in acoustic test facilities to simulate many hours next to a full-on jet engine, amongst other things. They are very loud. There is no real defence. For those not used to the idea of the decibel, 100 dB is loud. 103 dB is twice as loud, and 110dB's in ten times louder. 120 is therefore 100 times louder. Given that the loudest siren I own claims 130 +/- 3 dB, and is almost painfully loud even when pointed away from you, 170 dB is 1000 times louder. Even the best ear plugs only lose 25 dB, and combined with ear defenders, you will get about 35 dB's reduction, leaving you deaf in a few milliseconds. In the same way as your ears "flinch" when a bomb goes off close to you, your hearing will shut down. As Infra-sound, or Ultra-sound, you won't hear it, yet the energy levels can be high enough to make some metals flow like water, and blast layers of bullet-resistant carbon-fibre into tiny shards. Unfortunately, as mentioned, no-one has yet found any way to stop it hurting your own men, and sound is, at low frequencies, pretty much non-directional. 
5. The flashing lights system would not work. Period. Shut your eyes. Look away. Put on a pair of Ray-Bans. If you are short-sighted, take your glasses off. Close the curtains. Take your assault rifle, and shoot out the lights. Even if they are bullet-proof, the mess your impacts make on the lenses will cause them to melt out fairly quickly, if they are the kind of wattage the article implies, due to damage to the face of the lense.

For a non-lethal weapon that actually works, try www.taser.com. The new LEO (Law Enforcement Officer) Air Taser apparently puts down a buffalo for up to 15 minutes! It uses the same electronic muscle stimulation theory as the "Do sit-ups without effort, while eating potato chips in front of the TV, and get a 6-pack while drinking one!" systems such as SlenderTone, only in a far more "robust" way. A nasty spike, able to penetrate 2 leather jackets, delivers 18 watts, at 500 volts, at up to 15 yards. I suspect the tin-foil defence might work against this one, too, as would a composite, bullet resistant vest. Note that this system will also work if you hit them in the leg, too, where vests generally don't cover, and that even if your single shot fails totally, the rest of the unit still works as a standard Taser. 

Alternatively, buy an OICW.

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