Wired has a report up about a new nonlethal weapon developed by the air force over a 10 year period for a cost of $40 million. Dubbed the Active Denial System, or ADS for shorts, the new nonlethal was developed as a new means of crowd control.
It works by producing a wavelength longer than an x-ray, but shorter than microwaves. The result is massive amounts of heat, so much that after five seconds, a victim’s skin will be red and blistered and they should be successfully incapacitated. It can be blasted across an entire crowd for disabling large groups of assailants.
The developers call it “the goodbye effect,” in that if you’re hit with it, you’ll immediately want to remove yourself from its line-of-fire. The problem I see is that if they’re using this on large groups of people, it might not be possible to get out of the way quick enough to avoid serious injury. Being pushed by a mob who is trying to collectively avoid the beam sounds doubly dangerous in that the mob will stomp itself and those unfortunate enough to remain in the light, so to speak, will have the unfortunate distinction of having their insides boiled like Chinese dim sum, though probably not as delicious.
Anyway, tear gas, fire hoses and projectile bean bags were bad, consider the ADS yet another reason why you wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of crowd control. So keep those toes inline unless you wanna get burned.
Is there a DIY?
I’d like to get this set up ASAP as Carolers will be starting their rounds shortly.
The police state marches on. Seattle in 1999 was the last demonstration by people in the US. Since then the bosses have marginalized and neutralized the people who are expressing their constitutional right as Americans. Look what happened here in NYC during the Republican Convention, people locked up in an old toxic pier house for days.
Oh man, just what I need the next time a bunch of militant liberals try to silence free speech on campus! Can I get a desktop model to install on my podium?
Nonleathal, eh? Is that the American spelling? :)
I bet it makes a mean cup of coffee.
Little on the expensive side for $40 Million, but still…
Probably not a good idea to have anything metal on ya, like keys, if the effects are anything like putting something metal in the microwave. The last time I read about something like this it would cause burns if you had anything metal in your pockets. And I’d bet that in any real life situation that they would use this in, almost every person would either be wearing something metal (glasses , earrings, watches, the zipper on your pants) or have something metal in their pockets (keys, coin change, cellphones etc).
From Wikipedia’s entry on ADS:
“In all experiments, the volunteers were not allowed to wear glasses or contact lenses, due to concerns about possible eye damage. Additionally, after the first experiment, volunteers were checked for metal objects, such as keys and coins, as well as certain zippers, buttons, and seams, in order to avoid “hot spots” that could be created by these objects on the skin of the participants.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Denial_System
@Bob
How many nerds riot these days anyway?
Oh right. PS3. Could have used that then…
any chance that it can be easily defeated w/ aluminum foil?
I’d rather see them use the noise gun than this thing. The noise gun repulses crowds with skull-shaking sonic vibration, so intense that it hurts like hell, but really doesn’t do any damage.
However, this thing actually hurts people. Not good. If they start using this thing for crowd control, you can expect to start seeing crowds getting more organized and more gun-heavy.
Simple, shoot the machine with an RPG.
Any questions?
From reading Bob’s above comment, this thing sounds more like a weapon to be used in war rather than crowd control. Wait, citizens ARE the enemy nowadays, I forgot.
Let’s say you programmed it with a pattern and pointed this thing at a field of rye or wheat in the Brirish countryside, what would you get?
Would you get a Crop Circle?
If so, I’d say the $40 million was a bargain.
Here’s why. Let’s say you’re in intense negotiations with a tyrant. And maybe they’re threatening to wipe your country to smithereens.
That’s when you bring out the secret video of “How To Make An Exquisite Crop Circle From 50 Miles In Space.”
And after the video is complete you say, “Would you like us to design one for you on your forehead? We can pencil you in for say 4:30 your time tomorrow.”
Terrible tyrant (perhaps China) says…just before changing his pissed in undies… “In that case, dear sirs, how would you like us to vote in next UN Security Council Meeting.”
This system doesn’t actually blister. Whoever wrote this is in error. It microwaves the water in your dermis, causing unbearable pain. I’ve been hit with it before, and with dazzlers and a few other non-lethal weapons during a symposium on non lethal last year. It hurts like hell, but there is no permanent damage. Also, the air force did not develop it exclusively, it was a joint service product. When we got hit by it they didn’t tell us to remove anything metal, but maybe they just assumed we wouldn’t have any metal touching the skin since we were in fatigues. Shrug.
This particular device was developed in part at Sandia National Labs, and Cadet is correct when he says that it doesn’t blister the skin. It will if left running in CW mode (continuous on duty cycle), but it’s meant to be pulsed so that a burning kind of snapping feeling is delivered to the subjects.
By the time the second zap is felt, the heat energy delivered by the first has already been transferred away, and at a duty cycle like that it’s unlikely to cause any serious harm.
Always remember that the alternative is bullets, which are way less humane and forgiving. This lets people at least reconsider their desire to engage in battle. Bullets and bombs do not allow for forgiveness or surrender.
Hey Cadet, thats probably only because they had the machine’s dial set to super low during their test trial.
In a REAL crowd control situation you can bet they’ll crank the dial to high, which can and does cause physical damage.
hah, thats awesome. The psychological impact of this thing will be great. The unwashed heathen tent dwellers will run in terror at the sight of one of these bad boys.
“It works by producing a wavelength longer than an x-ray, but shorter than microwaves. The result is massive amounts of heat, so much that after five seconds, a victim’s skin will be red and blistered and they should be successfully incapacitated. It can be blasted across an entire crowd for disabling large groups of assailants.”
Hahah hell yeah
humans are pathetic.
Damn!
I want one of those for deer hunting here in West Virginia!
I can bring that buck home ready to put on the table and eat!!!
What a great way to make a protest appear to become violent without provocation, thereby allowing you to justify the use whatever force you feel like against them. Or you can just use it to cause a stampede, the mass of people will crush themselves. We need more scientists thinking of ways to kill, otherwise we’ll have nothing to sell in twenty years.
wow and i thought ECT was a pretty good deterant when you wanted someone to say goodbye and never come back…
think of positive useful potential beyond military.
those frozen burrittos, taquitos, pizzas, etc.. that are 10 for $9, you could buy 100 of those, some decent maragaritas and heat up the food with the device very fast. cheap fast party. take pot shots at annoying seaguls while drunk?
or fill your managers pod with popcorn and aim it at the pod for a brief time for some mischief?
it doesn’t have to be a weapon.
of course, it could be used to destroy the poppy fields in afghanistan, just make sure you aim it upwind and have lawnchairs and cheetos.
~paperflowers
Does it work better on black people, mexicans and chinese, because of their dark skin?
“It works by producing a wavelength longer than an x-ray, but shorter than microwaves.” That’s more than a little vague, the whole spectrum of UV, visible light, infrared and terrahertz radiation are all covered by that.
What we need is a ‘gun’ that induces the feeling of pain, without actually physiologically causing damage (like the noise gun, but even that one, if used extensively, can cause damage.) The noise gun is a good idea, but I think it causes pain by decibels, which can destroy your hearing for good… maybe a noise gun that uses a frequency, like nails running down a chalkboard (or something to that effect) that can be heard and ‘felt’. Or, if you REALLY want to make the enemy run in terror, we can just set up some loudspeakers playing Bush saying “Nucular Profilteration” over and over and over….
ConDave, does it go all the way up to 11?
Sounds like one of the weps used on the palestinians just a couple of months ago. I wonder if that murdurous rampage was for the testing of new weapons.
I read reports that some of the civilian casualties had their insides cooked! WTF! Others had phosporous burns. Definetely not conventional bullets and shrapnel.
The large militaries are using DU now in their munitions. I really really hope this causes the sterilizaton of the human race. We do not deserve to continue existance.
This is easily defeated by an aluminum shield. Take a piece of wood…line it with tin foil..bam you are safe.
Denots_Resol …..you are a traitor to humanity. You will be dealt with accordingly…you piece of sh*it..
a weapon is a weapon. non-lethal vs. lethal?
please take into account i realize that Americans are dying horribly and coming home with haunted minds, and broken bodies that will never be the same. that fact never escapes my mind. and i worry for the soldier that pulls the trigger on this non-lethal device, and his/her mind after seeing the impact.
argue about physical damage vs pschycological damage even if it is in tiny bursts. regardless of studies, time and personal reaction to any kind of shocking event is imho unmeasurable. what if there are children in the crowd? what about PTSD? some are more succeptible than others. and yes i realize that real bullets pose the same and greater threat as well as death.
its just not a clear black line to cross to call it non-lethal and somehow let that be humane.
i want an easy way out of a nasty situation that is killing a heartbreaking number of people too. and no, i’m no expert and i don’t have any answers.
however, i’m little scared of our country coming off hypocrital by using even a tiny burst of terror to make people run, in a war that was started in the name of stopping terrorism (it doesn’t matter whether you or i believed the agenda behind the war, the statements were made to the world).
That is really cool….where are a bunch of hippies when you need em? Woodstock here we come!
Reynolds Wrap (Heavy Duty) foamcore board, duct tape and some info gleaned from Google about “Corner Reflectors”, and MUCH countermeasure hilarity ensues!
You know, I wonder what effect this would have on pacemakers? I can just see it now, a front line of heart patients in wheelchairs used as a human shield against this thing because the rays would disrupt the pacemakers.
“protesters roasting in front of an open microwave….” I guess we’ll have to update that ‘ol Christmas song…..:-0
But seriously, just imagine if people get hit with this thing and they haven’t a clue as to where the sensation is coming from or what it is – people will be peeing their pants! You’d have to hope they would give a warning – not just roll up and blast away – at least with tear gas you can see the smoke, with nonlethal rounds you can see guns pointed at people – and then you would know which direction to run in.
This thing would be pretty awesome if they miniaturize it so you could carry one around with you – imagine going hiking and driving off an angry bear, a vicious dog, or some creep intent on mugging you? Now that would be cool.
But to protect yourself you’d either need to be completely sheathed in metal (those medieval suits of armor might come into vogue again!) like tin foil or you’d have to build yourself a portable faraday cage. Ever notice those little round holes in the metal screen in a microwave oven door? That’s what keeps the radiation INSIDE the oven. So for ADS you’d need a really fine metal mesh, window screen perhaps or some sort of fabric with metal woven into it (imagine firing one of these off near some night club where people are all in glittery and sequined dress!).
That said, it would be bitchin’ to see what happens when someone gets blasted by this thing – I hope they declassify video of the testing one day – but hey, we might be able to see it on the nighly news first!
Dave, you make a scary point that I hadn’t even considered. I am getting a pacemaker in a few months and the warnings don’t include ADS.
I’m guessing anyone who uses this device doesn’t really worry about that though. Or if someone is disabled and can’t turn around and run…
You can’t take the weapon out of weapon, regardless of how you spin it.
smells like burning!
Wow, now I know what to get for Birthday presedent.
I’ve heard of an Asian country that uses high efficient horns placed up high, that have Class D amplifiers running them. When a crowd gathers, they power them up, and input an audio signal that is very painful to the ears, say around 2,000 hertz, (the frequency our ears are most sensitive at). Pain starts at around 110 db and becomes unbearable at near 140 db.
The crowd’s communication is shut down, and they disperse quickly.
Cost: Much less than $40M.
An example of this can be done within a car…usually 2 to 4 horns are installed in a car, and tied to the alarm. They produce a loud and painful sound, or siren inside the car: the thief(s) can’t stop it, and can’t think and jump out of the car to escape.
the above 0.50 meters of webspace are the proof why the americans are the stupidest humans on earth