Bring a water-mister or aluminized umbrella to the next WTO fun.... (more on nonlethal radar weapon)
Alfred Qaeda
alqaeda at hq.org
Mon Jun 11 11:23:07 PDT 2001
11 June 2001
Millimeter-wave energy to be
used in a weapon
By Peter Clarke
EE Times
June 6, 2001 (5:39 p.m. EST)
LONDON Stories of the soldiers who
operate the Arctic radar stations and stand
in front of the transmitter to get warm will
surely be repeated now that the U.S.
Department of Defense has gone public with
plans to use the heating effect of millimeter
waves within a weapon.
The U.S. Marine Corps says it has developed
a 95-GHz system as an antipersonnel "heat
ray" and is conducting tests on animals and
volunteers.
The supposedly nonlethal weapon, called
"active-denial technology," has been in the
works for the last 10 years at the Air Force
Research Laboratory (Kirtland, N.M.), in
tandem with the Marine Corps' Joint
Non-lethal Weapons Directorate. About $40
million has been spent developing the
weapon, according to the Air Force Research
Laboratory (AFRL), although it could be
nearly another decade before it is used in
conflict. The earliest estimate for deployment
is 2009.
The system includes a millimeter-wave
energy source with waveguides to direct the
energy to a dish antenna measuring about 3
x 3 meters, which forms a beam that can be
swept across a battlefield or hostile crowd.
The aim is to deter or drive off adversaries
caught out in the open with a beam that
inflicts pain without causing permanent
damage.
According to an AFRL fact sheet, the 95-GHz
energy penetrates 1/64 inch into the skin
and produces an intense burning sensation
that stops when the transmitter is switched
off or when the individual moves out of the
beam.
Top skin layer takes heat
"It works by heating the water molecules in
the top 1/64-of-an-inch layer of the skin,"
said Marine Corps spokesman Maj. David
Andersen.
According to reports, a 2-second burst from
the system can heat the skin to a
temperature of 130° F. Elsewhere, the AFRL
describes the sensation as similar to
touching an ordinary light bulb that has
been left on for a while. "Unlike a light bulb,
however," says the AFRL fact sheet,
"active-denial technology will not cause
rapid burning, because of the shallow
penetration of the beam and the low levels
of energy used."
Beam size, whether it is a convergent,
focused beam or a divergent beam, and its
range are all classified information.
"This is a beam that is going to be directed.
It's not harmful to internal organs because it
doesn't penetrate the skin beyond 1/64 of an
inch," said Conrad Dziewulski, a spokesman
for the directed-energy division of AFRL. "It
will be swept across the battlefield or
directed at an individual for a few seconds."
Dziewulski said the system was intended to
protect military personnel against
small-arms fire, which is generally taken to
mean a range of 1,000 meters. Elsewhere,
the system is described as having a range of
700 yards.
While early tests have been carried out using
a fixed antenna, the military now plans to
develop a mobile version of the system,
otherwise known as Vehicle Mounted Active
Denial System, or Vmads.
AFRL said Vmads could be mounted on a
High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle
(more commonly referred to as a Humvee).
Later it could be mounted on other vehicles
such as aircraft, helicopters and ships,
officials said.
However, countermeasures against the
weapon could be quite straightforward for
example covering up the body with thick
clothes or carrying a metallic sheet or
even a trash can lid as a shield or
reflector. Also unclear is how the
active-denial technology would work in rainy,
foggy or sea-spray conditions where the
beam's energy could be absorbed by water
in the atmosphere.
The technology was developed by two Air
Force Research Laboratory teams: one from
the laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate
at Kirtland Air Force Base, and the other
from the Human Effectiveness Directorate at
Brooks Air Force Base, Texas.
The Air Force's Electronic Systems Center at
Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., will manage
acquisition of the Humvee Vmads system.
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