US military unveils heat-ray gun

[Bigmac]

The US military has given the first public display of what it says is a revolutionary heat-ray weapon to repel enemies or disperse hostile crowds.

      Sounds like a big microwave. So when the enemie's Orville Reddenbachers start popping out of their pockets they should surrender. :flame:

      Se full article on link below.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6297149.stm

 

[Mike Baker]

U.S. military creates ray gun for 'non-lethal' use
Updated Thu. Jan. 25 2007 6:22 AM ET

Associated Press

MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- The military calls its new weapon an "active denial system," but that's an understatement. It's a ray gun that shoots a beam that makes people feel as if they are about to catch fire.


Apart from causing that terrifying sensation, 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 innocent 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 that U.S. troops might encounter in war zones.


The device's two-man crew located their targets through powerful lenses and fired beams from more than 500 yards away. That is nearly 17 times the range of existing non-lethal weapons, such as rubber bullets.


Anyone hit by the beam immediately jumped out of its path because of the sudden blast of heat throughout the body. While the 130-degree heat was not painful, it was intense enough to make the participants think their clothes were about to ignite.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070124/ray_gun_070124/20070125?hub=World

Now, we are entering the "Star Trek" era 

 

[Eids of March]

Yeah, and if you crank it up to 11, it'll probably be non-non-lethal, too!

 

[career_radio-checker]

Ray gun makes targets feel like they're on fire
U.S. military interested in weapon that emits 130-degree, non-lethal beam

Link to article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16794717/wid/11915829?GT1=8921
(note article can not be reproduced due to copy right laws)

Now this is really cool, can you imagine: "Sir do you want us to set the ray gun to 'rare',medium', or 'well done'?"  ;D
Its crass humour but its OKAY it's non-lethal !!!

One thing I'd like to know is; how would you coax someone to be the demonstration target?

 

[Yrys]

One thing I'd like to know is; how would you coax someone to be the demonstration target?

What are recruits for  ?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6297149.stm

The US military has given the first public display of what it says is a revolutionary heat-ray weapon to repel enemies or disperse hostile crowds.

Called the Active Denial System, it projects an invisible high energy beam that produces a sudden burning feeling.

Aren't they burning to be in the military  ;D ?

 

[JesseWZ]

That... was a groaner.

 

[gaspasser]

Great! Now we'll never get those yanks to keep away from our IMP's. 
However, now there's no excuse for cold food!
(Aye thank you)


:

 

[CougarKing]

An update: it has gone into service with a US prison.

The Register link

Inmate-frying microwave pain blaster turret installed in US jail

They just go "Yow",' enthuses raygun sheriff

By Lewis Page

Posted in Science, 24th August 2010 11:02 GMT

A microwave "pain ray" energy weapon, deemed too controversial for US military use in Iraq, has nonetheless gone into service. A trial installation is in use at a prison in Los Angeles for the purpose of quelling fights among the inmates.

"We hope that this type of technology will either cause an inmate to stop an assault or lessen the severity of an assault by them being distracted by the pain as a result of the beam," Commander Bob Osborne of the LA County Sheriff's Department told the Los Angeles Daily News.

"I equate it to opening an oven door and feeling that blast of hot air... you begin to feel this warming feeling, and then you go 'Yow, I need to get out of the way.'"

In its current incarnation the device is known as the Assault Intervention Device and it is reportedly a ceiling-mounted installation remotely controlled by prison staff using CCTV and a joystick. The Device is said to put out a beam "about the size of a CD" to distances of up to 100 feet, hopefully quelling any disturbance among the prisoners without the delay which results when a team of deputies must be assembled to use traditional whomping or other conventional enforcement methods.

Despite the new name and job, however, the Device is none other than the latest iteration of what was formerly known as the Active Denial System, a riot-busting fry-ray mounted on a Humvee or a truck for military use in crowd control overseas. Despite many requests for it from US commanders in Iraq, the ADS never saw frontline service there - doubtless due to well-founded concern over the headlines that might have ensued. The "pain ray" would surely have resulted in more negative coverage than any number of shootings and bombings.

The deployment in the Los Angeles jail is a trial by the National Institute of Justice, the R&D arm of the US Justice Department - and home, among other things, of the handheld microwave heat-ray "rifle".
If deemed successful, the inmate-roasting ceiling raygun turrets may be rolled out to other US jails.

 

[dogger1936]

I hope Canada never gets this. We'll end up paying out trillions to the survivors of the next country we invade.

 

[owa]

So does it like give you various forms of skin cancer?

 

[Fishbone Jones]

I want one. 8)

 

[Illegio]

I think I prefer the "traditional whomping" method of enforcement.

As for skin cancer, microwave radiation is non-ionizing, so the risk of developing skin cancer from a short burst ought to be relatively low.

 

[jollyjacktar]

This works for me WRT inmates.  But having said that, the sonic weapons are good too, IIRC they can make them lose control of their bowels/bladders too boot.  That will take the piss out of them, if you'll pardon the pun.

 

[OldSolduer]

This works for me WRT inmates.  But having said that, the sonic weapons are good too, IIRC they can make them lose control of their bowels/bladders too boot.  That will take the piss out of them, if you'll pardon the pun.

But then the matter of decontamination rears its ugly head......

 

[jollyjacktar]

But then the matter of decontamination rears its ugly head......

Nothing a fire hose won't cure.

 

[HavokFour]

I hope the Ottawa Police or the OPP buys one or two of these things. I toured the RCMP complex here in Orleans last year and got to experience the LRAD first hand. It's just so cool seeing these things on Future Weapons and then getting the chance to try them out yourself. ;D

 

[SeanNewman]

Another option from that Future Weapons show with the super cool ex-SEAL guy:

LRAD Weapon (Episode: Future Shock)

Loud, annoying noises have been a "weapon" at the personal level for millennia, but recently the world's security and military forces have been using a far more potent sonic weapon known as the "long range acoustic device" or LRAD. Just under 3 feet in diameter and weighing 45 pounds, the black circular device emits an intense 15- to 30-degree-wide acoustic beam -- a high-pitched shrill tone similar to a smoke detector alarm -- that can easily cause permanent auditory damage at close range.

At 100 yards, the LRAD beam is extremely painful, but it is typically used at ranges of 300 to 500 yards as a warning or deterrent weapon. LRAD's are used by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard to warn off approaching vessels, and the weapon has been tested in Iraq in various capacities.

 

[a_majoor]

Infasonic weapons ("screamers") have been experimented with many times but with inconclusive results; people *might* loose control of their bowels when hit with such a device. The LRAD makes a lot more sense.

Another scary concept is "Dazzlers" which flash strobe light timed to various brainwave patterns, inducing epileptic fits. Having the crowd melt into a writhing mass might not be as much fun as going to a rave, but certainly takes away their ability to take positive action against you...

 

[Hammer Sandwich]

Another scary concept is "Dazzlers" which flash strobe light timed to various brainwave patterns, inducing epileptic fits. Having the crowd melt into a writhing mass might not be as much fun as going to a rave, but certainly takes away their ability to take positive action against you...

I'm kitted up.....

 

[SeanNewman]

A bigger political issue here which I am reminded of due to the mention of the lasers reared its head recently when the Infantry School's Weapons Fielding Team (one of my two subordinate cells, the Small Arms DP3A being the other) did the train-the-trainer package for the "Laser Dazzler" Visual Warning Technology (VWT).

The VWT is not even an offensive capability but essentially a super-bright green flashlight that combined with an Info Ops campaign to ensure Afghans knew what it was, alerted incoming drivers that they had to stop their vehicle immediately.  It was seen as another tool in the escalation of force that may reduce fatal shootings.

Well, you would not believe the amount of high-level fingers in the pie we received because of the seemingly controversial topic of lasers in the eyes.  These are not blinding tools (we even did tests on ourselves to prove it), but as I mentioned simply a bright light, but the perception was that it would cause too much of a public outcry that we were using them.

Now knowing how sensitive the CF is to such issues, I would be shocked if we ever adopted a heat or a sonic gun, let alone bringing back everyone's favourite: