US Deploys 'Heat-Ray' In Afghanistan 406
Koreantoast writes "The United States military has deployed Raytheon's newly developed Active Denial System (ADS), a millimeter-wave, 'non-lethal' heat-ray, to Afghanistan. The weapon generates a 'burning sensation' that is supposedly harmless, with the military claiming that the chance of injury is at less than 0.1%; numerous volunteers including reporters over the last several years have experienced its effects during various trials and demonstrations. While US military spokesperson Lt. Col. John Dorrian states that the weapon has not yet been operationally used, the tense situation in theater will ensure its usage soon enough. Proponents of ADS believe the system may help limit civilian deaths in counterinsurgency operations and provide new, safer ways to disperse crowds and control riots, but opponents fear that the system's long-term effects are not fully known and that the device may even be used for torture. Regardless, if ADS is successful in the field, we'll probably see this mobile microwave at your next local protest or riot."
You can protect yourself from the ADS (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Very troubling (Score:5, Informative)
"Blinding the enemy is definitely a war crime."
NO. Using weapons to specifically blind the enemy is a crime.
If you blind them with fragments or fire as a consequence of trying to kill and maim them, that's perfectly acceptable.
If you blind a tank crewman whose head is exposed by painting the tank with a laser designator in order to shoot the tank that's perfectly acceptable.
If you use a weapon whose specific purpose is to blind an enemy rather than blinding some of them as collateral damage, that's a crime.
Citation:
"Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons (Protocol IV to the 1980 Convention), 13 October 1995
Article 1 It is prohibited to employ laser weapons specifically designed, as their sole combat function or as one of their combat functions, to cause permanent blindness to unenhanced vision, that is to the naked eye or to the eye with corrective eyesight devices. The High Contracting Parties shall not transfer such weapons to any State or non-State entity.
Article 2 In the employment of laser systems, the High Contracting Parties shall take all feasible precautions to avoid the incidence of permanent blindness to unenhanced vision. Such precautions shall include training of their armed forces and other practical measures.
Article 3 Blinding as an incidental or collateral effect of the legitimate military employment of laser systems, including laser systems used against optical equipment, is not covered by the prohibition of this Protocol.
Article 4 For the purpose of this protocol "permanent blindness" means irreversible and uncorrectable loss of vision which is seriously disabling with no prospect of recovery. Serious disability is equivalent to visual acuity of less than 20/200 Snellen measured using both eyes."
Re:Kind of a big jump... (Score:5, Informative)
yep, or the military will buy ADS2 in a few years time, and flog the old ones cheap to police departments (which is normally how military equipment ends up in the hands of civilian police)
If you point it at a crwod of 1000 people (Score:3, Informative)
One of them will be serious injured. (statistics an lies...)
But still it surely better than the current mandate the soldier in afganistan have. Their main weapon now are bullits and heavier variant, and it is no suprise that a lot of people are killed because of this. Some might be civiliians (it is not a traditional war after all). If you point a automatic weapon at a crowd, the odds that you hurt lots of people is much higher.
A better solution would be that the US invasion force would have to keep to laws like police would have to, but having less lethal weapons might be a working alternative.
Nothing to see, keep consuming (Score:1, Informative)
Military Zips Lips on Pain Ray Accident (An airman received second-degree burns April 4 during a test of the Defense Department’s nonlethal millimeter-wave heat beam")
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2007/11/seven-months-af/ [wired.com]
Another type of area denial weapon at the G20 in Pittsburgh:
http://gizmodo.com/5369190/lrad-sound-cannon-used-on-pittsburgh-g20-protesters [gizmodo.com]
Re:Horrible (Score:3, Informative)
Instances like this [metro.co.uk] really paint a nice picture of how ridiculous the use of "non-lethal" weapons have gotten.
Re:War of The Worlds? (Score:3, Informative)
GB use was also hinted at.
Re:What? (Score:2, Informative)
I know the whole dry heat thing is utterly cliched but once you get acclimated, it's honestly more comfortable than the hot point of summer in Baltimore/DC or the Southeast US.
Re:Failure rate? (Score:1, Informative)
Actually, the way it works is that the cops seal off all exits from the area, then order all 1000 to disperse, beat up any who don't seem to be showing enough fear^H^H^H^H respect for authority, and arrest 100 or so for "failure to disperse" (based on personal appearance) or for "assaulting an officer" (based on mouthing off), 20 or 30 for legitimate property offenses, and another 10 or so for "assaulting an officer" (based on something a normal person would think resembled actual assault). Then they let the other 900 file out through a bottleneck somewhere, whacking any who don't appear duly cowed.
For extra credit, many police agencies will plant provocateurs to incite the crowd. Appears to be somewhat less common in the US.
Re:Very troubling (Score:1, Informative)
> It's been known for over fifty years that microwaves, at just a few
> milliwatts per square centimeter, cause cataracts.
The level of microwave radiation that causes cataracts is higher than that -- more like 150 mW/cm2 for 100 minutes; see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_burn#Eyes [wikipedia.org]
"For the near field 2.45 GHz frequency, the minimum power density to cause cataracts in rabbits was found to be 150 mW/cm2 for 100 minutes; a retrolental temperature of 41 C was necessary to be achieved."
Another typical unit of measure is SAR -- Specific Absorption Rate -- which is a rating for power vs mass, and is thus easier to deal with. A rabit gets cataracts at power levels around 100 - 140 W/kg SAR after exposure of 2 to 3 hours.
What is not commonly known is that flesh is best heated in the VHF frequency range -- around 30 - 300 MHz. In the microwave frequency region, the majority of the energy incident on flesh is reflected. At the same time, the "skin depth", or depth of penetration into the skin, DROPS as frequency is increased, which means that it gets more focused at the surface of the skin.
The Active Denial System is capable of causing cataracts, but the recipient of the energy has to be stubborn enough to stand there and look at it while being burned, rather than turning their head or covering the face with a hand.
Re:Very troubling (Score:4, Informative)
The wavelength is completely irrelevant for the question if it is a laser. A laser does not have to be in the optical or IR range. A laser is defined as a spatially coherent, narrow, low-divergence beam of electromagnetic waves. (If it’s matter, it’s a maser. There can also be others.)
So a spatially coherent, narrow, low-divergence beam of microwaves, is indeed a laser.
Re:Horrible (Score:3, Informative)
Do you even read the articles you link to?
The Kolokol-1 article states "129 hostages died during the ensuing raid; nearly all of these fatalities were attributed to the effects of the aerosolised incapacitating agent". I'd rather be blind than dead, thank you very much.
The Agent 15 one is also debatable. Sure, it's quite safe on it's own, but it looks like a very poor choice for using on antagonistic forces. Many of the listed symptoms (from the exact article you linked" actually make it more likely that violence will be needed. "Failure to obey orders", "hallucinations", and "irrational fear" would be major ones.
Besides, which is more likely to have unknown side effects: a chemical, or EM radiation?
Re:Horrible (Score:3, Informative)
And I would also point out that recent History is filled with cases where military units did act like a "gang of murderers" in regard to unarmed civilians. Kent State [wikipedia.org] and Me Lie [wikipedia.org] to name a couple off the top of my head.
Also, in case 1 of your example by knowingly firing on unarmed civilians it would be considered a war crime.
In case 2 you assume the crowd peacefully disperses, not going to happen, as soon as this thing is seen the demonstrators will attack the military forces with anything they can get their hands on, and those that don't will now be sympathetic to the "enemy", likely it will become a great recruitment event for the "enemy".
I would prefer Case 3: The military units withdraw from the area of the protest and go after the "enemy" another day.
I know, not going to happen.
Re:Very troubling (Score:5, Informative)
It pre-dates the LASER, and is different in only one letter of the acronym LASER by the word "Light" rather than "Microwave". Researches seem to have thought it relevant to denote the difference between optical and non optical radiation so don't go screwing with the accepted definitions.
But the topic is moot really since this is nothing more than a microwave generator, based on the story shown on Discovery last year. Not everything coming out of a horn antenna is spatially coherent, so unless you can provide a source saying that this is indeed a spatially coherent beam created by stimulated emission of radiation, it is nether a LASER or a MASER.