Microwave-goodbye weapon: 'Heat ray' crowd dispersal cannon unveiled (VIDEO)

The American military have presented the world with a new weapon, informally named the heat ray or microwave cannon. The “Active Denial System” is a non-lethal weapon primarily designed for crowd control. A video was uploaded on YouTube by USFORCESTV channel of the US military testing a new super high frequency (SHF) weapon. Rumors have long been spread about a “cannon”, which can be mounted on a military vehicle to disperse crowds with the help of a high-powered beam of electromagnetic radiation. Hearsay still causes the US Department of Defense deny it has spent $120 million on a mobile microwave oven. The Active Denial System (ADS) beams a high-frequency, man-sized electromagnetic wave 1,000 meters.

The point of this thread isn't to introduce the new "toy" that the military has, but rather the seemingly ok mindset of using weapons, while in military garb, against CIVILIANS.

The video itself, for those that can't watch it, shows a person in BDU's giving orders from a microphone ordering people to leave who are throwing rocks. At the military. And hitting nothing. From 50 yards away.

It then shows the same guy using the new weapon, against people in civilian garb, and them laughing/giggling about it. (Including a token fellow military personnel, how sweet)

And to make it even more clear, the "protestors" aren't in any enemy clothing. No Russkies, no one wearing towels on their head, just Americans looking like, Americans.

And the military responding to the threat.

The weapon itself, is secondary to this story, (and clearly not my main focus) but the continued advancement of military handling domestic issues and unrest.

I guess what does/doesn't surprise me the MOST about this story is the crowd's response to the weapon. The laughing/giggling that happens AFTER being hit by this non-lethal weapon. There is no shouts of posse comitatus, no shouts of anybody reminding these G.I.'s of their oath. (And why should there be, this is more than a "crowd control" test, this is a conditioning of soldiers as well) So naturally the crowd is playing along, rather stupidly, with someone/something that may truly be used upon them in real life.

Tanks, cop cars, humvees then officers will carry these ray guns. You can put an invisible shield around anything.

Lots better than having to shoot them with rubber bullets or other worse means. I'd rather be warned with that than with a flame thrower As you see, the civilians weren't heeding the warnings of our armed forces, people trained to protect our country.

I wonder how the concentrated electromagnetic radiation could affect human health. What would getting hit by one of these feel like?

reply to post by AdaptationNation

Judging from the reactions of those affected, which seems vaguely similar to a very mild but uncomfortable electric-shock, I doubt if even more than a few tens of seconds of continuous beam is very good for an organism. Being cooked from the inside out, no matter how slowly just really can't be good for you.

I wonder if it's possible that we could actually stay on topic concerning this thread. (which isn't the new toy in the video as I said in my opening paragraph)

Originally posted by LightSpeedDriver
reply to post by AdaptationNation

 

Judging from the reactions of those affected, which seems vaguely similar to a very mild but uncomfortable electric-shock, I doubt if even more than a few tens of seconds of continuous beam is very good for an organism. Being cooked from the inside out, no matter how slowly just really can't be good for you.

Now you know this could be used in interrogations. No permanent harm in small doses. It would sure beat waterboarding. Oh just imagine all the screaming. Music to the ears i tell ya.(not) I wonder how long a terrorist would be able to resist this weapon?

reply to post by yuppa


I was implying (or at least trying to) the rubber-hosing without-the-hose technique while not going into quite as much detail as you did.

reply to post by schadenfreude


Sometimes it's better to stop demonstrations where people could injure others than to let them escalate. Look at the damage done to innocent peoples houses recently in Kansas. A little shock would have saved grief for the ones that got their properties destroyed. Sometimes in protests mob action arises towards people and property that has nothing to do with the protest. That is evident throughout history. Study how things have gone awry in history in these situations. It will show up quickly that the target of the aggression didn't sustain nearly as much damage as the innocent neighborhood. Nothing good seems to arise out of violent protest. It just drives the sides apart further.

EMP is uncomfortable and messes with your brain( had a lot of guys on ship complain about heavy electrical cables above their bunks emitting EMP and messing with their sleep). It would be a good weapon against the IPhone cameramen in the crowd lol.

Originally posted by schadenfreude
The point of this thread isn't to introduce the new "toy" that the military has, but rather the seemingly ok mindset of using weapons, while in military garb, against CIVILIANS.

The video itself, for those that can't watch it, shows a person in BDU's giving orders from a microphone ordering people to leave who are throwing rocks. At the military. And hitting nothing. From 50 yards away.

It then shows the same guy using the new weapon, against people in civilian garb, and them laughing/giggling about it. (Including a token fellow military personnel, how sweet)

And to make it even more clear, the "protestors" aren't in any enemy clothing. No Russkies, no one wearing towels on their head, just Americans looking like, Americans.

And the military responding to the threat.

The weapon itself, is secondary to this story, (and clearly not my main focus) but the continued advancement of military handling domestic issues and unrest.

It looks like one of those open field tests at KAFB. They used to run demos. As such, the only clothing the civilian contractors and airmen would have had would be typical American clothing.

Most everyone on the project was required/encouraged to get a dose of it at least once.

The military's shelved it for now, though. Too impractical at present. Raytheon's still working on it.

Originally posted by Shadow Herder
Tanks, cop cars, humvees then officers will carry these ray guns. You can put an invisible shield around anything.

It's big, clumsy, and requires a lot of power and support systems. You won't be packing it around soon. There was an abortive attempt at using AESA driver modules but so far it's still big, clumsy, and takes a lot of power.

Originally posted by rickymouse
Lots better than having to shoot them with rubber bullets or other worse means.

I prefer the M5 MCCM for anti-hippie dispersal myself. Looks like a claymore, shoots airsoft pellets.

Originally posted by AdaptationNation
What would getting hit by one of these feel like?

A bit like touching a hot stove all over. Or like standing way too close to a bonfire.

Originally posted by LightSpeedDriver
Being cooked from the inside out, no matter how slowly just really can't be good for you.

It doesn't. Heats up the top mm of your skin to about 140 degrees. Doesn't go through your eyelids. The part that's likely not so good for you is where you end up trampled by the mob, which is going to be the real issue.

Originally posted by yuppa

Now you know this could be used in interrogations. No permanent harm in small doses. It would sure beat waterboarding. Oh just imagine all the screaming. Music to the ears i tell ya.(not) I wonder how long a terrorist would be able to resist this weapon?

It's super expensive, huge, and takes about 200kW to run. It's way easier to just use a soldering iron on someone.

Or do the "100 questions" like the Russians used to do. Supposedly.

reply to post by Bedlam

Which side were you on? The side setting it up or the side getting shot at? Wouldn't those hurt a person if they hit them in the eye? I like this new system better, seems less dangerous. Maybe the protestors need some tin foil hats to protect themselves Tin foil longjohns too

Originally posted by rickymouse
reply to post by Bedlam

 

Which side were you on? The side setting it up or the side getting shot at?

Wouldn't those hurt a person if they hit them in the eye? I like this new system better, seems less dangerous. Maybe the protestors need some tin foil hats to protect themselves

Tin foil longjohns too

edit on 7-4-2012 by rickymouse because: (no reason given)

They ran parts of Project Sheriff through Redstone, one was the smaller solid-state version of VMADS which didn't have enough power. That's the one you used to see on the wiki page here.

Being me, we of course decided to research it by testing it "in the field" which meant on each other, out the windows on passersby etc. So yes to both questions.

Your natural reaction to a shot to the face is to turn your head and close your eyes. You can't stop from doing it. There was some question as to whether having contact lenses on would allow you to foolishly keep your eyes open long enough to melt them to your eyes ala The Man Who Fell to Earth, although "surprise testing" on random uninformed volunteers showed that the potential reaction of someone being hit by this when they don't expect it is to turn around and mow everyone down on the way out. That, IMHO, is the worst problem here.

Arguably balanced, I guess, by the amazing success you typically have flushing someone out of hiding with it. If you've got camo'd and ghillied-up SF in a field or up trees you can't see, you can pop those puppies right out in about two seconds.

Originally posted by Bedlam

Originally posted by yuppa

Now you know this could be used in interrogations. No permanent harm in small doses. It would sure beat waterboarding. Oh just imagine all the screaming. Music to the ears i tell ya.(not) I wonder how long a terrorist would be able to resist this weapon?

It's super expensive, huge, and takes about 200kW to run. It's way easier to just use a soldering iron on someone.

Or do the "100 questions" like the Russians used to do. Supposedly.

Dental torture works better. You ever had a root canal with no pain killers? Whoo boy that was a experience. My pain killers wore off and lets just say i would rather have had a squirrel in my pants.

Originally posted by yuppa
Dental torture works better. You ever had a root canal with no pain killers? Whoo boy that was a experience. My pain killers wore off and lets just say i would rather have had a squirrel in my pants.

Yeah, around where we would have had a campfire if we weren't under light and sound discipline (heh) we used to have debates on what would be worse. The tooth drilling guy on Marathon Man was at the top of the list. There is an Army campfire tale among some units that involves getting caught by the KGB (which sort of dates me I guess) and taken to the Lubyanka for further in-depth interrogation. Supposedly...(stop reading here if you don't like graphic descriptions) (seriously) they had a foolproof interrogation technique. They rammed a big soldering iron up your butt hooked to a variac.

Then they set it to "0" and asked you some questions. If you didn't provide the answers, they set it to "1" and asked again. Before they got to "100" you would provide whatever they wanted. Thus the term "100 questions of the Lubyanka".