This arti­cle first appeared in Defense Technology International.

A few years ago, when Inferno, an acoustic device devel­oped in Sweden, was being pre­sented in Johannesburg, the poten­tial cus­tomer asked if the com­pany had any doc­u­mented proof that it worked as a “sound bar­rier.” The answer from the mak­ers of Inferno was no, they didn’t have any stud­ies, but they offered to demon­strate it to the customer’s satisfaction.

Maurice Goldman, North American man­ag­ing direc­tor for Inferno, says the poten­tial cus­tomer offered two employ­ees a month’s salary if they would stay in the room while the device went off.

One employee stayed 20 sec., the other lasted 30 sec.

That anec­do­tal evi­dence is crit­i­cal to Inferno, which offers a range of prod­ucts under the com­pany name. It adver­tises the devices, which let out an ear-​​piercing noise, as sonic bar­ri­ers that deter aggressors.

Even with­out for­mal stud­ies doc­u­ment­ing this effect, Inferno has found cus­tomers with the mil­i­tary, yachters and even the U.S. State Dept. Nor is it alone in the mar­ket. From local law enforce­ment to the high seas, acoustic devices are prov­ing increas­ingly pop­u­lar. Though the best known of these, the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), has been deployed on ships and by local law enforce­ment, there are new devices on the mar­ket, such as Inferno, that tout unique capabilities.

More than just a siren, Inferno uti­lizes four fre­quen­cies spread over 2–5 KHz. and 125–127 dB. to cre­ate a unique sound that is not just loud, but dis­ori­ent­ing and poten­tially nauseating.

Using sound as a non-​​lethal device has attracted sig­nif­i­cant inter­est from the Defense Dept., but it comes with poten­tial com­pli­ca­tions. Inferno’s Goldman says he was con­tacted by one office in the Defense Dept. that was inter­ested in a device that mounts on top of a Stryker or a Humvee and emits 140 dB. at 40 meters (130 ft.). “That much sound would give every man, woman and child per­ma­nent hear­ing dam­age,” Goldman says. “That’s going beyond what less lethal is about.”

But used prop­erly, Goldman sees poten­tial appli­ca­tions for Inferno as a non-​​lethal deter­rent, for exam­ple, to pre­vent piracy. “The use of less-​​lethal devices in marine appli­ca­tions employ­ing acoustic tech­nolo­gies, such as the patented Inferno Intenso, pro­vides an effi­cient tool for perime­ter denial, delay and deter­rence,” says Goldman. “For both the plea­sure boater and com­mer­cial ven­tures, acoustic energy is a strong addi­tion to any secu­rity system.”

Acoustic devices are, in fact, increas­ingly used as deter­rents. In 2005, LRAD, devel­oped by American Technology Corp., was famously used to thwart a pirate attack on a cruise ship off the coast of Africa. But the inci­dent, hailed as a great suc­cess for acoustic devices, also under­scored the ambi­gu­ity of whether such devices are, in fact, non-​​lethal weapons. More con­tro­ver­sial has been the use of such acoustic devices to quell civil unrest. In 2007, the gov­ern­ment of Georgia used an acoustic device to break up polit­i­cal demon­stra­tions, and in September, LRAD was used against pro­test­ers at the G-​​20 sum­mit in Pittsburgh.

If such devices are non-​​lethal weapons, there’s another chal­lenge — most evi­dence attest­ing to their effec­tive­ness is largely anec­do­tal, and sci­en­tists who study the issue remain dubi­ous about the appli­ca­tions. For some com­pa­nies, like Inferno, anec­do­tal evi­dence has proved per­sua­sive to customers.

Read the rest of this story, see the Eurofighter’s Baltic mis­sion, pon­der why an Afghan mis­sion has been scrapped and see where the NYT got it wrong from our friends at Aviation Week, exclu­sively at Military​.com.

– Christian

For all you DT read­ers with con­nec­tions down there or inter­est in what’s going on around this ter­ri­ble Ft. Hood shoot­ing ram­page, be sure to keep tabs on Military​.com for the lat­est updates from around the Web.

– Christian