PAIN RAY GOING AIRBORNE

It was only a mat­ter of time, I guess. First, the Air Force builds a real-​​life, microwave-​​like pain ray. Then, it gets a com­pany to strap that real-​​life, microwave-​​like pain ray to the back of a jet.
For years, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has been work­ing on a millimeter-​​wave beam that pen­e­trates a 64th of an inch beneath the skin. That causes the water mol­e­cules there to bub­ble. And that hurts like hell; peo­ple tend to run — fast — in the other direc­tion. Small won­der, then, that non-​​lethal weapons experts call this “Active Denial System” the “holy grail of crowd con­trol.“
Active Denial been tested on peo­ple a bunch of times. A Humvee-​​mounted pro­to­type is about to start under­go­ing tri­als. And now, Active Denial is going air­borne.
AFRL handed Palo Alto’s Communications & Power Industries a four year, $7 mil­lion con­tract, accord­ing to the Hilltop Times — the in-​​house paper of Hill Air Force Base.

Dr. Diana Loree, the project offi­cer for Active Denial, said four AFRL direc­torates are involved in devel­op­ing this air­borne capa­bil­ity: directed energy here; propul­sion and vehi­cles at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; and human effec­tive­ness at Brooks City-​​Base, Texas.
Experts from directed energy, as the lead direc­torate, focuses on the sys­tems engi­neer­ing and radi­at­ing sys­tem devel­op­ment, she said. Propulsion direc­torate experts focus on the air­borne power gen­er­a­tion and con­di­tion­ing required for the radi­at­ing sys­tem. Vehicles direc­torate sci­en­tists and engi­neers put their efforts toward Active Denial’s ther­mal man­age­ment and air­craft inte­gra­tion issues while human effec­tive­ness experts focus on bio­log­i­cal effects research. 

November 16th, 2004 | Less-lethal | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.