PAIN RAYS, LASER JETS, AND STUN GUN SHOCKERS

From pain beams to stun guns to laser jets, real-​​life ray guns seemed to blast­ing their way from the world of sci-​​fi into the realm of real­ity in 2004. There were set­backs, to be sure — missed dead­lines, bloated bud­gets, and a sense that sup­pos­edly “non-​​lethal” energy weapons might not be so safe, after all. But, by the end of the year, the dream of a blaster in hand seemed a whole lot nearer than it did in 2003.
LASER JET: GOOD NEWS
After decades of bloated promises, busted bud­gets, and missed dead­lines, the trou­bled Airborne Laser project finally got a bit of good news yes­ter­day.
The program’s goal is to mount a high-​​energy, chem­i­cal laser onto a 747 jet, so it can shoot down incom­ing mis­siles. But whether such a laser would ever work remained very much an open ques­tion. On Thursday, some answers emerged, when Northrop engi­neers suc­cess­fully tested the laser.
ANTI-​​LASER CONTACT LENSES
I think we all winced when we read, back in September, about the Delta pilot who was hit in the eye by a laser while fly­ing a 737. Or about the 20 year-​​old Los Alamos intern who was zapped dur­ing a July exper­i­ment.
Air Force researchers must not have liked what they read, either. That’s pre­sum­ably why they’re look­ing to develop a con­tact lens that can pro­tect against laser blasts.
LASERS 1, MORTARS 0
Lasers have been get­ting pretty good at knock­ing down rock­ets, as we’ve seen in tests over the last few years. Now, the ray guns are start­ing to prove that they can zap one of the most com­mon bat­tle­field threats mor­tars as well.
ARMY FOCUSING ON “EASY” LASER WEAPONS
In the world of laser guns and death rays, there’s hard to pull off. And then’s really, really hard to do. The Army has decided to con­cen­trate on devel­op­ing some of the eas­ier “directed energy” weapons. The idea is to prove to a skep­ti­cal mil­i­tary com­mu­nity that lasers can, in fact, be used to blow stuff up — and not just on Babylon 5.
RAY GUN RESEARCH POWERS UP
The most pow­er­ful lasers today prob­a­bly wouldn’t work that well as weapons. They have the energy needed to zap oncom­ing mis­siles. But, pow­ered by enor­mous vats of chem­i­cals, they’re really too cum­ber­some to work in the bat­tle­field.
Solid state lasers don’t have those logis­ti­cal prob­lems. Until recently, though, the energy they’ve gen­er­ated has been pretty puny just 10 kilo­watts or so, instead of the 100 kilo­watts that most think are needed to make a work­able weapon. Now, Aviation Week reports, the Defense Department is on track to demon­strate three, solid state laser designs that can hit the 25 kw mark.
DEATHS DOG STUN GUN MAKER
For exec­u­tives as Taser International, this should be the best day, ever. The com­pany just signed a $1.8 mil­lion deal with the Pentagon the largest in Taser’s his­tory. But the stun-​​gun maker can’t shake alle­ga­tions that their sup­pos­edly “non-​​lethal” weapons have killed more than a few of their tar­gets.
CORONER: TASERS DIDN’T KILL
They’re still not sure why 31 year-​​old Frederick Jerome Williams died in police cus­tody. But it wasn’t the five shocks to the chest from a Taser stun gun, the Gwinnett, Georgia County med­ical examiner’s office has con­cluded.
TASERS IN THE SKIES
Firing bul­lets in an enclosed space is rarely a good idea. So I guess it was only a mat­ter of time before some­one decided to arm air­line secu­rity guards with tasers instead.
NEXT-​​GEN STUN GUNS TARGET CROWDS
The prob­lem with today’s stun guns is that you can unload a can of elec­tri­cal whoop-​​ass only on one per­son at a time. But that may be start­ing to change.
SONIC WEAPON IN IRAQ
U.S. sol­diers in Iraq have new gear for dis­pers­ing hos­tile crowds and ward­ing off poten­tial enemy com­bat­ants. It blasts ear­split­ting noise in a directed beam. “
“E-​​BOMB,” FOR REAL?
On the eve of the Iraq inva­sion, it was being hailed as America’s next “won­der weapon.” The “e-​​bomb” — a muni­tion using high-​​powered microwaves to fry cir­cuits and com­put­ers — was about to be dropped on Baghdad, we were told. Now, Aviation Week reports, there are a pair of efforts under­way at the Pentagon to use high-​​powered microwaves — the core of the e-​​bomb — for real.
BRING THE PAIN
When U.S. sol­diers are faced with a hos­tile crowd, they only have, broadly speak­ing, two options for break­ing it up: the bull­horn or the machine gun. Words or bul­lets. Deadly force, or no force at all. What’s need instead is a weapon that falls some­where in between. That shoots to hurt, not to kill. That dri­ves away loot­ers, with­out dri­ving up casu­alty counts. A microwave-​​like pain ray, let’s say.
SOUPED-​​UP ARMORED CARS PREPPED FOR IRAQ
Soldiers in Iraq might soon get armored vehi­cles equipped with pain rays, sonic weapons, or guns that autom­i­cally return fire if a Pentagon project works out as planned.
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.
NO SCI-​​FI TECH FOR “FUTURE COMBAT“
Back in 1999, when the Army launched Future Combat Systems, its $117 bil­lion mod­ern­iza­tion pro­gram, “dis­cus­sions were dom­i­nated by visions of an all-​​electric, laser-​​firing fleet of fast-​​moving tank-​​like vehi­cles unbur­dened by the weight of con­ven­tional armor,” notes National Defense. “Five years later, real­ity has set in.”

December 31st, 2004 | Lasers and Ray Guns | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.