For a while, now, I’ve been hearing about the Defense Department’s plans to outfit a fighting vehicle with a pain ray, a sonic blaster, and a laser dazzler, too. I never figured they’d actually send the thing to Iraq, though. Project Sheriff, I assumed, would just be the military equivalent of a concept car — a chance to see if some whiz-bang gear really worked together.
But the Pentagon may wind up deploying this straight-outta-sci-fi jalopy, after all. The Army just got the OK to spend $31.3 million on three deployable Project Sheriff vehicles, Inside Defense is reporting.
Right now, a “non-deployable Spiral 0 prototype” [Sheriff] is “undergoing environmental testing,” according to the newsletter — and waiting for one of the armed services to adopt the program as its own. That looks like it’s happened, now. The “Spiral 1″ Sheriff will equip either a Stryker fighting vehicle or a Cougar mine-fighter with the dazzler, the blaster, and the like. Oh, and it’ll still have guns, too.
By combining the lethal and nonlethal technologies on a vehicle, [Marine Corps Col. Wade] Hall said a warfighter would be able to discriminate the noncombatants from insurgents by first employing the nonlethal capabilities and then progressing to the use of lethal force.
For example, if a convoy led by a Project Sheriff vehicle was moving through an urban area, a crowd may form to divert the convoy into an ambush zone, according to Hall.
If this were to happen, the first thing the crowd would hear is the Long Range Acoustic Device either telling the crowd to move or giving off a noise that would bother their hearing. Next, the Lazzer Dazzler would scan the crowd looking for a flicker from the scope of a possible sniper.
If the crowd was still in place, troops would employ the active denial technology [AKA the pain ray].
If they try and deflect beams then we will kill them because we know what their intentions are, Hall said. Now I know what your intent is. I just told you to move, I just flashed some light in you that said hey get away from me. I just put some effect on you that said please move or its going to get worse and you continue to tell me that you have an ill intent for me and my fellow Marines. So now I will bring some lethal force to bear if it satisfies my [rules of engagement].
In an April 7, 2005, memo, Army Brig. Gen. James Huggings, the chief of staff for the Multi-National Corps-Iraq, asked the Joint Chiefs of Staff to approve funding for the time critical material release, fielding and sustainment of the Full-Spectrum Effects Weapon Systems, the technical name for Project Sheriff vehicles.
This will allow operating forces to exploit the psychological dilemma of adversaries who are faced with advanced precision capabilities having multiple effects mechanism that are collectively more challenging to protect against, Huggins wrote. This will serve to transfer the difficulties of operational complexity to the enemy, helping to allow MNC-I forces to regain the initiative in fourth generation warfare.
Huggins proposes the Army receive eight vehicles — four for the 18th Military Police Brigade and four for the 42nd Military Police Brigade — and the Marines receive six.
In an April 19, 2005, response to Huggins, Marine Corps Maj. Gen. John Castellaw, chief of staff for U.S. Central Command, said the request for 14 Project Sheriff vehicles was fully supported by CENTCOM.
{ 40 comments… read them below or add one }
So if I’m an innocent Iraqi in the middle of a crowd of protesters complaining about, say, the lack of reliable electricity, and some jerk on the outskirts of our protest throws a bottle, say, at some Marines, and then those Marines turn on their Death Ray Truck and bombard us with sound telling us to leave the area and I try, but I’m hemmed in by the crowd around me and can’t move and then the Marines shine lasers at us and I try to hold up something to deflect those lasers lest I lose my sight… that’s a sign that I’m fair game to be shot and killed? Gosh, I can’t imagine why the Iraqis hate us… and why they’re going to hate us even more once these civilian-targetting terror machines are deployed upon them. Oh, and I can’t WAIT until the Bush Administration is finished with their field tests of these machines and roll them out for domestic use. This technology is disgusting.
Thanks for clearing that up Mike I actually thought the US was the good guys for a minute trying to separate the “brave” hostiles hiding in the crowd from the actual innocents and lessen the number of dead innocents. And you people wonder why we question your patriotism??
I like the idea of this thing, better than rubber bullets, tear gas or worse. I think one at the near by base on call for crowd control, protest escort, or that special situation maybe useful.
But is this report really saying we are going to use it as a gun truck? That seems rather expensive not to mention in an ambush we need lots of fast firepower like a (anti-aircraft platform packing deuce stacks) not some high-powered sun tanner and a light machine gun (not shown in picture).
I guess instead of just warning the beligerent
dogmatically brainwashed mobs over there in the
sandbox to back off we aught to just sweep them
with a fusilade of machine gun fire,that would be
a lot more civilized,right?Instead of balking at
this technology,you moveon.org types aught to be
lauding it!Here we are taking steps to NOT,i repeat
NOT,hurt these people,but get them to back off
before we are forced to utilize REAL,lethal force.
They’ll get an ear ache,they’ll get momentarily
blinded,and when that fails,they might get a little cooked for their trouble.But if they move
off and go on about their business peacably,they
won’t get shot and killed.Thats the whole point
of this technology.How many times have your’e
friends,the jihadis given us a warning before
they set off an I.E.D.(Improvised explosive
munition to you berkely grads,not intelligent,
excellent democrat,which in,and of,itself is an
oxymoron)near our troops,or their own indigeonous
population?Really humane that is,but of course,
in their minds its okay as these are fellow
muslims who don’t mind being blown up on a whim
as their going to go to heaven gladly.Now that is
whats really disgusting here,not the pain ray.
Getting hit by something, regardless of microwave beams or a 5.56 is merely a different of whether America has to pay blood money to the tribe or not.
The enemy interprets non-lethal weapons as a sign of weakness, the Iraqis interpret a pain-zapper as something else which doesn’t change the parameters of their relationship with the United States Army: if they hate us, it’s just another tool of which “to oppress the dignity of the Iraqi people”. If they like us, it’s a tool that prevents “needless deaths”.Every coin has two sides.
But as before, there’s more room for error with a non-lethal, but it’s offset by a commander using it too often, until you’re back to square one. This relationship is similar to overuse of antibiotics until bacteria develop resistance to it.
If the insurgents get the equipment to triangulate on one of these things by emissions, then things will get interesting.
I’m thinking that that puppy needs a tray/table attachment for the waveguide, could cook up a lot of java on that thing
I figure they’ll field test it in Iraq, and it’ll be in the hands of U.S. police forces soon after. They could use it on black “looters” the next time the government screws up disater relief.
And KATSESAMA, what is the deal, dude? Why is it that people who use terms like “moveon.org types” and “…you berkely grads,not intelligent,
excellent democrat,which in,and of,itself is an
oxymoron” have such a hard time spelling words correctly? I won’t get into the question of syntax. Could there be a connection to how much Fox news you watch, or could it be that it’s because your sister is also your mother?
Trouble is, you can just run up behind it no problem..oh well..
Welcome to the New World Order. If Adolf would have had one of these babies, He would’nt have had to take a bad rap. Although, microwaving and cianide gas ends in the same result. Tough call. Maybe if no one tries to take our government back, they won’t have to use it.
We should have a broadcast telling them ” the extreme pain you are in is because allah hates you, and you have angered him. A Tsunami and 2 big earthquakes were obviuos not enough punishment for you people. If allah loved you he would not have given so much power to the infidel. ” Hell they won’t know the difference, the only muslims who understand science are already in the U.S, teaching computer science at crappy jr. Colleges and turning a generation of bong smoking, X box playing basement dwellers against the tit that feeds them.
The sooner we quit trying to coddle our enemy and the faster we start shooting them and letting them know we plan to shoot them the better.
We didn’t win WWII with any freaking pain ray, now did we? 31 Million buys a lot of lead and enough Arabic posters to send the message we’re through screwing around.
Can’t help but notice a really nasty trend in some of the posts here.There seems to be a near fanatic
opinion that this technology would somehow be used
against u.s. citizens for anti-riot purposes.I can’t
disagree more.The idea that the government would use
ADS to quell protest or angry black mobs is just so much liberal daydreaming and fearmongering.There have been a lot of technological advancements that
have come out in recent history with tactical applications that have,as yet,to be turned on the
citizens in an unjustifiable manner.So…where are
all these accounts of the federal governments abuse coming from?from the very fertile sesspool
of the liberal imagination methinks.Oh…while i’m
on the subject…cunning-lick-fest?…OH! so sorry
thats cunning-linguist was it? Sorry to mis-spell
you obviously well thought out,and clever tag.
Must be that extra Y-Chromosome i inherited from
Sis/Mom.My parenting aside,its tired,sophmoric,
commentary like that which is best reserved for
the realm of late-night fps game taunting and smack talk.Its leftist whining like,and i quote
from a grammaticly perfect source”They could use
it on black”looters”the next time they screw up disaster relief”that truly reveals a lack of moral
understanding and conspiracy fantasization all out
of proportion to the reality of the situation.So
go ahead and critique my argument all you like.its
overly emotional retorts about “presumed”abuses of
power that makes your argument about as strong as those levies down there in the big easy.
Look up in the dictionary ‘jihad’ means restraint.
‘terrorist’ the meaning sounds like the U.S. government.
Just flippin shoot em…
They’ll quit assembling real quick.
Why do we screw around with these morons?
I wonder when this thing will be used on US citizens.
Its a good idea but too bad it can be so easily spotted and the huge antenna makes an easy target to pick off.
As if the middle east was not hot enough, now we can cook them alive!
I love it!
Let’s step back and look at the Liberal point of view. let’s see the big liberal picture.
1. its ok to sell missle & nuke technology to our enemies.
2. its ok for them to put nukes on those missles.
3. its ok for them to threaten/blackmail to use them on the U.S. and Europe…to kill your family, friends, co-workers & pets;not to mention screw up the envirnment and ozone layer.
ummm.
but its not ok to defend ourselves or prevent this.
2nd Amendment:
A well regulated milita, being NECESSARY to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
not only that, but read the preamble of the Constitution…”…insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense…”
these Islamo-Empirialists seek to destroy us. they say–any nation that is not Islamic is un-acceptable…how will they achieve that–threw war! just like they have in the past. those islamic believers who will not strap on a bomb belt or pick up a gun will not help us to end this senseless agression.
They will never reform.
i think if George Washington was alive and President, he would roll out the new hard-ware as soon as possible and he would use them too.
Islam is well on its way to stand side by side with the defunct religion of Bal & Ra worship. the tragidy is this: Arafat and Bin Laden had the opportunity to lead the children of Ismael into a prosperous happy life, but rather instead, down the road of their eventual demise as a people. their spin, their lies, their destructiveness, will come back onto their heads and their wish of eradication of Israel, will be their fate instead.
Let’s step back and look at the Liberal point of view. let’s see the big liberal picture.
1. its ok to sell missle & nuke technology to our enemies.
2. its ok for them to put nukes on those missles.
3. its ok for them to threaten/blackmail to use them on the U.S. and Europe…to kill your family, friends, co-workers & pets;not to mention screw up the envirnment and ozone layer.
ummm.
but its not ok to defend ourselves or prevent this.
2nd Amendment:
A well regulated milita, being NECESSARY to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
not only that, but read the preamble of the Constitution…”…insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense…”
these Islamo-Empirialists seek to destroy us. they say–any nation that is not Islamic is un-acceptable…how will they achieve that–threw war! just like they have in the past. those islamic believers who will not strap on a bomb belt or pick up a gun will not help us to end this senseless agression.
They will never reform.
i think if George Washington was alive and President, he would roll out the new hard-ware as soon as possible and he would use them too.
Islam is well on its way to stand side by side with the defunct religion of Bal & Ra worship. the tragidy is this: Arafat and Bin Laden had the opportunity to lead the children of Ismael into a prosperous happy life, but rather instead, down the road of their eventual demise as a people. their spin, their lies, their destructiveness, will come back onto their heads and their wish of eradication of Israel, will be their fate instead.
fred
get a better dictionary…
1: a holy war waged on behalf of Islam as a religious duty; also : a personal struggle in devotion to Islam especially involving spiritual discipline
2: a crusade for a principle or belief
When Muslims say jihad, they mean holy war.
Mike Wright = Idiot
If you don’t like Bush, i’ll help you move to canada… which seams to be what all those liberals are good at, Running away from their problems pouting like a baby all the way home to mommy.
You whine about killing someone who is trying to kill us, then when an alternative comes about, you whine about that too. Democrats/Liberals truly are the Political party of Idiots. They don’t even know what they want.
Dear The Voice of truth,
why do liberals spend so much time typing urls backwards?
“I cannot trust a man that lies to the american public, congress, the UN, and the entire world..
breaks the law blatantly, tries to cover his own criminal record,.. i could go on and on but you probably already know it all.”
I’m sorry…were you referring to Clinton or Teddy Kennedy here?
The liberals all seem to worry that this will be used on Americans. Funny the last administration to used overwhelming deadly force on U.S citizens on a regular basis was the Clinton administration. See, too many bong loads will affect your memory.
The Jackbooted thug attack scoreboard:
Clinton/ Reno: at least 3
Bush/Ashcroft/Gonzalez: 0
Michael Savage for President!
I knew you would not know what ‘jihad’ true meaning is. You non arab speaking, have been lied to. For the real meaning of ‘jihad’ go to http://www.USE.edu/dept/MSA/reference/glossary/term.JIHAD.html Your government is spreading propaganda
sorry the web addy for ‘JIHAD’ is http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/reference/glossary/term.JIHAD.html
this is the university of southern california at least they know the true meaning.
OH Cool ! The US Military has a new weapon to torture people with !
If America doesn’t sort out its border problems with Mexico the U.S will cease to exist as an a nation. What’s the use of having an army to defend you from an armed invasion if anyone (criminal,terrorist or economic refugee)can walk into your country.
Something tells me that this technology will be used on us someday. Only a matter of time before Metro area police forces start deploying these things… if they haven’t already.
this is nothing compared to the mobile fuel cell
laser that i saw in test operations;that weapon is horrible.
The ‘final solution’ for the Mexican border is known as the .44 Magnum. A few examples of its results on the border should serve as a deterrent to future wannabes.
haha.. “OH Cool ! The US Military has a new weapon to torture people with !” (By Balke)
What a freaking moron. The friggin purpose of such weapons is to prevent deaths and disperse crowds instead of using a 50cal on them. Do you not realize how much easier a 50cal would be? Ahhh, im sure people such as Balke and other “libertarian” (lol) type folks would prefer bullets.
How soon can we get these on the mexican border to fend off the real threat?
Why bother? We are surrendering to mexico.
After hearing about this machine, would you not get away before it was turned on?
What do you think Iraqis are?
Lower than Monkeys?
Don’t answer that one.
Actually, these protesters you speak of, are more than likely unemployed poor males with a 5th grade education.
Do they deserve this treatment?
No, it’s their country.
Would their fellow countrymen respond the same way as us?
HAHA, Worse.
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I like the idea of this thing, better than rubber bullets, tear gas or worse. I think one at the near by base on call for crowd control, protest escort, or that special situation maybe useful.
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Attn:
Seems as this is what it is. Point 2 Point, A to B, or vise versa B to A. We have to get the guy’s and gal’s home now. Could this warning Weapon not run over the ENEMY Fig Tree? The last I have been told we are mashing terrorist(anti-US)properties up down left and right. I salute you all, just remember, THEY STARded IT!!! would somebody proof read please,,, Thank You.
May 30th, 2009. 1928hrs West Coast
at least now look and see people!!! here we have that non lethal weapons, that doesn't damage objects but just knocks them down for a while, or doesn't even do it. just denies him to get away.