Sticky foam is the custard pie of the nonlethals world, often seen more as a practical joke than a weapon. In fact, it worked well enough at stopping people, but suffers from some critical disadvantages, as Noah pointed out a while back.
One of the big problems is that having slimed a rioter, you cant arrest them or take them away. And if the sticky foam covers their mouth and nose, it can be anything but non-lethal.
After some initial enthusiasm for the idea during the Marine deployment to Somalia in 1995, the idea faded and has been in limbo ever since. Now sticky foam is back, defending nuclear weapon stockpiles, according to this report from Government Security.
The report explains that some facilities storing uranium and plutonium now boast steel doors with containers of hydrocarbon solution built into them. Breach the door, and the liquid comes foaming out under high pressure, expanding in bulk by a factor of forty and sealing the breach with an impassable obstacle.
The idea is that sticky foam will delay any attackers for long enough for the defenders to call in reinforcements. Experiments with explosives found it was impossible to break through the doors without the foam barrier deploying. Another test showed how a defender could release the foam by shooting it with an M-16. According to Ronald Timm, president of RETA Security:
If you’re on the high security side of a door and attackers are attempting to break through, you can use your weapon to shoot the doorThe sticky foam will deploy, delay the attackers, and give you time to call for help.
The doors are already installed at undisclosed sites. In the new role, the foam’s drawbacks become advantages. Keeping attackers stuck in place for as long as possible is helpfuland there are unlikely to be protests if any of them tries to force a way through and comes to a sticky end.
– David Hambling
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
>Does any one remember 234 Riot Control Launcher?
Oops, I meant M234 Riot Control Launcher
Seemed to work well on Mr. Incredible!
What a terrible weapon!
There is also a microwave weapon, that fires a beam of ultra high frequency waves, these make the attacker feel as if his skin is on fire should they approach the wave, although no burns appear, its just the unbearable sensation.
they dont deploy m16(a1 or a2)’s anymore to my knowledge. they have too large a footprint, accessories are basically nil, it was very heavy, and it only employs a single, 3 round burst and safety grouping, not to mention the huge solid buttstock. the us troops in iraq and afghanistan weild Colt M4A1′s as well as various other rifles, but as far as I know the m16(a2) was yanked not too long ago. i think the m234 was the non-lethal brother to the m203 (another m16(a2) 20mm grenade launcher attachment), and if so, then it can be fitted onto the m4a1…as far as i know…oh, and FINALLY! A USE FOR STICKY FOAM! looks like there’s frost in the underworld now.
they are absoulutly still useing A2 I was issued an A2 in 2008 as for the 3 round burst. anything more is a waste of ammo. you would be hard pressed to find a fully automatic assult rifle in the us arsenal. there are full auto wepons for instance some M4s but they are usually modified after market and employed by spec ops teams, and they use what ever they want. the only diffrence between the A2 and the A3 and 4 is the rail system. used for mounting accesories.
the m203 is a 40mm grenade launcher, and the armed forces never use full auto, its completely unnecessary
Being a screenwriter myself, in a movie I would have the attackers arrive equiped with a large tank of spray solvent or just plain compressed air to deflect the foam to the sides until it solidified. Might not work in real life, but it would get the bad guys inside in a James Bond film.
If I was a screenwriter, I would have the bad guys show up with truck loaded with 1000 goats to eat the foam
How would you get it off?
baby oil or mineral oil takes sticky foam right off, it
works quite well.
You know how the sound of fingernails on a blackboard makes you feel? Or the sound of a fork dragged, tines down, across a stainless steel pan?
Couldn’t those particular sound frequencies be amped up and used for crowd control? Wearing protective ear coverings wouldn’t work for the bad guys, ‘cuz they wouldn’t be able to hear what their leaders were saying.
And while I’m here, I have a couple more thoughts along this general line of discussion:
1. I’ve heard that touching pig blood, or any part of a pig for that matter, is like a deadly sin to those madmen killing our GIs. Why isn’t that fact, if it is a fact, used as a weapon? An explosive device that sprays pig blood instead of shrapnel, for example.
How about using squirt guns filled with pig blood for interrogations of terrorists?
2. “Humanitarian de-mining” is a big deal in many countries around the world. All the research I’ve seen focusses on mechanical, electrical and chemical devices and methods for finding buried anti-personnel mines. One method even tries to exploit the chemical sensitivity of bees to locate mines.
By all the accounts I’ve read, clearing an area of mines, once they’re located, is a slow, dangerous and costly process. Extracting the mines seems to rely on variations of mechanical robots and a-brave-guy-with-a-bayonet poking around in the dirt.
My question: Once a minefield is located, why don’t they just loft sandbags, old water-filled inner tubes, tires, sections of tree trunks or other round, heavy objects into the field and detonate the mines? There seems to be a definite reason for extracting the mines intact, but it’s never stated.
Can anyone here shed some light on this?
Setting off landmines – or any device likely to throw out shrapnel – is not a good idea if you’re within 100 feet of them. You could get away with it a few times, but it’s risky.
As for the pig blood idea, it sounds like a great way to boost al-Qaeda recruiting and turn everyone in the world against the US.
Where can we get sticky foam?
Mine fields aren’t cleared by “sandbags” mainly because most of the devices are more sophisticated than that.
Second, because detonating them pollutes the landscape. Want your kids eating shrapnel? Howabout planting a garden in an area polluted by the reactants inside a mine? mmm poison
This stuff looks to work out just great!
Puts a whole new spin on “Getting stuck in”!
If its sticky and expands I guess that would work, just so long as it isn’t too easy to remove. If it’s flammable that would make for quite an > (napalm anyone?).
Lets just hope these devices remain in the hands of the forces of good and not twisted some how by the bad ones.
I didn’t see the minefield reference, but anyway.. The armed forces do have anti-mine field devices that are shot over a field and then remotely detonated. They’re quite effective.
i read about micro-organisims that glow when they come into contact with explosive ingerdients.
They are developing it so you can spread it on a mine field to locate the mines.