Many a DT reader will remember the so-called Active Denial System a giant millimeter-wave electromagnetic antenna mounted on a Humvee that could be directed at large, unruly crowds to disperse them without firing a shot in anger.
The ray heats the human skin to such an uncomfortable level that he has to retreat. It is the hallmark of the Pentagons non-lethal weapons development plan…and the most controversial.
Well, it looks like commanders in Iraq have been pleading for the device, which is pretty far along in its development. But fearing the post-Taser backlash from some groups, the Pentagon denied the technology in favor of more lethal methods.
It would be a familiar scene in Iraq’s next few years: Crowds gather, insurgents mingle with civilians. Troops open fire, and innocents die.
All the while, according to internal military correspondence obtained by The Associated Press, U.S. commanders were telling Washington that many civilian casualties could be avoided by using a new non-lethal weapon developed over the past decade.
Military leaders repeatedly and urgently requested — and were denied — the device, which uses energy beams instead of bullets and lets soldiers break up unruly crowds without firing a shot.
It’s a ray gun that neither kills nor maims, but the Pentagon has refused to deploy it out of concern that the weapon itself might be seen as a torture device.
Perched on a Humvee or a flatbed truck, the Active Denial System gives people hit by the invisible beam the sense that their skin is on fire. They move out of the way quickly and without injury.
On April 30, 2003, two days after the first Fallujah incident, Gene McCall, then the top scientist at Air Force Space Command in Colorado, typed out a two-sentence e-mail to Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“I am convinced that the tragedy at Fallujah would not have occurred if an Active Denial System had been there,” McCall told Myers, according to the e-mail obtained by AP. The system should become “an immediate priority,” McCall said.
Myers referred McCall’s message to his staff, according to the e-mail chain.
It seems this is the sort of catch-22 the military is in when it comes to non-lethals. The devices conjure up grim images of pain and discomfort when you look at what they do, so groups object to them often on human rights grounds and ethics.
But whats the alternative? Getting U.S. troops and other personnel killed, or using deadly force. So it looks like weve got a little ways to go before we can collectively wrap our minds around the issue and get these tools out to where theyre needed.
Watch a video of the ADS at work HERE. (Best line: “I think we had a crowd of two for about two seconds…”)
And check out the entire story posted HERE on Military.com.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
We are such wimps! The system is a dream come true. It can disperse crowds with out killing any one by causing discomfort that can be instantly relieved by getting away. I have not seen any one advocate tying somebody to a post and turning the beam on them to torture them. These people will vacate of their own free will and if they don’t we will know what their real purpose for being in the crowd is. Then military can take appropriate action at that time. We are accused of killing civilians whether we did or did not and the public media picks up on this and says the we killed civilians and if we didn’t there is no retraction by the media. If we use the ADS before deadly force is authorized and some one is injured or killed it will be because they were injured by the crowd trying to get away or the insugents in the crowd committed the crime, but this would prove our true intent to not hard civiians. I feel that we should give our troops every advantage that we can, to protect them and any innocents in the area. This system should be deployed as quickly as possible and we should tell the human rights people to rethink there position. Is it better to kill some one or just disperse them. Which is more Humane.
Ok, this has good and bad uses:
The Good:
Can be used to get bad guys hiding-out to come out for apprehension, nice way to keep soldiers from getting killed, better than tasers. Can be used to force all the bad guys to one region ?
The Bad:
Drug Dealers, Bad Guys, Forced Confessions, Interrogation Techniques without evidence, Only a matter of time before the Chinese clone it and sell it on the black market. It’s big and bulky, the unit is too big for non-vehicle portability
Somehow this reminds me of large microwave towers.
It’s an “Outdoor Oven” for people !
PS. Could this thing be of any use against IED’s? What would it do against people wearing Suicide Vests? I’m not sure about it’s directional capabilities. But if it were something like a phased array, couldn’t it be used to cover several areas almost simultaneously? Such as covering multiple windows & doorways of multi-story buildings? Or at least making it difficult for enemy snipers… just a thought.
You know,there is an urban legend on conspiracy websites that an electro-magnetic weapon similar to this but was so big that it had to be mounted on a track vehicle,maybe like on an M1 chassis,was used in the invasion of Iraq by the American army against a crowded Iraqi bus.Supposedly it “melted the bus & [this is where my suspension of disbelief ends] shrunk the burned remains of the bodies to the size of an infant(talking about adult average size,no dwarfs,bodies being shrunk).Well,hope you enjoyed that story.You can find it on the web.
anyone for teargas?
Anyone who has ever put metal in a microwave would be worried about this thing. Did any of the tests ever consider people with pocket change, belt buckles, etc?
Of course,what we need to “mess” with the enemies’ minds is a modified hovercraft that can hover off the ground on an electro-magnetic field,emit an electro-magnetic “Tesla Dome” field to block incoming rockets & missiles,& armed with this weapon turned up to “melt” enemy vehicles & “shrink” bodies like the previous post described.Shades of the original “War of the Worlds” movie.We’ll just deliver them(the vehicles) to the battlefield enclosed in metallic cylinders that land from the sky(I bet you thought I was going to say “space,” huh?) & have them travel in threes(just kidding).Come on,don’t you think that our superior technology could come up with that?
There are obviously too damned liberals at the pentagon that wants our troops to lose the war.
Maybe even their lives.
Torture? I don’t know, all the videos I’ve seen of people getting blasted by this thing are hysterically funny! Granted, I wouldn’t necessarily want to be on the business end of it, but obviously it can’t be too awful when even many “zapped” people crack up laughing themselves after they’ve been hit.
Obviously it’s uncomfortable and you have to leave, but torture? The only way this device could be used to torture is if you couldn’t get out of the way. But with crowd dispersal, the goal is to make people want to move out of the way. Everything has the potential to be a torture device, and the barbaric regimes of the world do quite well with the low tech stuff they have on hand. Besides, the price of this thing will probably limit its use for a good time coming, if it ever gets deployed.
Who beside Ghazali, has seen the effects as described by the Bill Dash report. The Telsa effect does not shrink humans nor melt buses. The effect of the weapon would be no more than the living persons struck by lightning exibit. get real.
Good answer Dave,thats why I first described that article as an “urban legend.” thats what also gave me my fantasy idea of some sort of hovercraft like out of the original “War of the Worlds” movie.Someone said that the weapon described would need to use so much power to operate it that it most likely would be on a track vehicle….however……this vehicle operating with normal M1A1/A2 tanks? Somebody(like an M1 tanker) is going to talk.I’m sorry,you can tell Pvt Joe Average Tanker(with just a normal clearance) that what he saw was classified,but he IS going to spill the beans.I’m sorry,if I saw a weapon that can melt a bus & shrivel & burn a human down to the size of an infant,I’m selling my story & it ain’t to the Enquieror or the World Weekly News.
But okay,how about a UH-19XRW Hoverwing modified to fly unmanned & with thrust vectors so it can fly stationary,add a Trophy or Quick Kill Active Protection System to it,& have the Active Denial System come up out of its bay? You can set the Active Denial System to non-lethal or to “melt a vehicle into a pool of molten metal & burn & shrivel a body up to the size of an infant” lethal mode. Huh,huh?
…What’s next? Invisible soldiers? Heat rays? Really, this is stuff right out of a bad sci-fi movie! Cool, though. And I’m all for it as long as it’s used in the RIGHT WAY.
I know I’d be running from one of those microwave toasters if they tried frying me :P It sounds pretty damn uncomfortable while you’re in the way of the beam, but if test dummies can laugh afterwards, the effect doesn’t linger too long.
As for the funny tank with bus-melting capabilities… If it actually exists, and works, then the more the merrier, if they’ll melt a bus, they’ll take care of a BMP or BMD without a problem. the question is does it take more gas to power the generators than it cost to fire a 120mm round?
The Active Denial System should be employed immediately in Iraq and other hotspots in the world where human lives can be spared while our troops are trying to accomplish their mission.
Legislators need to get some backbone and stop allowing every bonehead who claims to be for human rights to dictate what is common sense.
The temporary pain from a heat ray pales in the face of loss of human life by bullets and missles, and the too often broadcase scenes of dead bodies in the streets, including sometimes the bodies of our troops.
APPROVE THE A.D.S. RIGHT AWAY PLEASE.
Since when the a human rights group’s opinion dictates miltary policy? The extreme liberalism “cancer” has reached even the Pentagon….. I hope this is a nightmare, and we are going to wake up soon, or we are certainly doomed! We pride ourselves so much about respecting human life, but we do exactly the oposite with our decisions. This weapon needed to be out there wherever needed “yesterday”.
I got zapped by the small demo unit of this at Sea Air Space a few years ago. It left a small scar on my finger. Time for full size deployment! All they need is a dial that goes to 11.
Without these things bullets at most will have to be used more or rubber bullets wich can cause death if impacts with the head and will cause deep bruises if they hit anywhere.
Is it that much more effective than current non-lethal systems like teargas, rubber bullets, and water cannons?
How easy in practice would it be to protect the vehicle & crew? – Once it becomes a known quantity, while the crowd is running there’s going to be people positioned ready to take potshots at it.
This thing should be deployed immediately!! The media and many of the weak headed that always holler human rights or torture should not be dictating policy. Now that Rumsfield is gone, Gates may do the right thing and get into the theater immediately. Sure a lot better to make people feel uncomfortable fir a little while than to have them wounded or killed either by troops trying to protect themselves or the bad guys intermingled with the crown.
Defense Tech? How about Defense Baloney. What a silly discussion.
There’s no way a modern weapon attached to a tank could melt a bus. Think about the energy requirements involved to power such a device.
The big news in Iraq is a TTL killing program, probably by irradiating the enemy in a way that they’re easily picked up on by a spotter UAV. (imho)