Reporters can be really dumb. There I was in front of Raytheons booth at the Association of the US Armys conference with a little button under my thumb. I hit the button. My lower thoracic area got very hot, very fast. So I waited for the machine to recycle and hit the button again. This time the pain was more intense I wasnt screaming or anything and my skin felt like it was about to catch fire.
I didnt do this just to make you all chuckle. The idea was to see what the Marines will probably buy from Raytheon with $25 million buried deep in the summer supplemental spending bill. The Marines havent signed the contract yet but negotiations are well under way for five nonlethal Silent Guardian systems . It looks as if the system will be used in Afghanistan to help protect high value assets as well as bases.
The system beams millimeter wave energy at the speed of light for more than 250 meters and penetrates the top layer of the skin. As soon as you move away from the beam the pain stops, although there is a nagging sensation of pain for few moments afterwards. The antenna covers a full 360 degrees and the beam can be used to sweep across a crowd or to target one person at a time. Its got safety cutoffs so it doesnt cause permanent damage, according to John Patterson, a Raytheon spokesman.
The Silent Guardian is one variant of Raytheons Active Denial Systems, most of which provide area-wide protections against weapons such as missiles.
Non-lethals have been in development for a very long time. The first big burst of enthusiasm hit in the mid-1990s when the Pentagon created its first non-lethal office. Most of those technologies foundered such as sticky foam among concerns that non-lethals might hurt people, which always seemed ironic given that high velocity bullets and bombs are considered legal.
In addition to the Marines, the National Institute of Justice is investigating development of a much smaller version of Silent Guardian for police and other homeland security forces.
– Colin Clark
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Amen & about Time, test this on the US Mex border & Iraq.
Must make mobile for riot use.
For US Embassies.
Radical.
Use on ships vs pirates?
Considering the picture, I’d say it’s already mobile, if that is this heat ray thing. But it is about time, good for riot control without a doubt, and protecting bases.
They need to make this thing have a longer range than 250 meters. A guy with an AK can shoot further, they should make the range about 400 meters or more that way it might be able to stop a would be attacker, possibly even a sniper at a range a bit longer than most of our soldiers are zeroed to shoot at. Give them the non-lethal reach out and touch someone approach.
“…which always seemed ironic given that high velocity bullets and bombs are considered legal.”
Yep, I love the snark you hear about nonlethals from the bien pensants such as tasers and this system; anything short of giving out free BJs to terrorists/criminals is entirely too much force for that crowd.
I can think of some good applications of this to create better kill zones….
Just because it’s non-lethal, doesn’t make it useless tactically. :D
This sounds remarkably like the Air Force / Army “Active Denial” system. Their system has already been deployed to Iraq.
I too “put my finger on the pain button,” but I was at an air show at Kirkland AFB several years ago.
Are the Marines are reinventing the wheel?
My car used to have a govenor too! I like it!
I AGREE TEST THIS ON OUR SOUTHERN BORDER FIRST , OF COURSE CONSIDERING THE FOOD THEY EAT,,, THEY MIGHT THINK IT WAS A REAL “” GOOD “” CASE HEARTBURN
Are caps really necessary?
What will this thing to somebody”s Eyes?
Try it on the border first..
1:TEST THIS ON OUR SOUTHERN BORDER FIRST , OF COURSE CONSIDERING THE FOOD THEY EAT,,, THEY MIGHT THINK IT WAS A REAL “” GOOD “” CASE HEARTBURN.
2:Amen & about Time, test this on the US Mex border.
3:WHY TEST IT ON PEOPLE THAT ARE DOING THE JOBS WE DON’T WANT TO DO BECAUSE OF THE LOW PAY?
it is only non-lethal because they just do not havve the power to make it lethal..
and believe – they will make it deadly as quickly as they can.
Why not use it in the prison system? A minimum secrity prison would be a great testing ground.
My suggestion would be to test this thing out on all of the hippie war protesters first, and after we fry all of them, use it on the fence jumpers along our southern border and then in the military prison camps to make the enemy sing.
The only danger that is ever present with a ‘non-lethal’ weapon is that some muppet operating the thing may think it is actually non-lethal and go nuts on someone with it. Consider your fists. They are non-lethal. But if you just kept beating someone in the face you could kill them pretty quick.