US Navy research throws up vomit ray

The US Navy is funding research into a "Star Trek phaser set on 'stun'". At least to begin with, the kit is intended for use by Marines in ordinary urban combat rather than starship crewmen beamed down onto strange new worlds (fans of the classic series may be interested to note that the USS Enterprise happens to be preparing …

[jon]

wow all these non lethal weapson

I dont need a beam to make me sick, just reading the tone of this article and similar ones about non lethal weapons does it for me.

Soon you wont be able to legitimately protest anywhere for fear of being hit with a mobile microwave or vomit ray.

Worldwide Police State here we come!

Will the reg be the official satire outlet of the NWO?

[Anonymous Coward]

Er ....Hello ?

An RF beam intense enough to pierce concrete and cause disruption to signals in the brain?

What's a bit of dizzines and nausea compared to being sterilized and given cancer?

Still, the targets will at least get some early warning when their fillings pick up the emission .... then explode !

A non-lethal weapon is one which kills after the reporters go home.

[Anonymous Coward]

A fine line

"Soon you wont be able to legitimately protest anywhere for fear of being hit with a mobile microwave or vomit ray."

As opposed to a fire hose, police dog, tear gas grenade, pepper spray, rubber bullet, lexan riot shield, plastic baton, kevlar gauntlet, taser weapon... etc?

Ultra-liberals and armchair commandoes are always complaining that the "less than lethal" technology that we already have is excessively cruel. This leads to research on more and more technologically advanced weapons of this sort, that are even more prone to spectacular failure... as in long term side effects. Its a fine line between "tried and true" methods that have a potential to cause freak deaths (someone with severe asthma getting pepper-sprayed, someone high on cocaine getting tasered and having a heart attack) and "high tech" solutions that may not be adequately lab-tested.

But if we don't have a police state already the development of a few more potentially valuable law enforcement tools like this won't push us over the edge. The real fascists just use real bullets anyway.

[AJ Igel]

Interesting

A weapon that can be used to stop insurgents as well as provide some convenience to bulimic supermodels - ain't technology grand?

[Graham Lockley]

Seen it all before

Looks like the local police must be employing similar weaponry here 'oop North'

A quick tour of any town centre around midnight will reveal potential trouble makers being incapacitated in a similar manner. Maybe the local breweries are on to something.........

[jon]

lmao

Nice of you to assume I'm an ultra liberal mr anonymous poster.

Assumption is the mother of all f**k ups.

[max allan]

Will unconscious victims vomit?

The risk of vomiting while unconscious due to this device seem minimal. If you're unconscious presumably you aren't going to feel motion sick, you'll be too busy being unconscious.

Remember this device induces balance problems. Motion sickness is only a by product of that. So perfectly safe and no need to worry, except perhaps about banging your head on your way down, or if you are a terrorist, falling on your own big red button and setting off the bomb.

Max

[Simon Hayes]

Hard to Swallow

Anything you say may be taken down and used in evidence ! ... must shortly be due for a upgrade to 'You have 5 Seconds to COMPLY'

www . notafreemason . com/content2-04.html

[Martin Polomka]

Pubs have had these gadgets for millenia

Pubs have had these gadgets for millenia.

And what's more, people line up and pay to be stupified.

[Steve Roper]

Yes, this will be used to suppress protest

Jon's concern about this type of weaponry being used to suppress legitimate protest is a valid one. While police might not resort to using rubber bullets, tear gas and tasers to disperse a protest crowd for fear of the public backlash resulting from death or injury to innocent bystanders, this sort of weapon makes it easy to incapacitate a crowd without doing any lasting damage. Such "safe" weapons, precisely because they "don't leave any marks", are more likely to be used against protestors without fear of public backlash.

But it's not a case of "Police state, here we come." The police state is already here and has been for some time, actually. And it isn't going to go away. As George Orwell so rightly put it, of the "proles" or common people:

"Until they rebel, they cannot become conscious, and they cannot become conscious until after they have rebelled."

But with weaponry and technology on the government's side, even conscious proles would not be able to rebel. Rebellion is no longer possible.

In the face of that knowledge, our governments can do what they like with impunity.

[Anonymous Coward]

Tested on innocent civilians

These weapons have been tested on innocent civilians in poor neighborhoods in the United States for at least the last ten years. One account of this covert abuse is found at http://www.angelfire.com/blog/thecrime/ .