US to export riot-roasting raygun The United States is to export its crowd-grilling "less lethal" microwave cannon, the Silent Guardian - which has never been deployed by US forces due to worries over bad publicity - to an unnamed foreign ally. Aviation Week reports today that executives from American arms megacorp Raytheon, makers of the famous yet …
I can see the plan.
1) Foreign Ally uses mob-roasting tech. Everyone runs away and nobody gets seriously hurt. Pentagon high-fives, goes "nyaah, nyaah, we told you so" and rolls it out to every far-flung corner of the globe where they have more than one person and a dog stationed.
2) Foreign Ally deploys crowd crisper in anger and several microwavees go to the great Breville in the sky as an effect. Pentagon high-fives and issues a press release stating how kind, cuddly and sensible they were to not use this obviously evil technology.
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At 94Ghz, the wavelength is around 3.2mm, meaning the chicken wire would have to be of significantly finer mesh than that for proper protection. Maybe 1mm holes might be okay, but a complete tinfoil suit is probably the best option.
On the other hand, most riots are probably too spontaneous for people to think "Hmm... I wonder if I'll be involved in a riot and targeted with a sinister directed-energy weapon today. Shall I put on my tinfoil suit? Nah, maybe tomorrow."
It'll be us, it's always us. Good 'ole blighty. To help the 'Met keep the riots under control when people finally say enough is enough and storm the houses of parliament. Or they will say that they need ti to fight terrorism (we all know terrorists move round in packs afterall)
Mines the one in tin foil thanks.
AC for obvious reasons.
It's pretty likely that this has gone to an "ally" who's not to bothered about human rights - some barbarian country like Saudi Arabia, for instance. And the chances are pretty good that it'll never be used for crowd control. I'm sure the Saudis would love to have a way of torturing multiple people at once, so they can just cable-tie their political prisoners in a row, park this in front of them and zap them all in one go.
That's also a bit of a problem with "non-lethal" or "less lethal". Because all these "less lethal" weapons work by causing severe pain to the victim, they all work as torture devices too, and in that case the victim will be subjected to unlimited doses of it which probably will be lethal. And it'll only be lethal after a long period of agony.
So these things are very not clever, and the guys responsible for building it really do want to look at their consciences. Not the Raytheon bosses, they probably don't have them, but the lower-level engineers. Someone has to design the electronics, order the parts, build the vehicle, etc.. Nice day's work, guys.
It's even written on the side of the thing ala Batman or Thunderbirds. Do the bad guy rioters need to wear t-shirts with there name in big letters on too?
It also looks quite big, I think the guards at the Iranian nuclear facilities will see the Israelis trying to move it in to position before tehy get to test it.
Let's see. We are looking for:
- a country that's concidered a 'very good ally', since this is top-notch technology
- a country that's heavily troubled
- a country that may have a record for use of questionable weapons
- a country that has to cope with large groups of scarsely armed/unarmed angry people
I'll put my money on ISRAEL, for use against the Palestinese population.
Mine's the bullet-proof vest with the slingshot in the pocket.
The difference between a riot and a demonstration is often in the eye of the beholder, not to mention police/troops charged with deliberately escalating matters until the use of force on both sides becomes inevitable. And how long before smaller more portable units are used to 'interview' suspects in all those countries we use to salve our own conscience about such things?
At least some of the riots/demonstrations in this world could be avoided at a stroke by nations like the USA and the UK getting the hell out of countries where they're not welcomed by the populations, no matter how many governmental palms they've greased.
I think you've been reading another story and another comments section, AC. People object to this technology because it is designed to burn people's skin -- it's actual intended purpose is to hurt people and it could quite easily be used to torture protesters.
I can see these being deployed at the next demonstration in the UK.
Is that "sensation" used in the same sense as "simulated" is when discussing water boarding/ "simulated drowning".
So the ray gun does burn you then dosn't it.
And unlike a rubber bullet, the ray-theon targets the whole crowd, not the thug leading the charge.
It's all wrong on sooooo many levels.
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The main hazard of exposure to microwave radiation is ocular cataracts: an occupational hazard of radar workers discovered shortly after WW2. This of course occurred at much lower energy levels than those that would be generated by a weapon designed to incapacitate people. The cataracts would probably develop some years after exposure. If in a few years time there is an epidemic of blindness from cataracts among the Palestinians, we'll know why.
@lIsRT: Thanks for the disturbing image. It hadn't occured to me it would be very effective as a torture weapon, but in hindsight the scary thing is, I suspect you could be right.
@Danny van der Weide
Let's see. We are looking for:
"- a country that's concidered a 'very good ally', since this is top-notch technology" ... how about the UK?!
"- a country that's heavily troubled" ... Yep, the UK.
"- a country that may have a record for use of questionable weapons" ... Does inflicting Jacqui Smith on us count as a weapon?
"- a country that has to cope with large groups of scarsely armed/unarmed angry people" ... Yep, the UK!
I think that settles it. We are all doomed and now we will even fry in our own personal hell. :)
@Graham Bartlett: "It's pretty likely that this has gone to an "ally" who's not to bothered about human rights" - yikes! thats another reason to think the UK! :)
... I don't know why I'm laughing. I should be packing my bags before they knock on my door to drag me off into Room 101 where I could work on my tan under one of these things.
Joking aside, as this causes pain now, then what would happen if they upped the power even more? ... say 10 times or even 100 times more?. That sounds very much like a true death ray. So next generation warfare here we come. Turn up the dial from, warm, hot, bloody-hot, now-that-hurts all the way up to OMG-I'm-On-Fire and ARRGHH!-I'm-turning-to-dust-while-melting!.
What a nightmare world we are creating. Dystopia here we come! ... (But then that's a Utopia for the people in power, which is why we are all being dragged down this way).
Often there are two types of comments on things like this: the people running around and screaming and those who insist nothing is as dangerous as anyone ever makes out. Credit to The Reg for attracting more reasonable readers! On the other hand, the comments are more interesting than the story in this case...
There is no doubt about it - this machine is a torture device, there's no way around that. Prolonged pain with apparently no side effects. Well, there certainly are. Aside from the fact that the likelihood of cancer is cumulative with time, and therefore this gun like all radiators of EM energy increases your chances of disease, it physically heats your skin in order to cause pain. Just like being microwaved briefly, or touching a hot object.
So sure, assuming it isn't the blast that knocks a DNA strand in one of your important cells, you are likely to recover from any burning or boiling that it might cause you, just like you would after an accident in the kitchen.
The operational scenario is likely to be one where people get a few quick blasts, recoil from the heat and all is OK. But if someone tries to run away, and accidentally runs in the direction that the beam is sweeping, or the operator gets a bit trigger happy, the burns caused could easily lead to loss of fluids, shock and even death. And that's just burnt skin. If the burns run deep, who knows how much damage could be caused. This could well be targeted at someone's face.
What's more, where in the Western world does a crowd hostile enough to warrant such a weapon ever accumulate!? Surely this was only ever designed for war-torn countries, or are riots anticipated by the powers-that-be, perhaps due to the legislation they wish to pass that removes our last human rights?
I bet the ally is Isreal; and can't help but wonder who did the testing for this product? Did the Engineers gather up some stray farm animals and see what the effects were?
I guess you don't test a gun by pointing it at someone, but how can they claim it's less than lethal without having done so?
Surely this will be used to cleanse bulk amounts of filthy people...
I imagine that the microwave radiation will be most efficient at killing of fleas and lice from large numbers of people all at once.
Israel probably sees this as a nice alternative to sending Palestinians into compulsory 'showers'. You know, the showers where people go in but don't come out again...
Chicken wire will not work, but there are two types of window 'screen' material; fiberglass or stainless. The screen material is what is often put over the opening of a window to prevent bugs from entering a home when the window is open. Spacing is near 1mm which may just work..
I can also see ring-maille coming back in vogue..
http://theringlord.com/cart/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=96&cat=Chainmail+Clothing&websess=76775529167677
http://theringlord.com/cart/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=95&cat=Sheets+of+Maille&websess=76775529167677
Positively Medieval.
--mine is the full length trenchcoat weighing in at 10kg..
I too would be concerned about the cataract potential of this device. Isn't there a Geneva convention restriction on weapons intended to blind? Of course, it is OK if the blinding is merely a side effect, and I suppose since the intended use of this device is on civilians, the Geneva convention probably does not apply.
The rule of thumb that I recall is that the holes in the mesh should be less than 10% of the wavelength. Mesh with large holes does no good at all. Still, you can see quite well through a fine mesh if it is close to your eyes.
... there will be fewer bleeding-hearts in the world and a slightly higher clue factor. But that day is (apparently) not today.
FACT: It is physiologically impossible to temporarily disable a person without the risk of permanent damage. Even a humble water cannon or smoke bomb can potentially kill someone who already has a heart condition. At some point, rioters have to take the consequences of their actions!
FACT: Any government which tries hard enough (that excludes NONE so far) will eventually get hold of the weapons it wants. This has been the case throughout recorded history. Why act all surprised? Get a grip.
Grenade because it's cool.
The general principle for shielding is that any hole should not be more than one tenth of the wavelength. ie in ths case of 94GHz, approx 0.3mm
Sounds like just using straight tinfoil might work better and keep the juices in nicely, , but that will tear easier. Perhaps a space blanket or similar would be a better option.
A fleeting use in the mob wouldn't necessarily cause blindness but as a torture device I can imagine it would hapen a lot more often.
But even in the mob, with the whole adrenalin upped, who will notice that it's warm? I had situations in my youth where because of adrenalin I couldn't feel pain. This means that there could situations where the people are getting the full load without even noticing. They'll notice just at some point that they can't see anymore :(. And having more heat-pain without being incapacitated would only anger them more making them more aggressive.
But it may just be that everybody starts wearing a burka ;) with meshes of metal - or keeping it in a pocket. So it won't work on women then in the more radical Islamic countries.
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