Heat-beaming weapon ready by 2010*

 From correspondents in Moody Air Force Base

January 25, 2007 08:58am
Article from: Reuters

THE US Defence Department today unveiled what it called a revolutionary
heat-beaming weapon that could be used to control mobs or repel foes in
conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan.

The so-called Active Denial System creates an intense burning sensation
causing people to run for cover, but no lasting harm, officials said.

"This is a breakthrough technology that's going to give our forces a
capability they don't now have," Theodore Barna, an assistant deputy
undersecretary of defence for advanced systems and concepts, said.

"We expect the services to add it to their tool kit. And that could
happen as early as 2010."

The weapon, mounted on a Humvee vehicle, uses a large rectangular dish
antenna to direct an invisible beam toward a target.

It includes a high-voltage power unit and beam-generating equipment and
is effective at more than 500 metres.

Existing counter-personnel systems designed not to kill - including bean
bag munitions and rubber bullets - work at little more than
"rock-throwing distances," said Marine Colonel Kirk Hymes, director of
the Pentagon's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate.

In increasingly complex military operations, the technology provided a
much-needed alternative to just going from "shouting to shooting," said
Colonel Hymes, who is responsible for the weapon's five-year, $US60
million advanced development.

Variations of the system could help in peacetime and wartime missions,
including crowd control and mob dispersal, checkpoint security and port
protection, officials said.

It could also help in conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Raytheon Co, which has worked to develop the technology, has built a
prototype called Silent Guardian, that it hopes to sell in the United
States and abroad in what could become a multibillion market.

The weapon was shown off publicly for the first time at Moody Air Force
Base in Georgia, where it has been undergoing operational tests by the
820th Security Forces Group, which protects US Air Force assets.

The directorate invited reporters to be zapped as part of what its
spokeswoman, Marine Major Sarah Fullwood, called an effort to
"demystify" the technology at issue.

At a distance of several football fields, the sensation from the
exposure was like a blast from a very hot oven, too painful to bear
without scrambling for cover.

The burning sensation is achieved by high-power energy waves that heat
the skin to 54 degrees Celsius. The pain ended as soon as the target
jumped from the line of fire.

Documents given out during the demonstration said more than 10,000
people had been exposed to the weapon since testing began more than 12
years ago.

They said there had been no injuries requiring medical attention during
the five-year advanced development program.