WASHINGTON, March 1 — The Pentagon on Thursday unveiled a new “non-lethal” weapon designed to drive off an adversary with an energy beam that inflicts pain without causing lasting harm.
THE WEAPON COULD be used for riot control and peacekeeping missions when deadly force is not necessary, officials said.
The weapon, called “active denial technology,” was developed by Air Force research laboratories in New Mexico and Texas as part of a multi-service program run by the Marine Corps.
“This revolutionary force-protection technology gives U.S. service members an alternative to using deadly force,” said Marine Corps Col. George P. Fenton, director of the program at Quantico, Va.
The weapon is designed to stop people by firing millimeter-wave electromagnetic energy in a beam that quickly heats up the surface of the victim’s skin. Within seconds the person feels pain that officials said is similar to touching a hot light bulb.
“It’s the kind of pain you would feel if you were being burned,” said Rich Garcia, a spokesman for the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. “It’s just not intense enough to cause any damage.”
The Pentagon has made a strong push to develop “non-lethal” weapons in the aftermath of a humanitarian mission in Somalia in 1992-93 that put soldiers in the line of fire in urban areas where civilians were present.
A prototype of the weapon will be tested on goats and humans at Kirtland in the next few months, Garcia said.
“When it penetrates in, it activates the pain sensors, and you feel a lot of pain,” Garcia said. “But there’s no damage. It truly is a non-lethal device.”
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THE WEAPON COULD be used for riot control and peacekeeping missions when deadly force is not necessary, officials said.
The weapon, called “active denial technology,” was developed by Air Force research laboratories in New Mexico and Texas as part of a multi-service program run by the Marine Corps.
“This revolutionary force-protection technology gives U.S. service members an alternative to using deadly force,” said Marine Corps Col. George P. Fenton, director of the program at Quantico, Va.
The weapon is designed to stop people by firing millimeter-wave electromagnetic energy in a beam that quickly heats up the surface of the victim’s skin. Within seconds the person feels pain that officials said is similar to touching a hot light bulb.
“It’s the kind of pain you would feel if you were being burned,” said Rich Garcia, a spokesman for the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. “It’s just not intense enough to cause any damage.”
The Pentagon has made a strong push to develop “non-lethal” weapons in the aftermath of a humanitarian mission in Somalia in 1992-93 that put soldiers in the line of fire in urban areas where civilians were present.
A prototype of the weapon will be tested on goats and humans at Kirtland in the next few months, Garcia said.
“When it penetrates in, it activates the pain sensors, and you feel a lot of pain,” Garcia said. “But there’s no damage. It truly is a non-lethal device.”
Want to learn MORE?
http://www.msnbc.com/news/538036.asp
------------------
"I'd like an order of fries, a quarter pounder with cheese, I love the light in your eyes, would you go out with me please? I am in love with a McDonald's Girl, she has a smile of innocence so tender and warm, she is an angel in a polyester uniform."
