New microwave weapon contract awarded
PROTESTORS BEWARE;
By Sinéad O' Dwyer
The US Department of Defence has awarded a USD7.5 million cost-plus award-fee contract to Raytheon Missile Systems to design, fabricate, test and support a fixed Active Denial System (ADS).
Active Denial Technology exploits the body's natural defence mechanism that induces pain as a warning to help protect it from injury.
It works by using an antennae transmitter which produces energy at a frequency of 95Ghz to direct a focused, invisible beam to a subject at the speed of light, penetrating the skin to a depth of less than 1/64 of an inch.
The beam produces an escalating heating sensation that becomes intolerable in seconds, and forces the subject to flee. The sensation immediately ceases when the individual moves out of the beam or when the system operator turns it off.
Despite this sensation, the beam does not cause severe injury because of the shallow penetration depth of energy at this wavelength and the low energy levels used.
ADS technology was originally developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory and advanced under the sponsorship of the Department of Defence's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate. Approximately USD51 million has been invested over the past eleven years.
The new ADS, referred to as System 2 and ADS2, is an autonomous millimetre-wave directed energy unit capable of being transported via C-130 Hercules aircraft or truck and operated either from the ground or from a military vehicle.
The US plans to use ADS in situations where using lethal force or causing permanent injury is undesirable. The technology can be used at close or long range, but it generally described to have a range of about 640 metres.
According to reports, a 2-second burst from the system can heat the skin to a temperature of 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54 degrees Celsius). At 50 degrees Celsius, the pain reflex makes people pull away automatically in less than a second.
An individual would have to stay exposed to the beam for 250 seconds before it burnt the skin, this presents a potential problem for injured or otherwise incapacitated individuals who may not be able to move out of the danger area.
Air Force scientists helped set the present skin safety threshold of 10 milliwatts per square centimetre in the early 1990s, when little data was available.
That limit covers exposure to steady fields for several minutes to an hour - but heating a layer of skin 0.3 mm thick to 50 degrees Celsius in just one second requires much higher power and may pose risks to the cornea, which is more sensitive than skin.
A study published last year in the journal Health Physics showed that exposure to 2 watts per square centimetre for three seconds could damage the corneas of rhesus monkeys. Humans and animals are being used in the present trial.
Louis Slesin, editor of Microwave News, a leading newsletter on non-ionizing radiation, calls vehicle-mounted active denial systems (VMADS) a "significant development" in directed energy weapons.
However, he says that possible injuries, particularly to the eye, could lead to stopping further development and actual deployment of the device. The Pentagon was forced to abandon research on blinding lasers in the mid-1990s.
"The real question is whether it will go the way of the lasers," Slesin says. Like laser, exposure to the microwave beam could cause eye damage. "People will get out of the beam, but (injury to the eyes) depends on how much exposure they get," Slesin says.
Slesin also notes that "the only people who are doing health research on the effects of electromagnetic radiation are the people who are developing this weapon - the Air Force Lab. . . . They're the only people who have any money in the United States to do research on the health effects, and they're in firm control of the (safety) standard-setting process. . . . That's a clear conflict."
REFERENCES
Source(s): Defence Industry Daily
Title: $7.5M for Directed Energy ADS2 Riot-Breaker
Author: n/a
Date: May 04, 2005
Source(s): GlobalSecurity.org
Title: GlobalSecurity.org: Information on the Vehicle-Mounted Active Denial System (V-MADS)
Author: n/a
Date: n/a
ADDITIONAL READING
Raytheon Missile Systems
U.S. Department of Defense Contract Information
U.S. Department of Defense Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate
Microwave News
Institute for Non-Lethal Defense Technologies
University of New Hampshire: Non-lethal Technology Innovation Centre
The Sunshine Project "Non-Lethal" Weapons Online Document Clearinghouse
U.S. Department of Defense Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate: Active Denial System
Journal of the Health Physics Society
Keywords: ADS, pain inducing weapon, laser beam, laser weapon, microwave beam, microwave weapon, ADS, VMADS, laser technology, microwave technology, burning weapon, burning beam, non-lethal force, non-lethal, non-lethal weapon, weaponry, military technology, military research, military, military contract
May 10, 2005 03:23 PM
http://www.media52.net/archives/000215.html
By Sinéad O' Dwyer
The US Department of Defence has awarded a USD7.5 million cost-plus award-fee contract to Raytheon Missile Systems to design, fabricate, test and support a fixed Active Denial System (ADS).
Active Denial Technology exploits the body's natural defence mechanism that induces pain as a warning to help protect it from injury.
It works by using an antennae transmitter which produces energy at a frequency of 95Ghz to direct a focused, invisible beam to a subject at the speed of light, penetrating the skin to a depth of less than 1/64 of an inch.
The beam produces an escalating heating sensation that becomes intolerable in seconds, and forces the subject to flee. The sensation immediately ceases when the individual moves out of the beam or when the system operator turns it off.
Despite this sensation, the beam does not cause severe injury because of the shallow penetration depth of energy at this wavelength and the low energy levels used.
ADS technology was originally developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory and advanced under the sponsorship of the Department of Defence's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate. Approximately USD51 million has been invested over the past eleven years.
The new ADS, referred to as System 2 and ADS2, is an autonomous millimetre-wave directed energy unit capable of being transported via C-130 Hercules aircraft or truck and operated either from the ground or from a military vehicle.
The US plans to use ADS in situations where using lethal force or causing permanent injury is undesirable. The technology can be used at close or long range, but it generally described to have a range of about 640 metres.
According to reports, a 2-second burst from the system can heat the skin to a temperature of 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54 degrees Celsius). At 50 degrees Celsius, the pain reflex makes people pull away automatically in less than a second.
An individual would have to stay exposed to the beam for 250 seconds before it burnt the skin, this presents a potential problem for injured or otherwise incapacitated individuals who may not be able to move out of the danger area.
Air Force scientists helped set the present skin safety threshold of 10 milliwatts per square centimetre in the early 1990s, when little data was available.
That limit covers exposure to steady fields for several minutes to an hour - but heating a layer of skin 0.3 mm thick to 50 degrees Celsius in just one second requires much higher power and may pose risks to the cornea, which is more sensitive than skin.
A study published last year in the journal Health Physics showed that exposure to 2 watts per square centimetre for three seconds could damage the corneas of rhesus monkeys. Humans and animals are being used in the present trial.
Louis Slesin, editor of Microwave News, a leading newsletter on non-ionizing radiation, calls vehicle-mounted active denial systems (VMADS) a "significant development" in directed energy weapons.
However, he says that possible injuries, particularly to the eye, could lead to stopping further development and actual deployment of the device. The Pentagon was forced to abandon research on blinding lasers in the mid-1990s.
"The real question is whether it will go the way of the lasers," Slesin says. Like laser, exposure to the microwave beam could cause eye damage. "People will get out of the beam, but (injury to the eyes) depends on how much exposure they get," Slesin says.
Slesin also notes that "the only people who are doing health research on the effects of electromagnetic radiation are the people who are developing this weapon - the Air Force Lab. . . . They're the only people who have any money in the United States to do research on the health effects, and they're in firm control of the (safety) standard-setting process. . . . That's a clear conflict."
REFERENCES
Source(s): Defence Industry Daily
Title: $7.5M for Directed Energy ADS2 Riot-Breaker
Author: n/a
Date: May 04, 2005
Source(s): GlobalSecurity.org
Title: GlobalSecurity.org: Information on the Vehicle-Mounted Active Denial System (V-MADS)
Author: n/a
Date: n/a
ADDITIONAL READING
Raytheon Missile Systems
U.S. Department of Defense Contract Information
U.S. Department of Defense Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate
Microwave News
Institute for Non-Lethal Defense Technologies
University of New Hampshire: Non-lethal Technology Innovation Centre
The Sunshine Project "Non-Lethal" Weapons Online Document Clearinghouse
U.S. Department of Defense Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate: Active Denial System
Journal of the Health Physics Society
Keywords: ADS, pain inducing weapon, laser beam, laser weapon, microwave beam, microwave weapon, ADS, VMADS, laser technology, microwave technology, burning weapon, burning beam, non-lethal force, non-lethal, non-lethal weapon, weaponry, military technology, military research, military, military contract
May 10, 2005 03:23 PM
http://www.media52.net/archives/000215.html
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 6:40 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home