[Infowarrior] - Ray guns and plastic ice: Pentagon looks to sci-fi weaponry

[Richard Forno]

 Ray guns and plastic ice: Pentagon looks to sci-fi weaponry

http://www.physorg.com/news89356050.html

Fleeing Iraqi insurgents downed by artificial ice sprayed on the road; an
angry mob in Afghanistan dispersed by non-lethal ray gun blasts. This is the
future of US weaponry, at least for the Pentagon's high-tech arms research
division.

The space-age weapons of Star Wars are not beyond the imagination of
researchers at DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the
US Department of Defense.

The agency sponsors research into numerous aspects of military operations,
particularly technology, it says, "where risk and payoff are both very high
and where success may provide dramatic advances for traditional military
roles and missions."

The artificial black ice is one of its newest projects. DARPA recently
called for proposals from scientists to develop a polymer-based material
that acts like the sheer ice that forms on roads in cold temperatures,
sending unwitting drivers spinning out of control.

But the polymer ice could be used against enemies in any climate, including
hot, arid ones like Iraq and Afghanistan where US troops are currently
fighting.

The idea is to lay down the ice to cause adversaries to slip, while US
troops would make use of a to-be-developed "reversal agent" -- something to
be incorporated into their boots and tires -- that would allow them to gain
traction on the "ice."

"Such a system will provide unprecedented situational control and sustained
operational temp," DARPA says, "including the ability to shape the terrain
by constraining adversaries to specific areas (and) degrade the ability of
our adversaries to shoot and chase us."

Closer to development is a ray gun that DARPA unveiled last week, its
so-called active denial system (ADS): a weapon that emits a beam of energy
that will make the target feel a strong burning sensation on their skin,
repelling them without causing genuine injury.

Mounted on a trailer, the ADS is a parabolic antenna-like unit that shoots
out a focused electromagnetic radio-frequency beam of millimeter waves over
500 meters (yards), giving it a much greater range than many crowd-control
devices like rubber bullets or water cannons.

When they hit their target, the beams penetrate the skin to about 1/64th of
an inch, or 0.4 millimeters, causing a sensation that makes people think
their clothes are on fire. This can be used to scare off a menacing mob
without causing real injury, according to DARPA.

DARPA stresses that ADS is not a laser, nor does it use more dangerous
microwave energy.

"We need discriminate, non-lethal weapons with longer ranges and universal
effects. This is exactly what we get with ADS," said Colonel Kirk Hymes, the
head of DARPA's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate.

It has taken DARPA 12 years to get ADS to this point, and it will be several
more to get it on the battlefield.

Hymes says such weaponry is part of the equipment US soldiers need in the
battlefields of the 21st century.

"Our warfighters have identified a need for additional non-lethal
capabilities, because distinguishing between combatants and non-combatants
on the modern battlefield can be very difficult," he said.

© 2007 AFP