[Infowarrior] - Pentagon Wants Kill Switch for Planes

[Richard Forno]

(this is just begging for a hacker to play with, if it becomes  
operational........rf)

Pentagon Wants Kill Switch for Planes
By Noah Shachtman Email
June 11, 2008 | 3:40:00 PMCategories: Less-lethal

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/06/the-pentagons-n.html

B757_02The Pentagon's non-lethal weapons division is looking for  
technologies that could "disable" aircraft, before they can take off  
from a runway -- or block the planes from flying over a given city of  
stretch of land.

In a request for proposals, issued earlier this week, the Joint Non- 
Lethal Weapons Directorate announced that it would like arms-makers to  
come up with a way to "safely divert an aircraft in the air or stop  
and/or disable an aircraft on the ground." And no, shooting the thing  
with a missile doesn't count. The Directorate wants "reversible  
effects which allow the targeted aircraft to be quickly returned to an  
operational condition with minimal time to repair."

     The primary focus of the “divert an aircraft” task is to control  
the airspace and enforce no-fly or restricted flight zones. Effects  
should be focused on the aircraft, not the pilot or other personnel on  
board. The capability should enable the enforcement of flight  
restriction zones (e.g., metropolitan Washington, D.C.), protection of  
critical infrastructure and other high value assets from a possible  
aerial threat.

     For aircraft on the ground, “stop” requires the aircraft to come  
to 0 mph at some point between when it starts to taxi and when it  
reaches abort speed.  The requirement to “disable” includes actions to  
render inoperable, deny use, and/or deny access to an aircraft on the  
ground.  Successful accomplishment of either objective results in  
keeping the targeted aircraft from becoming airborne.

The Directorate's program managers don't mention how engineers might  
pull off such a kill switch. But, however it's done, they'd like to  
have a similar system for boats, as well. They're looking for a device  
that can, from 100 meters away, "safely stop or significantly impede  
the movement" of vessels up to 40 feet long, with "minimal collateral  
damage."

The Directorate is also looking for new ways to stop people. One  
proposed project involves studying "thermal laser effects for non- 
lethal application."  Research, the Directorate notes, should "focus  
on understanding reversible health effects, pulsing methods, and  
effectiveness through clothing."