statism watch

Well, there’s the TASER, the sound cannon – why not get a torture ray on top of it? How about a death beam? It’s not as though there’s anything else to spend taxpayer’s money on. What really need is more nightmarish sci-fi crowd control weapons, for when the public figures out how they’ve been had.

Flashback: Vancouver police get military sound cannon just in time for Olympics | Canada’s military peers into future, sees drone patrols, draft, insurgency | Portable heat ray weapon may end up in police hands | G20 protesters blasted by sonic cannon | RCMP tests Tasers that record video | American Citizens Attacked With Military Sound Cannons & Tear Gas At G20 | Sonic weapons used in Iraq positioned at congressional townhall meetings in San Diego county | UK: Police may be issued with new high-power Taser | TASER introduces 3-shot semiauto | Microwave weapon will rain pain from the sky | Safety Tests MIA for Taser’s Shocking New Shotgun | TASER launches new headcam for police – with ‘privacy mode’ | All officers need Tasers, police associations say | US police could get ‘pain beam’ weapons | Army Orders Pain Ray Trucks; New Report Shows ‘Potential for Death’ | TASER bracelets considered for airline passengers | ‘Peel and Stick’ Tasers Electrify Riot Control | Tasers: the next generation

David Hambling, Wired.com
November 13, 2009

The U.S. military spent tens of millions of dollars and years of work developing a microwave “pain beam,” but a combination of technical difficulties and political concerns kept the Pentagon from fielding the thing. Now, an Israeli team says they’re working on their own own portable version. And it’ll cost just $250,000.

The American weapon, known officially as the Active Denial System (pictured, above), heats the target’s skin with short microwaves. These only penetrate to about 1/64 of an inch. That’s enough to be extremely painful but (generally) harmless. In thousands of tests of the system, nobody has been able to stay in the beam for more than a few seconds.

The latest version developed by the Pentagon’s Joint Non-lethal Weapons Directorate is known as System 2. It weighs nine tons, and because some of the components require supercooling, it takes hours to prepare the weapon for action. A portable version would only require a fraction of the power of the 100-kilowatt System 2, however. The smaller device would also have a range of around 100 feet, heating an area perhaps four inches across, enough to stop or drive away an individual.

Existing Active Denial devices use a gyrotron, a type of free-electron maser. The heart of this a vacuum tube in which electrons are gyrated (hence gyrotron) in a very strong magnetic field. That field requires superconducting magnets, which need to be kept at ultra-low temperatures to function.

The U.S. military is trying to get away from Gyrotrons and replace them with solid-state electronics. Earlier this year Danger Room, reported on a contract for classified work with Gallium Nitride as “solid state source for use in non-lethal weapons.” Like an LED which emits light, this would be much more robust and compact device. Feed in electricity, get microwaves out.

At the same time the JNLWD is looking at infra-red lasers to do the same job. These have disadvantages -– they don’t go through clothing as millimeter waves do, for one thing –- but it’s much easier to build a portable laser system.

However, the Israeli team is taking a different approach. Researchers at the College of Judea & Samaria (CJS), led by Dr. Moshe Einat, say that they have developed “unique know-how” which will allow them to build portable versions of the Active Denial “based on new research to manufacture small-scale portable gyrotrons.” They claim the picture to the right is of a prototype. Einat’s team did not respond to Danger Room requests for further information.

The claim seems plausible enough. Earlier, Danger Room reported on a project by the Office of the Secretary of Defense to build a gyrotron using a permanent magnet made from new rare-earth materials. The Israeli scientists may well have progressed along the same lines. On their web site, they claim that:

The development of the 95 GHz portable gyrotron to be used as the basis for a Stun-Gun prototype would cost approximately $250,000 (U.S.), with the program running 12 months in length.

Even if they can meet this ambitious budget and timescale, they are likely to run into another problem: testing. The U.S. system required several years of human tests, before the military would even consider deploying it, and for various reasons they have yet to give it the green light. However, the Israeli Defense Forces may be persuaded to take a more adventurous approach, having already used new non-lethals such as the malodorant “skunk bomb.”

But even if it does not go ahead, the project highlights how other countries could now develop their own versions on a shoestring budget. The U.S. has shown that these short microwaves can be harnessed as a useful non-lethal weapon. If a university department can do it in Israel, so can others in Russia, China or anywhere else. The U.S. has been the leader and sole player in this technology for fifteen years, but that lead may be about to disappear — along with any control over how it is used.

Source | See Also under Militarization: British PM says 5,000 more NATO troops may be deployed in Afghanistan | UK Citizen snoopers recruited to spy on Londoners | Vancouver police get military sound cannon just in time for Olympics | Nobel Peace Laureate Obama Will Send 40K More Troops To War | Report: Blackwater approved plan to pay off Iraqi officials | UK University student fined £80 for dropping matchstick on Oxford pavement | Ask military to help with H1N1: Ottawa councillor | RCMP defend Taser use on girl, 16 | Public Safety Canada’s emergency plan not implemented: Auditor General | China launches ’strike hard’ crackdown in Xinjiang | Psychic computer shows your thoughts on screen | Chinese media claims Beijing snow ‘artificially induced’ | Clinton confronted by Pakistanis over attacks by aerial drones | The universality of war propaganda | U.S. artists slam use of music in Guantanamo interrogations | No way to escape Afghan combat post-2011, Hillier says | UK: Paramilitary police placed on routine foot patrol for first time | UK: Secret files reveal covert network run by nuclear police | Glitch at Vancouver Olympic security exercises | U.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets | Canada’s military peers into future, sees drone patrols, draft, insurgency | Pakistani troops assault ‘Taliban’ stronghold | Con Man Who Lost Montana Jail Deal to open Military Centre | UK anti-terrorism strategy ’spies’ on innocent | UK to send more troops to Afghanistan, hints Obama to follow suit | PQ wants probe after Taser used on mentally challenged man | US ‘will’ disregard borders in terrorist hunt, says Obama | DHS Video Portrays Average Americans As Terrorists | Con Man Who Lost Montana Jail Deal to open Military Centre | Spy agencies now free to eavesdrop on Canadians abroad | Embryonic EU security office set up in secret talks under Lisbon Treaty | Laptops fair game for border searches | Military chopper lands in Kenora for burgers | Portable heat ray weapon may end up in police hands | Another War in the Works | Private Paramilitary ‘American Police Force’ Corporation Takes Over Small Town Police Force and Prisoner-Less Jail | US military could strike Iran, but at what cost? | Honduras suspends civil liberties as ousted President calls for resistance | G20 Police & Military Savagely Attack Peaceful Protesters In Pittsburgh Park | Guantanamo January closing deadline may slip | Military Police Kidnap G20 Protester, Shove Him Into Unmarked Car | 250-Foot Long Hybrid Airship Will Spy Over Afghanistan Battlefields in 2011 | G20 protesters blasted by sonic cannon | American Citizens Attacked With Military Sound Cannons & Tear Gas At G20 | Tory plans for U.S.-style prisons slammed in report | RCMP tests Tasers that record video | Report: Massive FBI database set to quadruple in size | Maximum Alert: U.S. Troops Now Occupying America | More troops on the streets: U.S. terror alert expands to transit and stadiums | As Olympics loom, B.C. wants to force homeless into shelters in extreme weather | U.S. commander warns of failure in Afghanistan, calls for more troops | Merced police used TASER on unarmed, legless man in a wheelchair | Business as usual: SWAT team breaks down mayor’s door, shoots dogs, ransacks home, refuses to apologize | Massachusets Says Forced Injections, Quarantines For Any “Rapidly Spreading Germ” | Obama scales back missile defence shield in Europe | US Spec Ops operates psychological warfare websites targeted at UK | US Police to get access to classified military intelligence | CF-18s join B.C. Olympic security drill | Top US commander signals troop increase in Afghanistan | UN condemns ‘war crimes’ in Gaza | Police training to forcibly take blood in Texas, Idaho | UK: Now Big Brother targets helpful parents – 1 in 4 Britons vetted for giant new child protection database | Sonic weapons used in Iraq positioned at congressional townhall meetings in San Diego county | Ground broken on $3.4 billion Homeland Security complex | Military helicopters over downtown Montreal for exercise | China’s crackdown for patriotism on 60th anniversary | Border guards resorting to force more often | Obama’s effort in Afghanistan ‘just beginning’: U.S. defence secretary | Bill would give president emergency control of Internet | Outcry in South America over US military base pact | Olympics push army to edge | UK Government to consider internet disconnection policy, restrictions | Rendition still happening on Obama’s watch | Obama approves new interrogation unit | UK: Police may be issued with new high-power Taser | TASER files court motion to quash Braidwood probe’s findings | Ex-employees claim Blackwater pimped out young Iraqi girls | Canada should stay in Afghanistan: NATO head | Alabama County May Call In Troops To Perform Law Enforcement Duties | Blackwater Founder Erik Prince Implicated in Murder | ‘Coalition of the willing’ comes to end in Iraq | Prominent protesters stand trial in Iran | U.S. military seeks ’second surge’ for Afghan mission | Arctic borders will be defended: MacKay | Handgun bans and the world of make-believe | US Homeland Security: Terror fight needs public’s vigilance | US Military To Work With FEMA During Swine Flu Pandemic | Arctic expert questions Canada’s northern strategy | Government of Canada Participates in Major US Homeland Security Exercise | TASER introduces 3-shot semiauto | Northwest Passage surveillance study halted | Microwave weapon will rain pain from the sky | Israeli soldiers allege abuses against Palestinians | Dick Cheney ‘hid plans to kill al-Qaida operatives abroad’ | UK PM Gordon Brown plans troops surge in Afghanistan | Toronto TAVIS special police corps demanding ID on city streets | RCMP pipeline bomber hunt draws harassment compliants, comparisons to secret police | BC Bars swipe patron IDs, collect data | Safety Tests MIA for Taser’s Shocking New Shotgun | 2010 Olympic security plans include ‘free speech’ zones | Military to get $5B for armoured vehicles | Western Governments Funding Taliban & Al-Qaeda To Kill U.S. Troops, Destabilize Countries | Taliban flee new U.S. drive in Afghanistan | US FEMA emergency management, Israeli IDF team up for martial law exercises | Cynthia McKinney Demands Immediate Release After Her Gaza-Bound Boat is Seized by Israeli Navy | Iraq Marks Withdrawal of U.S. Troops From Cities | Psiphon braintrust: Ottawa needs a strategy for cyberwar | US ‘concerned’ over cyber threat | 50 Toronto high schools to have armed police presence | Selective enforcement: Charkaoui barred from US airspace on flight from Fredericton to Montreal | Pakistan remains silent as U.S. air attack kills 80 | UK to found new ‘cyber-security’ units attached to national eavesdropping centre | Illegal Victoria Transit bag searches reinstated under new policy for Canada Day | North Korea threatens to ‘wipe out’ U.S. | Volunteer snitches man cameras in Lancaster, PA. | Violence on the streets of Tehran as police beat back protesters | Mounties discussed Tasing Dziekanski prior to altercation | Toronto police ready to take over transit patrols | Military spycraft patrols Ontario border from Fort Drum | Mounties discussed Tasing Dziekanski prior to altercation | Toronto police ready to take over transit patrols | ISPs must help police snoop on internet under new bill | UK plans to integrate ‘cybersecurity’ centre with US, Canada | Military spy blimp watched Indy race from on high | Incoming CSIS chief to seek biometric data at border | New $3B Defence Department plane contract requirements written to favour Italian vendor | New video shows officer shove, then taser 72-year-old great grandmother | Pakistan army backs citizens fighting Taliban | Mohawk protesters block Ontario bridge over arming of border guards | UK: Spy bugs may be deployed for 2012 Olympics | US: Ruling allowing Taser use to get DNA may be nation’s first | UK schoolkids trained to inform on ‘extremist’ classmates by police DVD | Akwesasne natives protest armed border guards, border crossing closed in retaliation | New border rules create ‘invisible Berlin Wall’: mayor | Homing chips are CIA’s latest weapon against ‘al-Qaida’ targets hiding in Pakistan’s tribal belt | Homeland Security to scan fingerprints of travellers exiting the US | Government Experiments on U.S. Soldiers: Shocking Claims Come to Light in New Court Case | New US border technology directed at insidious threat: Canadians | Toronto police board challenges chief on CCTV deterrence, demands ‘phase-in’ | Canada eyes arms sales to Pakistan | Next up for France: police keyloggers and Web censorship | Clinton defends new border restrictions | ‘AmeriCorps’ Domestic Paramilitary Propaganda Ad | New US brigade ‘bringing in plenty of firepower’ to Afghanistan | Caught in the crossfire – the Swat valley’s fleeing families | Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More | Canadian military to spam Afghan’s cell phones | Lunchtime lockdown to promote healthier eating: T.O. school plan | CIA: Our Drones are Killing Terrorists. Promise. | UK: New biometric security checks could include brain scans, heart rhythm fingerprinting | US air strikes kill dozens of Afghan civilians | Mutiny, Georgian war games feed tensions between Russia, NATO | 3 B.C. men allege abuse by RCMP in 2008 raid | SMS texts being data mined in France: Man strip searched, held after joke | Swine Flu: In Mexico, an outbreak of police-state opportunism | Military’s ‘Polar Breeze’ cloaked in secrecy | Alberta bars could collect names, photos under proposed bill | Killer robots and a revolution in warfare | Olympics-Cruise ships set for security in 2010 Games | RCMP ’sorry’ for errors in taser briefings | British Army to Police Medicine Hat During Urban Warfare Drills | Tamil civilians slaughtered as army shells ‘no-fire zone’ | Israeli troops kill apartheid wall protester | Urban warfare drills coming to Medicine Hat | Afghan front lines take mental toll on military and RCMP | ‘Say please’ at U. S. border nets pepper spray | Military may patrol bar zone in Barrie | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | New World Order Crony Gary Hart Calls for “Civic Duty” | British Secret Service, Army Alert on Bank Riots | UK: Government ‘using fear as a weapon to erode civil liberties’ | Australian web censorship plan to begin trial despite house opposition | Justin Trudeau introduces National Voluntary Service motion | US Democrats Introduce Public National Service Bills | UK security whitepaper urges ‘end of privacy’ | All officers need Tasers, police associations say | Remote-controlled planes could spy on British homes | US Urban Warfare Drills Linked To Coming Economic Rage | Family furious after police raid East Vancouver home | Obama backs Bush: No rights for Bagram prisoners | Predator drones patrolling border irk Manitoba MLA | Schools seek more police as crime drops | National Guard to invade Iowa town in door-to-door gun confiscation drill | U.S. set to launch Predator drones to monitor Manitoba border | Blackwater, mired in Iraq controversy, changes its name to ‘Xe’ | The Spy Factory: The New Thought Police | Tasers potentially lethal, RCMP commissioner tells MPs | Olympic security good for Canada, IOC head says | Military and police practice integration during Olympic security exercises | Obama’s Change: Expanding the Power of the NSC and Shadow Government | Police presence in high schools makes the grade | Chinese Learn Limits of Online Freedom as the Filter Tightens | Ban stun gun use on young people, Ontario child advocate urges | 24 star Keifer Sutherland opposed to torture, questions role of series in inspiring interrogations | Military to be out in force for Vancouver Olympics | Official: Blackwater contract for Iraq not renewed | RCMP destroyed evidence, charges dismissed in second torture case for officers | Tories seek extra $331-million for Afghan mission | UK Terror Law To Make Photographing Police Illegal | New Legislation Authorizes FEMA Camps In U.S. | Obama eyes 3 more brigades for Afghanistan | Montreal may ban insults to police | U.S. study raises more questions about TASER safety | CSIS invites academic community into the fold | Whistleblower: NSA even collected credit card records | Israel admits troops used phosphorus shells in Gaza | Woman swats children on plane, charged with Terrorism | Unusually Large U.S. Weapons Shipment to Israel | Video shows proof of phosphorous bombs in Gaza | A decade later, Lastman proud he called in army | Israel ignores ceasefire plea, pounds Gaza | Canadian military getting 1,300 new heavily armoured trucks for ‘domestic use’ | Washington to be locked down for inauguration | Vets Sue CIA Over Mind Control Tests | Military challenge: Make spy data more accessible | They hate us for our bombs | Defense Contractors See $$$ in Cyber Security | India signs new anti-terror laws in wake of Mumbai attack | Private firm may administer UK surveillance database | Toronto surveillance project to enter new phase pending review | US police could get ‘pain beam’ weapons | Bush Signs New Unified Command Plan for ‘Synchronized Global Planning’ | Army ‘Strategic Shock’ Report Says Troops May Be Needed To Quell U.S. Civil Unrest | Military Tech on the Home Front: Predator drones to begin surveillance of Canada-US border | Some tested Tasers fire stronger current than company says: CBC/Radio-Canada probe | Pentagon earmarks 20,000 additional troops for American streets | Pentagon hires British scientist to help build robot soldiers that ‘won’t commit war crimes’ | Hoverdrone to be deployed to Iraq | US Cops Tase 54 Year Old Woman For Sitting In Wrong Seat At Football Game | Don’t-ask-don’t-tell Policy: Pakistan and U.S. Have Tacit Deal On Airstrikes | Two More U.S. Military Units Assigned For Homeland Security | Police will use new device to take fingerprints in street, vendors say face scanning next | Germany rejects full-body scans at airports | US military targets social nets | Homeland Security Assuming Broad Powers, Turning Swaths of U.S. into “Constitution-Free Zone” | Pentagon Wants Packs Of Robots To Detect “Non-cooperative Humans” | Interpol wants facial recognition database to catch suspects | Army Orders Pain Ray Trucks; New Report Shows ‘Potential for Death’ | Tasers being used for pain compliance during interrogation, suit alleges | New surveillance program will turn military satellites on US | Representatives Were Threatened With Martial Law In America Over Bailout Bill | American Rail Passengers Subject to Random Searches, Police Presence | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | Frequent school lockdowns raise questions | Secret killing program is key in Iraq, Woodward says | Troops in the Streets: Army Brigades Standing By to Assist in Disasters, Help Quell Dissent | Armed police officers heading to high schools | Citizens Witness Gunplay, Black Uniforms as ‘Flashpoint’ Shoots Drama in Heart of Toronto | Suddenly, Denver ‘like a police state’ | NYC Residents Furious over Invasive Surveillance Grid | Rounded up into torture camps: the ‘undesirables’ China doesn’t want you to see | Kids to Help Create Drones, ‘Fuzzy’ Line to Be Drawn between Military and Civil Spheres | News crew crashes Denver’s DNC ‘concentration camp’ | Unmanned spy planes to police Britain | Troops patrolling Italian cities alongside police | Saskatchewan adopting US-mandated ID card, to include RFID chip, facial recognition | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | Turning Toronto into a nanny state | Drivers licences with chips spark heated debate | UK Surveillance Commissioner calls for intelligence officers to work with municipalities | Illinois governor suggests National Guard help with Chicago gun crime | Toronto artist seeks explanation for police raid | RCMP conducts random search and seizure on Canada Day | TASER bracelets considered for airline passengers | Papers Please: UK cops stopping millions in streets | Air passengers to undergo ‘virtual strip search’ | US Counterinsurgency Manual Leaked, Calls for False Flag Operations, Suspension of Human Rights | Youth Worker Subjected to Warrantless Raid on Secret Evidence | Tanks, Face-Scanning Cameras Part of ‘Discreet’ 2010 Games Security | Tasers pose risk to heart, MDs testify | Peel and Stick’ Tasers Electrify Riot Control | Israel startup uses behavioral science to identify terrorists | Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway | Massachusetts Police Get Black Uniforms to Instill Sense of ‘Fear’ | CBC Radio Broadcasts Expose of North American Police State | Canada, U.S. agree to use each other’s troops in civil emergencies | U.S. Northern Command, Canada Command establish new bilateral Civil Assistance Plan | Chicago study calls Taser’s safety claims into question | Tasers: the next generation | Austin police testing unmanned spy drones | Nunavut taken aback by military plan for drone patrols | U.S. to patrol Manitoba border with drone aircraft | RCMP, U.S. Army block public forum on the Security and Prosperity Partnership | Fascist America, in 10 easy steps | Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future | Harper pledges to boost military presence in cities | Project Paperclip: The US Nazi Amnesty | Ontario Police Chiefs travel to Israel to study police tactics | Much of Britain sprayed in secret germ warfare tests

This entry was posted on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 8:21 am and is filed under militarization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.