Name: Active Denial System: How the Heat Ray/Pain Beam Weapon Works
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Active Denial System: How the Heat Ray/Pain Beam Weapon Works

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The U.S. government sought to have two scary, albeit non-lethal weapons on hand during this summer’s protests in Washington, D.C., according to an . The and Active Denial System (ADS) are designed to produce instantaneous pain, causing crowds to disperse and allowing authorities to reimpose order. Experts, however, claim the weapons are “too scary to use,” and people can become too incapacitated to move out of the pain zone. ➡ YOU LOVE top-notch defense stories (otherwise you wouldn't be here). U.S. military authorities asked the District of Columbia National Guard if it had the LRAD and ADS in its inventory, but it did not. The authorities made the request on June 1, 2020, the same day armored police protestors in Lafayette Square——to clear the way for in front of a church.Guardsmen were on hand for the protests, but were not armed with weapons. Two Guard helicopters, however, in an attempt to disperse them.This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.The first LRADs were developed in response to the bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000. U.S. Navy officials asked the LRAD Corporation (now Genasys) for a device that could both communicate from a safe distance and disperse potential threats with an unbearable sound. By 2009, police officers had acquired LRADs for use in the U.S.Read ThisLRAD devices, usually mounted on police cars or even on officers’ chests, vary in look and size. But every model has the same two capabilities. In one mode, it acts as an amplifier, projecting a voice or recording across thousands of meters. In the other, it emits a “deterrent tone” designed to alert attention to that recording.Some LRADs can create sounds up to about 160 decibels when used at their full power, potentially disorienting and injuring people standing within the target beam. As one audio engineer who experienced LRADs during a protest told Popular Mechanics, “it’s the sound equivalent of looking into the sun.”Raytheon's Active Denial System (ADS), meanwhile, sometimes called a "heat ray," uses directed electromagnetic radiation in a completely different band. ADS uses short wavelength microwave radiation to heat the surface of the skin, resulting in an instantaneous “scalding” sensation on those who experience it.Related Storythat the microwaves only penetrate to within 1/64th of an inch of the skin. ADS has a range of hundreds of meters, can be “aimed like a searchlight,” and works on even the toughest of people:Extensive testing showed that nobody, however tough, can withstand the beam for more than a few seconds. Everyone leaps away to escape it by reflex, known as the 'repel effect.' It has an effective range of several hundred meters and can be aimed as easily as a searchlight.Here’s a 2008 video of veteran CBS reporter David Martin experiencing ADS firsthand:This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.According to the NPR report, the National Guard officer who received the request for the nonlethal weapons related how another Guardsman told him about seeing an “innocent civilian shot with rubber bullets and falling to the ground in front of him—seemingly indiscriminately.” The “cone of pain” of both the LRAD and ADS could have allowed authorities to target even larger numbers of civilians, also indiscriminately.The ADS has been proposed for use in prisons, against migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, and in Afghanistan. In each case, however, authorities ultimately declined to use the weapon. As Forbes points out, “it is hard to see it being accepted for use against regular U.S. civilians without a real change in attitude by the authorities.”Advertisement - Continue Reading BelowAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below

The U.S. government sought to have two scary, albeit non-lethal weapons on hand during this summer’s protests in Washington, D.C., according to an . The and Active Denial System (ADS) are designed to produce instantaneous pain, causing crowds to disperse and allowing authorities to reimpose order. Experts, however, claim the weapons are “too scary to use,” and people can become too incapacitated to move out of the pain zone. ➡ YOU LOVE top-notch defense stories (otherwise you wouldn't be here). U.S. military authorities asked the District of Columbia National Guard if it had the LRAD and...

Active Denial System: How the Heat Ray/Pain Beam Weapon Works

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