DUer's new weapon from Raytheon, Protest and get a suntan

[hangloose]

Report: Raytheon 'heat beam' weapon ready for Iraq

Boston Business Journal
Government defense giant Raytheon Co. has developed the first nonlethal weapon that fires a heat beam to repel enemies and reduces the chance of innocent civilians being shot, a Pentagon official said.


Raytheon, the world's largest missile maker, delivered a prototype to the U.S. military last month. The product is expected to be evaluated from February through June to determine whether to equip U.S. forces with it, Colonel David Karcher, director of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, told Bloomberg Business News

"It's there, it's ready,'' said Heal, who has felt the weapon's beam and compares it to having a hot iron placed on the skin. "It will likely be in Iraq in the next 12 months. They are very, very close.''

The weapon, mounted on a Humvee vehicle, projects a "focused, speed-of-light millimeter wave energy beam to induce an intolerable heating sensation,'' according to a U.S. Air Force fact sheet. The energy penetrates less than 1/64 of an inch into the skin and the sensation ceases when the target moves out of the beam.

The weapon could be used for crowd control and is effective beyond the range of bullets fired by small arms, Karcher said. The effective range of an AK-47 assault rifle is as far as 273 yards, while an M16A2 rifle has a range of 400 meters.

<snip>


Heal told Bloomberg Business News that Raytheon could expand the market by selling a smaller version to law-enforcement agencies. The company is working on a smaller, tripod-mounted version for police forces, and the price would have to come down to a few hundred thousand dollars each to be affordable, he said.



http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2004/11/29/daily30.html

[jpgray]

1. Millions in abject poverty and without health care

And we invent a fucking heat ray?

[Lucky Luciano]

4. Gotta admit...

It is better than shooting Iraqis with bullets. I think we will still use bullets though anyway.

[rucky]

2. Photo of Raytheon CEO:

[jpgray]

3. Bwahahaha. The Heat Miser is an asshole, isn't he? (nt)

[Swamp Rat]

9. HAHA! Take THAT!

[Cobalt Violet]

5. Convention 2008: Heat Rays and Orange Nets.

Better stay in the "Free Speech Zones".

[Lucky Luciano]

6. yup...

this is the part that is more worrisome than it being used in Iraq....b*sh and the rest of the brownshirts will likely want to use it on us...

sad sad sad

[JohnOneillsMemory]

12. Wear more than tin foil helmet, a full tin foil suit and mask.

That's what we will wear to defeat the microwaves. Just watch the face and eyes.

I imagine protesters looking like a cross between a KKK-er and the Tin Man.

[Dogmudgeon]

7. All that tech-talk ...

It's nothing more than a damned souped-up radar gun.

The tech is not state-of-the-art. As soon as The Enemy figures this out, guess who will be getting a taste of the heat ray?

This jolly little war is about to "heat up" for real.

--p!

[NYC]

8. I hope they never become affordable to police departments.

...Heal told Bloomberg Business News that Raytheon could expand the market by selling a smaller version to law-enforcement agencies. The company is working on a smaller, tripod-mounted version for police forces, and the price would have to come down to a few hundred thousand dollars each to be affordable, he said...

[NickB79]

10. Effective beyond the range of bullets?

What happens when you have bullets coming at you from several different locations all around you? You can't focus the beam in a wide enough swath to disable even a pair of shooters, unless you have one beam per shooter. A few men with AK's, firing from concealed positions, would be able to shoot out the beam generator as it tries to target a decoy shooter. That, or set up an IED and blow the whole damn Hummer up and be done with it.

[Mike Niendorff]

11. torture, anyone?

Nah, nevermind, I'm sure the Bushies are much too "moral" for that (and if you hear otherwise, they can always find a PFC to pin it on).


MDN

[qs04]

14. Exactly

It's always touted as causing agony but leaving no marks. What more could they ask for in a torture device?

[lateo]

13. What could go wrong?

LOL...

[hangloose]

15. would a reflective surface such as a mirror deflect the ray without

consequence to the mirror or by extension the mirror's holder?

[lateo]

16. It depends.

If they are using a laser yes and they might be able to reflect it back at the attackers.