USAF ADS Weapon Certified for Use in Iraq

[D-Bone]

The United States Air Force has certified a new weapon that will be used on the ground against insurgents in Iraq. The $40 million USD Active Denial System (ADS) took ten years to develop and is a non-lethal weapon that shoots millimeter waves at offending parties.

The beams fired by the ADS feature 3mm wavelengths as opposed to a 12cm wavelength used in an average household microwave oven. As a result of the shorter wavelengths, the weapon does not represent a radiation risk to victims and will not impose long-lasting damage in most cases.

Human volunteers (active, reserve and retired military personnel) subjected to the beam felt immediate and immense pain from the ADS weapon. The beam causes a person to feel that he or she is on fire and triggers a "flight" response. A result, Air Force officials say that the weapon has what is called the "Goodbye effect" meaning that subjects turn tail and run. "If hit by the beam, you will move out of it -- reflexively and quickly. You for sure will not be eager to experience it again," reported one test subject.

Read More: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5239

[D-Bone]

Image:

http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/3267_large_goodbyeweapon4_f.jpg

[Jafo]

Maybe I am missing the point here. They call this new thing a weapon? A weapon that they are taking into a War? Is the what my F**king tax dollars are going towards? This has to be a sick joke. You don't take a non-lethal beam into a war zone so that you can scare your enemy.

You take this:

http://world.guns.ru/assault/m4a1.jpg

And KILL everyone of the bastards....


I know... maybe they will use paintball guns against our soldiers. :doh:

[Ghost]

I think the idea is to allow the troops something that they can use without causing all sorts of collateral damage. Right now there are lots of situations where the troops have to hold their fire until they are sure what is happening so they don't kill the wrong person. With something like this, it's a lot easier to pull the trigger and not have to worry about the innocent people who may get in the way.

[Phantom]

You hit that one dead on! Fire this in for crowd control they will think twice. How about a bomber driving a car toward a check point? Point this his direction and I would say he could not keep his hands one the wheel. He might even dive out of the car to get away from the burning pain.

[Jafo]

I can't accept that this is reasonable to do with the current situation in Iraq. I think at the price tag of $40 Million US dollars, this money could have been better spent at protecting our soldiers.

I see a potential in this "weapon" as to say, in respects to saving innocent people, and this might save a few innocent people from being killed by US soldiers, but this is not going to stop them from shooting real bullets at US soldiers, detonating roadside bombs or cutting the heads off of hostages.

[lethalmind]

I do agree with you jafo that this will not keep them from shooting bullets at our people but there are so many times that we are not allowed to do anything because there are friendlies in the way. Whether they are there or not this (if effective) could be used to clear an area that they may or not be able to normally. It would be interesting to find out what type of shielding is needed to block the sound wave. How thick a wall or baricade was needed.
How about pointing at a building at being able to force those inside to evacuate due to it. Lots of potential if it is not easily stoppable.


There are defenses to the beam according to the military -- the beam cannot penetrate rock or stone. And even if a person were to hold up a sheet of metal or try to wear protective clothing with metal plates, a small exposed area of skin would be enough to produce a successful Goodbye effect. Tests also showed that damp clothing further intensifies the effects of the beam. Wired News reports:

In one war game, an assault team staged a mock raid on a building. The ADS was used to remove civilians from the battlefield, separating what the military calls "tourists from terrorists." It was also used in a Black Hawk Down scenario, and maritime tests, which saw the ADS deployed against small boats... It might also be used on the battlefield. One war game deployed the ADS in support of an assault, suppressing incoming fire and obstructing a counterattack.

[Malice]

Heh, Ty, you're just like me, absolutely enraged that we have to fight this uber careful and 'play by the rules' war while the enemy cheats all day long. The long and short of it is, life isn't fair and hence war isn't fair. Rule #1 of warfare, know your enemy. Our enemy knows us well, he knows we won't do much if they do crap in a crowded area where non combatants may get hurt. So they exploit this fact ALL THE TIME! This fact does cause IED's and Car Bombs to get through and kill our soldiers. This weapon nullifies their tactic. We aim it into a crowd, people disburse, and if the combatants get out into the open and want to keep fighting then well, we've got real bullets for that.

We really are in a lose lose situation out there in the world. We make every reasonable precaution to eliminate collateral damage but its impossible to eliminate it all. If we went months without any collateral damage, no one would care, if we have 1 person killed, Al Jezera (sp?) and the rest of those SOBs will be all over it. Even though their car bombs and IED's kill far more bystanders than Americans every day.

Oh and the price tag of 40 mil? Thats cheap. One F-22 is like a billion. Now lets all get back to work so we can make money and pay our taxes so we can invent more weapons. :p

[Jafo]

<<** Explicit ? Might offend someone ? Read at your own risk **>>





Christians and Muslims have been fighting each other for thousands of years and it will never stop, not in my life time, and not in my child?s life time, but what do we do about it? We try to be civilized about it and in doing so the United States has become an embarrassment to the entire world. We are weak in the eyes of the world right now because this is no longer a war, it is a cluster f**k of bad decisions no one knows what the f**k to do about it other than debate it on national television.

It makes me sick everyday on how our own media blows things out of proportion and our f**king politicians use our causality ratio to improve their own image while they debate weather or not this is a ?Civil War? or ?Sectarian Violence?. Does it matter anymore?

You cannot be civilized or reason with these f**king people in the Middle East, their way of life revolves around conflict. For godsakes they are killing each other more than they are killing US soldiers, and yet our media and politicians keeps debating definitions.

I don?t care who is responsible for this, Democrats, Republicans, Christians, Muslims, a$$holes, Elbows, Just fix the f**king problem. Let them kill each other off, Let them fight it out because that is all they understand. The Middle East only understands violence. We should not worry about pounding them back to the stone age, They are fully capable of pounding themselves out of existence.

I don?t think there is a perfect solution to this entire situation and I honestly feel for the people who have to make the decisions about this. I can make my bitch about it just like we all can express our opinions, but all we can truly do is let it unfold and let history be the judge of what was right and what was wrong.

[D-Bone]

Thanks for the warning Jafo but don't worry about offending people. Everyone here is entitled to their own opinions. Everyone is entitled to say whatever they want, thats one of the freedoms we are lucky to have in this country. This a good discussion, lets all just remind ourselves to continue to discuss as adults and respect each other. We have been great at it so far, just a reminder to keep it up.