Microwave gun to be used by US troops on Iraq rioters (sigh)

[donsu]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/19/wirq319.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/09/19/ixworld.html

Microwave weapons that cause pain without lasting injury are to be issued to American troops in Iraq for the first time as concern mounts over the growing number of civilians killed in fighting.
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The non-lethal weapons, which use high-powered electromagnetic beams, will be fitted to vehicles already in Iraq, which will allow the system to be introduced as early as next year.

-snip-

"The skin gets extremely hot, and people can't stand the pain, so they have to move - and move in the way we want them to," said Col Wade Hall of the Office of Force Transformation, a body formed in November 2001 to promote rapid improvement across all of the American armed services.

Rich Garcia, a spokesman for the Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico, where the systems were developed, took part in testing the weapon and was subjected to the microwave beam which has a range of one kilometre. "It just feels like your skin is on fire," he said. " when you get out of the path of the beam, or shut off the beam, everything goes back to normal. There's no residual pain."
-snip-
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once these weapons are mounted on vehicles the vehicle will be called the "Sheriffs" and they will also mount :

"In another development, the Sheriffs will be fitted with Gunslinger, a rapid-fire gun currently under development that will detect enemy snipers and automatically fire back at them."

so the Sheriffs will have a Gunslinger.

just wait until these get on the black market!

please somebody stop the bloody bushgang.

[ObaMania]

1. I pray they don't turn it on anywhere near my...

V*P*!

[chookie]

2. Wait til they are used against protestors!

These weapons will quell dissent for sure.

[Mandate My Ass]

3. "There's no residual pain.."

sounds like as good a rationalization as any to commit war crimes. :eyes:

[Cicero]

4. OK, and what happens to any metal objects on your body?

Hasn't everyone left a metal fork or something like that in the microwave by accident and then turned it on. Even if you realize the error after only a second, that fork has sparked all over the place and you know its too hot to touch.

So, what effect will this weapon have on zippers, belt buckles, watches, rings, keys, coins, necklaces, earrings, fillings, surgical pins, etc?

:nuke:

Later,