Return-Path: <sentto-279987-3603-1004420898-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com> Delivered-To: fc@all.net Received: from 204.181.12.215 [204.181.12.215] by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.7.4) for fc@localhost (single-drop); Mon, 29 Oct 2001 21:49:08 -0800 (PST) Received: (qmail 11196 invoked by uid 510); 30 Oct 2001 05:47:36 -0000 Received: from n30.groups.yahoo.com (216.115.96.80) by 204.181.12.215 with SMTP; 30 Oct 2001 05:47:36 -0000 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-279987-3603-1004420898-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com Received: from [10.1.4.56] by n30.groups.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 30 Oct 2001 05:48:18 -0000 X-Sender: fc@red.all.net X-Apparently-To: iwar@onelist.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_0_1); 30 Oct 2001 05:48:18 -0000 Received: (qmail 76894 invoked from network); 30 Oct 2001 05:48:18 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by l10.egroups.com with QMQP; 30 Oct 2001 05:48:18 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO red.all.net) (65.0.156.78) by mta1 with SMTP; 30 Oct 2001 05:48:17 -0000 Received: (from fc@localhost) by red.all.net (8.11.2/8.11.2) id f9U5mKY03662 for iwar@onelist.com; Mon, 29 Oct 2001 21:48:20 -0800 Message-Id: <200110300548.f9U5mKY03662@red.all.net> To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List) Organization: I'm not allowed to say X-Mailer: don't even ask X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL3] From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net> X-Yahoo-Profile: fcallnet Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list iwar@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:iwar-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com> Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 21:48:19 -0800 (PST) Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com Subject: [iwar] [fc:Microwave.beam.weapon.to.disperse.crowds] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Microwave beam weapon to disperse crowds 10:07 29 October 01 Jeff Hecht, Boston Tests of a controversial weapon that is designed to heat people's skin with a microwave beam have shown that it can disperse crowds. But critics are not convinced the system is safe. Last week, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in New Mexico finished testing the system on human volunteers. The Air Force now wants to use this Active Denial Technology (ADT), which it says is non-lethal, for peacekeeping or riot control at "relatively long range" - possibly from low-flying aircraft. ADT uses a 2-metre dish to create a narrow beam of microwaves that can be scanned across a crowd or even aimed at individuals. AFRL is using infrared photography to analyse the heating effect on the volunteers' bodies. AFRL says that the 3-millimetre wavelength radiation penetrates only 0.3 millimetres into the skin, rapidly heating the surface above the 45 °C pain threshold. At 50 °C, they say the pain reflex makes people pull away automatically in less than a second - it's said to feel like fleetingly touching a hot light bulb. Someone would have to stay in the beam for 250 seconds before it burnt the skin, the lab says, giving "ample margin between intolerable pain and causing a burn". Little data But critics question the AFRL's claims that the weapon's undisclosed exposure levels are safe. John Pike of think tank Globalsecurity.org fears that the beam power needed to scare people may be too close to the level that would injure them. Air Force scientists helped set the present skin safety threshold of 10 milliwatts per square centimetre in the early 1990s, when little data was available, says Louis Slesin, editor of Microwave News. That limit covers exposure to steady fields for several minutes to an hour - but heating a layer of skin 0.3 mm thick to 50 °C in just one second requires much higher power and may pose risks to the cornea, which is more sensitive than skin. A study published last year in the journal Health Physics showed that exposure to 2 watts per square centimetre for three seconds could damage the corneas of rhesus monkeys. ------------------ http://all.net/ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2001-12-31 20:59:58 PST