Nobody ever said the Light Saber was a practical weapon – it’s no match for a good blaster, if you ask me – but it exerts a powerful fascination. Special Operations Command have “completed ongoing testing and field evaluation studies” of the next best thing, according to a Pentagon budget document. It’s a Plasma Knife which cuts through flesh with a “blade” of glowing ionized gas. But rather than being a weapon, the Plasma Knife is a surgical instrument that could save lives.

Prompt medical care has proven extremely effective at reducing the mortality rates of combat casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. A policy of basing medics as far forward as possible and carrying out essential treatment before transfer to a full medical facility has reduced the chances of dying from battlefield injuries from 25% during the Korean war — to just 10% today.

But commandos often find themselves in remote areas without the luxury of medical backup, which is why they require their own emergency medical capability. And that’s where the Plasma Knife comes in. If you survive the massive tissue damage caused by a bullet or an improvised bomb, then the biggest immediate risk is bleeding to death. The Plasma Knife is a tool to stop bleeding.

In a sense it goes right back to the old technique of cauterization , where you stop the bleeding by applying red-hot irons. Modern surgeons have electrocautery which uses an electrically-heated wire, for the same purpose. The more advanced version is radiosurgery, which replaces the wire with high-energy radio-frequency radiation which heats tissue directly.

Continue Reading “Commandos Field Test ‘Plasma Knife’” »

The Taliban may prefer improvised bombs to ray guns, today. But that isn’t stopping the U.S. military from getting ready to defend against lasers and other so-called “directed energy weapons.”

The Office of Naval Research recently asked scientists and gadget-makers to send in their ideas for projects that will “form the foundation” for tomorrow’s “Counter Directed Energy Weapons (CDEW).” High energy lasers, “high power microwave transmitters, particle beam weapons [and] high power electromagnetic frequency pulsed weapons systems” are all on the Navy’s list of blasters that might need to be stopped, some day. But, as you’d expect, the Navy’s geeks are particularly keen on trying to stop the ray guns that might “threat[en] … naval ship platforms, underwater systems, aviation systems and/or weapons systems.” The Navy is also looking to “counte[r] or negat[e]” the blasters’ effects on “troops or civilian personnel.”

Energy weapons have been promised for decades. But in the last two years, Pentagon-backed engineers have made huge strides in bringing these straight-outta-sci-fi devices into the real world. During tests this summer at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, a Boeing-built laser gunship blasted a hole in a truck. Electric-powered lasers have now been brought up to weapons grade. And the Navy is working on the so-called “holy grail” of lasers — a blaster that can adjust the kind of light it sends out, depending on the target and the environment. The idea is to equip the all-electric ships of decades-hence with the ray guns, to blast incoming rockets and missiles.

Continue Reading “Navy Looks to Stop Enemy Ray Guns” »

Back in August, Boeing announced that its Advanced Tactical Laser — a cargo aircraft retrofitted with a chemical laser — had successfully “defeated” a target vehicle parked on the ground. The test was a step toward the fielding of a laser gunship that, in theory, could blast targets with little or no collateral damage.

The company has now released a few seconds of video from the test, although footage is not yet available of the laser actually disabling the vehicle:

“I think you’ve made your point, Goldfinger, thank you for the demonstration.”

Pyrotechnics aside, there are a lot of reasons why this is significant. As our own David Hambling has explained previously, this has potential to bring a whole new level of precision to special-operations gunships, which traditionally rely on Gatling guns and howitzers to deal out pain. That’s not the route you want to go if you want to avoid collateral damage.

In fact, developers claim the laser gunship would have sniperlike precision. When they requested the Advanced Tactical Laser to be deployed to Iraq a couple of years back, the Marine Corps envisioned using it as a way to target individual insurgents — to devastating psychological effect.  Such weapons, when used against people, “can be compared to long-range blowtorches or precision flamethrowers, with corresponding psychological advantages for [Coalition Forces] CF,” the request stated.

But don’t expect a frightening “spontaneous combustion” weapon to be fielded soon. The Advanced Tactical Laser is still a demonstration program; the company has proven that it can package a chemical-powered laser inside a C-130, but as Noah has been writing for years, it’s hard to see the practical application of flying around with lots of toxic chemicals.

Continue Reading “New Video: Laser Gunship Blowtorches Truck (Updated)” »

Whether you’re trying to control a disturbance at a food-distribution center, get a convoy through a packed junction or determine who the bad guys are in a crowd, it’s not always a good idea to have a lethal force as your only option. That, at least, is the thinking behind the Thermal Laser Weapon, a device now under development by the U.S. military.

The Thermal Laser Weapon is a device that attaches to standard rail system on military rifles. Like the vehicle-mounted Active Denial System, it works by heating up the outer layer of skin, causing a very painful burning sensation without — in theory — causing any actual damage. The Active Denial System uses short microwaves, the Thermal Laser Weapon uses an infra-red laser. Work on the device is a direct outgrowth of the work on thermal lasers described in Danger Room last year; field testing of the Thermal Laser Weapon by the Joint Nonlethal Weapons Directorate was announced this week.

The Thermal Laser’s immediate ancestor was the PHaSR (allegedly short for “Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response,” although the makers confess to being Star Trek fans). The PHaSR was a big, bulky weapon which combined an infra-red laser with a laser dazzler to produce a repel effect. Only the heating effect is mentioned for the Thermal Laser, but it seems likely that a visible laser would also be incorporated if only as an adjunct to aiming. The photo here shows the Saber 203, an earlier rifle-mounted dazzler.

The Active Denial System puts out around 100 kilowatts and illuminates an area about two meters across. And it produces a powerful “goodbye effect”: After several thousand tests, noone has been able to withstand it for more than five seconds moving out of the beam’s path. However, it’s not clear how effective a narrow beam of just a few watts would be, and this is what the designers of the Thermal Laser Weapon are trying to establish. The recent field evaluations highlighted one of problems with using infrared: Microwaves will go through any clothing, and can only be stopped by encasing yourself in tinfoil, but infrared can be blocked by clothing.

“Escalation-of-force options” is the trendy new phrase for the U.S. military, and there’s a growing appreciation that it’s not always a good idea to use lethal force as your first move. Other non-lethal bolt-on options are already available for your carbine. You can add a Taser, or a 12-gauge launcher firing blunt impact rounds. An obvious disadvantage is that Thermal laser Weapon won’t actually stop anyone in their tracks, but it may help in the roles of “discerning intent” and “discriminating targets.” Anyone who keeps making trouble after being lased is facing a loaded rifle and the shooter can escalate to lethal force extremely quickly.

According to the directorate’s non-lethal gurus, the Thermal Laser Weapon is also a multi-shot weapon whose effects are “immediately reversible,” whereas Tasers and impact rounds can have more serious consequences. While the range of the Thermal Laser Weapon is not known, it’s a fair guess that it’s likely to be dozens of feet: significantly greater than current alternatives.

Could it be used to torture or punish individuals without leaving a mark? Absolutely. Whether that’s sufficient reason not to go ahead with it depends on where you stand in the “non-lethal” weapons debate. The next stage will see the Thermal laser Weapon touted to service representatives to see if anyone is interested enough to fund it — and take on the potential political opposition in the process.

[PHOTO: USAF]

Continue Reading “Tricking out your Carbine with a Laser ‘Pain Beam’” »

Last month, Boeing’s Airborne Laser (ABL) aircraft — a Boeing 747 reconfigured as a missile-shooter — engaged a target missile launched from San Nicolas Island, off the central California coast.

This was not a test of the aircraft’s high-energy laser, but it paves the way for the attempted shootdown of a missile later this year. In this video, you can see the missile plume moving from left to right across the cockpit windshield. A tracking laser locks on the target, followed by an atmospheric compensation laser. Then the surrogate high-energy laser — a stand-in for the ABL’s powerful chemical laser — shines on the target.

The target missile is a 36-foot-long Terrier Lynx/Black Brandt missile, a.k.a. a Missile Alternative Range Target Instrument .

Continue Reading “Video Fix: Boeing Laser Blaster Zaps Missile” »

Boeing announced yesterday that the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) — a C-130H cargo aircraft tricked out with a chemical laser — had successfully engaged a “tactically representative target,” i.e., a vehicle parked on the ground.

It’s a step toward a new capability: A directed-energy gunship that can destroy or disable ground targets with little or no collateral damage. Current ground-attack aircraft like the AC-130 gunship do the job with area-effect weapons like 20mm Gatling guns and 105mm howitzers.

The recent ATL test took place over White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. During the test, the aircraft’s beam control system locked on to the target – a stationary vehicle – and guided the laser beam to the target. According to a news release, the laser beam “defeated the vehicle” — although what “defeat,” exactly, means, we don’t know. I’m waiting for more details.

If everything went as described, it certainly marks a milestone in laser history. But as Noah pointed out last year, a practical model is still years away: The ATL relies on vats of toxic chemicals to power its laser, so the military eventually wants to switch over to electric lasers to make a more deployable version of the flying ray gun.

[PHOTO: Boeing]

Continue Reading “Boeing’s New Death Beam Zaps Vehicle” »

Last week college professor Andrew Pakhomov was found guilty of murdering his wife, Yelena Zakin. She was strangled and her naked body was found in the Tennessee River in June 2006. But Pakhomov was not some dusty academic. He worked at the cutting edge of military technology, working on laser-powered propulsion for space launches.

The case itself is complex enough. According to the Decatur Daily, the week before Zakin disappeared, she assaulted Pakhomov and Melissa DeHollander, having allegedly discovered them together in Pakhomov’s office. Zakin was charged with assault and criminal mischief. Decatur police later charged DeHollander with perjury for having lied about the extent of her relationship with Pakhomov.

Two days after Pakhomov reported his wife’s disappearance, her body was found in the river. A leather belt around her neck was attached to a travel bag filled with rocks in an obvious attempt to sink the body. Despite his conviction, Pakhomov has maintained his innocence. After the verdict was issued, he told reporters, “I didn’t do it.” Asked who had killed Zakin, he said,  “I don’t know. I have no idea.”

Pakhomov is President of the American Institute of Beamed Energy Propulsion, which offers this layman’s description of the technology on their website: “Rockets have to carry onboard their fuel (hydrogen), burning agent (oxygen) and everything else that is needed to burn hydrogen and maintain motion in the desired direction (tanks, cryogenics, combustion chamber, fuel lines etc.). This is a heavy burden, and it brings a big downside: the price of cargo gets enormously high …  If we could separately provide the propulsive energy for a rocket, we would be rewarded with a gigantic increase in efficiency!”

In Beamed Energy Propulsion, a laser or other high-energy beam is focused on solid fuel, causing it to expand rapidly. Because the laser and power supply are on the ground, the launching process is far more efficient. Pakhomov quotes independent analysts who have shown that laser propulsion will be around a hundred times cheaper than conventional propulsion for launches to low Earth orbit, bringing the price down from $10,000 a pound to $100.

Pakhomov was working on applying this technology under this contract with the Air Force as a means for launching microsatellites (generally defined as weighing between 10 and 100 kilograms) . This would be “a responsive, low-cost launch system,” one that would be available to launch satellites – or other payloads – whenever needed. Pakhomov’s plan was for the satellite to be launched from electromagnetic gun and then boosted on its way with laser beam propulsion. The plan was for this technology to be experimentally demonstrated during Phase II of the program, which was scheduled for completion at the end of last year.

Continue Reading “Convicted Scientist Was Cooking Up ‘Space Cannnon’” »

The military isn’t about to deploy its pain ray to the battlefield. But someone in the commercial sector is about to one. We don’t know who. The sale is mentioned in a presentation by Raytheon, who built the microwave weapon for the Defense Department.

The so-called “Active Denial System” works by heating the outer surface of the target’s skin using millimeter waves — short wavelength microwaves. The effect is painful, but generally harmless, and forces the target to get out of the beam. Recently, it’s been proposed as a possible defense against pirates; last month, Raytheon gave a presentation on Active Denial at a NATO workshop on anti-pirate equipment and technologies.

This presentation mentions an “Impending Direct Commercial Sale” of a commercial version of the Active Denial system known as Silent Guardian (pictured). This is Active Denial in a box, a 10,000-pound containerized system that can be mounted on a ship, a truck, or a fixed installation. It’s got an effective range of about 250 meters. The beam has a power of around 30 kilowatts.
The anti-pirate presentation shows how a set-up with two antennas could achieve almost 360-degree coverage for a small container ship.

The Active Denial System was first unveiled in 2001, but a series of delays have prevented it from being fielded in spite of requests for it in Iraq. Danger Room reported the wrangling in 2006 and in 2008, with the Defense Science Board conclusion that deployment was “not politically tenable” because of a possible association with torture. This would be particularly true if the weapon was used at detention centers, and a recent Government Accountability Office report indicated that the attempts to get the ADS to Iraq have now been discontinued.

Paradoxically, it seems that the controversial “pain beam” may be more acceptable in the civilian market than in the military — depending on how the weapon is used.

Continue Reading “‘Pain Ray’ First Commercial Sale Looms” »

Once, a company called Ionatron promised to build the military real-life lightning guns that would blow up improvised bombs in exchange for tens of millions of taxpayer dollars. It never panned out—and the company had to change its name, 86 its senior executives, and fend off shareholder lawsuits as a result. But the firm-that-was-Ionatron still manages to rake in military cash. The company just got nearly a million dollars to look into deploying its gear on “U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps aircraft.”

The company, recently renamed Applied Electronics, claims that they’re going to help the Navy and Marines figure out how put ultra short pulse lasers on planes.

USP lasers shoot incredibly fast pulses of light that create channels in the air for electricity to travel to a target. The targets are vaporized so quickly that the lasers don’t generate any extra heat. People have mostly speculated that USP lasers could be used in medicine to help blow up dental plaque or cancerous tumors. The armed forces, no doubt, could find all sorts of useful things to do with them. Judge for yourself if Applied Electronics will come through, given their track record.

Here’s what the COO of the company said about their new contract in a recent press release:

We continuously search for opportunities to leverage the technologies developed for LGE [Laser Guided Energy] as part of our core strategy and we believe this new program is evidence of the potential these lasers will have in military applications. We have been successful in doing this with our High Voltage technologies for counter-IED applications, and now we are beginning to see similar opportunities for laser technologies.

We’ll certainly be waiting in the wings to see what they come up with twelve months from now, when they have to make good on their contract. Laser guns on planes or military funding mishap?  Stay tuned.

[Photo: Gizmodo]

Continue Reading “Lightning Gunners Take to the Skies” »

Zapping humans has been put on hold, for the time being. The military is looking to use its microwave pain ray to blast unwanted birds, instead.

The Defense Department spent nearly a decade researching and developing the Active Denial System. It’s a microwave beam that penetrates a 64th of an inch beneath the skin – and causes people to run away in agony. For years, troops in Iraq begged for the real-life ray guns, to disperse unruly crowds. But technical issues (16 hours to warm up) and political considerations (torture device, anyone?) kept ADS from ever seeing wartime action.

Air Force researchers don’t want to see all that tech go to waste, however. So they’ve come up with a new – and less politically-charged – target for the pain ray’s wrath. “Every year bird-strikes to aircraft, both military and civilian, cause millions of dollars of damage and in some instances, loss of human life,” an Air Force request for proposals notes. Remember those Canadian geese that sent Captain Sully crash-landing into the Hudson?

The military has explored all sorts of techniques to keep the birds away. “However, no successful research has yielded any viable avian denial system,” the Air Force sighs.

So maybe it’s time to bring in Active Denial. It won’t be quite as easy as simply pointing the ray gun at the birds. First, you have to make sure you can sort out a potentially hazardous flock from a non-threatening gaggle. Then, of course, “the frequency used for this system must not interfere with any current operational aircraft or ground-based sensor systems and it must not be able to target personnel.” This ray gun is for bird-zapping only.

UPDATE: You will be utterly shocked to discover that Sharon Pawlak, the national coordinator of the Coalition to Prevent the Destruction of Canada Geese, hates this idea. “Unconscionable!” she e-mails Danger Room. “What about animal abuse don’t these people get? There is no need to subject birds to pain, suffering and possible death.”

[Photo: U.S. Army]

Continue Reading “Pentagon Pain Ray’s New Target: Killer Geese (Updated)” »