Could new weapons stun or paralyze with a beam of radio energy? I have discussed proposals for ‘bioelectromagnetic wepaonry’ in DefenceTech before, here and here, but for the first time details are emerging of Air Force-sponsored work in this field.
I have a piece in ther TechWatch section of this month’s Popular Mechanics magazine exploring a new nonlethal program. In addition to the well-known Active Denial System (ADS) -- which amounts to a mobile microwave oven -- basic research has started on something potentially far more effective and with much wider implications.
This report, entitled "Interdisciplinary research project to explore the potential for developing non- lethal weapons based on radiofrequency/microwave bioeffects" -- states their goal:
Our research is to lay the foundation for developing non-lethal stunning/immobilizing weaponry based on radiofrequency (RF)/
microwave(MW) radiation by identifying RF/MW parameters potentially capable of selectively altering exocytosis, the process underlying neurotransmitter release and hence nervous system functioning.
The ADS works purely by heating skin – a simple thermal effect. According to the Air Force, in health terms it's exactly the same effect you'd get from heating with radiator or hot water or standing by a fire, and it is this heating that produces the 'repel' effect on its targets. As far as we know, the ADS does not have any physical effects other than straightforward thermal ones. But the new project is concentrating on the ‘non-thermal’ effects created by longer-wavelength radiation, looking at how microwaves can affect the nerous system.
This area has already seen a lot of debate. Mobile phones and their transmitter towers use microwaves, and it is hotly contested whether the microwave radiation has any effect on the human body other than simple heating.
The researchers at the University of Nevada have concluded that non-thermal effects of RF do exist and may be harnessed. In an abstract here (on page 317)
– a study of Non-Thermal effects of RF Radiation on Exocytosis - states “The effects of RF exposure on catecholamine release that have been observed to date cannot be explained by an increase in temperature.”
And there’s more. Other work by the same team, is described here
It will also support a DEPSCoR- funded program that extends those studies to include microwave frequencies and to explore the effect of pulsed and CW RE/microwave exposure on skeletal muscle contractility
The suggestion is that a correctly tuned beam of microwaves (possibly pulsed or modulated) would be able to interefere with skeletal muscles. This might ultimately give a means of producing the same sort of non-lethal effects as a Taser -– but potentially from much greater range and over a wide area.
So far, the work has been entirely on ‘in vitro’ cell samples in the laboratory, and only modest alterations in cell function have been produced. This is a very long way from being able to actually influence a living creature. Any suggestion that this sort of weapon has already been fielded by the US should be treated with skepticism.
The researchers are keen to point out that there could be a variety of non-military applications too, such as new types of therapeutic tool for non-invasively treating conditions like chronic pain.
Everything is in very early stages in the US program. But, as I mentioned a while back, the Russians have been looking at this technology for years. Dr. Vitaly N. Makukhin of the Trymas Center in Moscow has published papers on "Electronic equipment for complex influence on biological objects" which he claims can produce effects including “disorder of the autonomic nervous system.” Few people have taken him seriously in the West before. Now that the same sort of effects are being confirmed in US labs, perhaps we will start taking more of an interest in what this type of weapon may be able to do.
Neil Davison of the Center for Conflict Resolution has already questioned "whether it is in any way acceptable to develop bioelectromagnetic weapons that could have an incapacitating and suppressing effect on people by manipulating their nervous system or their muscles"
As with Tasers and the ADS, the ethical issues around this one are liable to become the focus for some very lively debate.
-- David Hambling
An interesting electromagnetic weapon, or perhaps a weapon more appropriately called an electrodynamic weapon, is a system for homeland defense against a massive invasion such as might occur simultaneously with large scale civil unrest, a surgical limited nuclear strike against the U.S., or a multifront simultaneous invasion by millions of troops such as might occur as the result of a widespread international conspiracy to bring down the U.S.
Essentially, the weapon system I am suggesting is the development of a huge electrocution grid which is distributed around the coastal regions and international borders within the United States. The grid would be composed of a network of extremely high current and powerload capable cables and circuit elements which could deposit electrical power from the cable to the surface of the ground, perhaps allowing for potential drops to be set up of 1 Kilovolt to 1 Megavolt per meter. The idea is to electrocute invading troops, destroy machinery, and disable armored vehicles and electronic systems possessed by the invading troops.
The cable grid could be comprised of humdreds of thousands and perhaps millions of kilometers of electrical cables wherein each of numerous primary cables would be interconnected by or have branching off cables wherein the entire front of invasion could be electrofied as the invading troops advanced inward.
The power source for such an electrical energy weapon system could be huge underground capacitors in the form of multi-layered capacitors wherein the entire volume of each of several huge capacitor banks would be equal to one to several cubic kilometers. The surface area of each capacitor could equal to as much as 1 million square kilometers assumming the seperation of the charge carrying surface layers of multilayer cubic kilometer capacitors is one millimeter.
One can imagine that such a system could be scaled up or down in size and that the current carrying grid could be a permanently installed infrastructural element or a temporary installation that is installed given adequate warning of a pending invasion.
Now I might be really going out on a limb here, but such electrical current systems might be useful for defense against any invading extraterrestrial species especially if the power within a partially activated grid could be selectively switched on or off. The reported electromagnetic effects of alleged alien space craft including phenomenon such as magnetized sign posts near the location of landings, the failure of or control of electrical equipment within the vacinity of craft landings, and the electrical shock like feelings experienced by abductees in the presence of landing craft suggest that electromagnetic fields play a strong part in any space alien landing craft if such exist. Thus, one would assume that the production of extremely high electrical voltages, current and power fluxes, might interact with the alien craft technology in an adverse manner thus disabling the craft or the craft's electrodynamic systems.
Ideally, I would like our alien brothers and sisters to become our best friends if such exists, but the plethora of alledged alien abduction cases, allegded alien genetic experiments, and other reported shananegans as the subject of space alien conspiracies do not give me much confidence in the intentions of many alledged extraterrestrial visitors.
Hopefully, if space aliens exist and make a public appearence at some future time, all will be peaceful. But I will quote a saying that became popular among the 20th century among military leaders:"The price of peace is eternal vigilence". However, sense any intellegent extraterrestrial beings are also made in the image of God just as we humans are, I continue to pray for the well being of all living bodily ETs and wish them the best of luck in terms of spiritual, technological, intellectual, emotional, social, and psychological growth and evolution.
Posted by: James M. Essig at October 25, 2008 07:48 PM