Never mind a death ray; here's a pain ray

October 13, 3:17 PMCivil Liberties ExaminerJ.D. Tuccille

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Truck-mounted Active Denial System

The Army is buying truck-mounted devices intended to disperse crowds by ... well ... zapping them with pain rays. Really. Says Aviation Week:

The high power microwave (HPM) device heats water in a person's outer layers of skin to the point of pain. Tests have shown that the effects can reach through cracks in and around concrete walls and even through the glass of automobiles, company officials say.

The program is called Silent Guardian, and is a spin-off of the much-discussed Active Denial System. The Army is reportedly purchasing several of the weapons, which have a range exceeding 250 meters, mounted on Ford 550 commercial trucks.

Globalsecurity.org quotes Louis Slesin, editor of Microwave News, as warning that the less-lethal technology still poses certain health risks:

[H]e says that possible injuries, particularly to the eye, could lead to stopping further development and actual deployment of the device-as the Pentagon did in the mid-1990s when it was trying to develop blinding lasers. "The real question is whether it will go the way of the lasers," Slesin says. Like laser, exposure to the microwave beam could cause eye damage.

Slesin also cautions that the only people researching the dangers of the technology are the military organizations eager to put it into the field. "That's a clear conflict."

Despite potential risks, less-lethal weapons offer certain advantages when considered as a replacement for lethal weaponry. Whatever harm microwaves might do, they're going to leave less blood on the ground than machine guns  -- or even plastic bullets. But that assumes serious restraint in the deployment of the devices.

Restraint has turned out to be a problem in the use of the Taser, which has become something of a go-to device for law-enforcement officers -- with sometimes lethal results.

Also, a pain-inducing device offers certain opportunities for abuse. In a recent report (PDF), Dr. Jurgen Altmann, a German physicist and weapons expert, said:

[T]he possibility of re-triggering on the same target subject puts avoidance of burns at the discretion of the weapon operator. It is unclear if a 15-second non-re-engagement rule – as was used in human testing – will also apply in real operations, above all, if it would be followed under all circumstances. Overdose and misuse are of course possible with all police weapons, but with the operator at many hundreds of metres distance, just pressing a button, experiencing the reactions of the target person only visually, there seems to be more leeway for applying more force or harm than absolutely required.

Whether they're used properly or not, I don't think I want to be among the folks on the receiving end of a world of Buck Rogers-style hurt.

Contact J.D.: civilliberties (at) tuccille.com