Moody Air Force Base, Ga. – The military calls its new weapon an “active denial system,” but that’s an understatement.
It’s a ray gun that shoots a beam that makes people feel as if they are about to catch fire.
Apart from causing that terrifying sensation, the technology is supposed to be harmless – a nonlethal way to get enemies to drop their weapons.
Military officials say the gun, which is not expected to go into production until at least 2010, could save the lives of innocent civilians and service members.
During the first media demonstration of the weapon Wednesday, airmen fired beams from a large dish antenna mounted atop a Humvee at people pretending to be rioters.
The device’s two-man crew located their targets through powerful lenses and fired beams from more than 500 yards away. That is nearly 17 times the range of existing nonlethal weapons, such as rubber bullets.
Anyone hit by the beam immediately jumped out of its path because of the sudden blast of heat throughout the body. While the 130-degree heat was not painful, it was intense enough to make the participants think their clothes were about to ignite.
