Pentagon grants DHS permission to test heat ray weapon for use at border

icegreentea2

The system in question is basically just a directed microwave emitter. It is designed to heat up the first ~0.5mm of your skin. It's safety is basically completely a function of the operator. Since the beam will keep depositing energy (ie heating), if the beam is held on a target, it will incur more and more heating (and potentially harm). In proper usage, safety is ensured through the combination of operator training, selection of proper settings, and induced compliance. If you have a shitty operator, risk of over exposure increases. The nature of this device means that it's not a barrier, it's a beam. During earlier testing, they were able to induce second degree burns on a test subject due to incorrect power and duration settings.

causesothere

This is a weapon that will be deployed primarily against their own citizens.

footy

what the actual fuck. edit: okay, first reaction, obviously not contributing to any conversation. This is barbaric and if I paid US taxes I'd be writing my government.

igleria

Surely the border patrol will not use it to torture a trespasser?

jpmattia

And suddenly, there was a market for body-sized Bragg reflectors in the microwave region.

metalman

the actual problem is that the 'pentagon' has zero authority to grant some jumped upp 3 letter agency the go ahead to test what is basicly an electronic flame thrower on civilian refugees, you know ,scared, hungry, tired, women carrying infants with absolutly no idea what is happening to them, and this by an organisation with a solid record of publicly executing american citizens and walking away saying 'fucking bitch' put the pieces on one page and it looks full on gestapo high tech kill squad times.

ionetan

I read DHH, and started wondering if he is ok :D

shevy-java

> The heat ray, officially known as the Active Denial System, is a nonlethal weapon that shoots an invisible beam of electromagnetic waves that can reach a little more than half a mile away, according to the US military. Stun gun and electro shocks are also advertised as non-lethal. But the name is wrong; it should be called less-lethal at best.

ck2

just a hop step and jump to being used on (completely legal) protestors there are already several recorded incidents of LRADs being used on crowds which do permanent damage but invisible so very handy for authoritarian governments * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmK-KZOiT-c * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-range_acoustic_device

skoll43

Brother, so the ai bots will literally microwave us, what a time to be alive First the border, I don't see why they would stop there with the tech

alphawhisky

Wasn't there a relatively high-profile case of a journalist dying of "nothing" after whistleblowing recently? I only remember that a directed energy weapon was one of the proposed methods of their assasination.

helios_invictus

It's my understanding that this tool is for crowd control and area denial. While I can understand how this may useful along the border in fantasy, it appears to be literal atomic flyswatter to unreal problem.

Undulating-Appa

How would this affect wildlife? could it potentially affect the ecosystem if there is a large deployment?

rolph

not far away until we have the microwave helmet.

hypfer

This is exactly the kind of weapon system one would want if they were to deal with climate change in the most inhumane way possible. Just ignoring climate change, then building a secure perimeter to keep away anyone fleeing from the consequences of it. The "best" part of energy weapons like that is that they just need energy. Meaning that no one has to constantly restock ammunition. They can even run off renewables. Making the whole thing scalable. Fully automated energy weapon sentry guns on the border to the global south. This is going to be the future, isn't it? Jesus Christ.

mrguyorama

This thing has actually been around for 20 years now, right? "Future weapons" on the Discovery Channel showed it off back in 2007ish. It's been in development hell that long because it just sucks in a million ways. Water cannons and other tools just do it's job better, and for less contract dollars. And that's ignoring anything around microwaving your own citizens being fucked.

b3ing

Problem is these evangelicals don’t see others as people, just wait for them to define what Christianity is

LatteLazy

People really need to start reading Fahrenheit 451…

hoppyhoppy2

Microwaving people at the border stimulates the US defense manufacturing sector and ensures the livelihoods of microwave weapon operators. It could even prop up hospitals in rural border areas where the microwaved migrants get checked out. Microwaving people is clearly a net good for society, and once domestic non-border use is approved we'll be able to build America back even more quickly.