The Active Denial System is a non-lethal crowd control device that has recently gotten a great deal of press.  It is produced by Raytheon, primarily for the US military but with versions under development for law enforcement.

It has also become the subject of a huge number of conspiracy theories. Here are just a few:

Uncovering the Truth #4: Active Denial System
The Pentagon’s People Zapper
Man made earth quakes – Active Denial System Weapon
The Pentagon’s Pain Compliance and Mind Control Weapons
Depleted Uranium, HAARP and ADS – The Ultimate Weapon
US torture weapons used against civilians
Stop Canadian Complicity in Torture – The Active Denial Torture Ray
Michael Jackson Assassinated By CIA Using ADS Microwaves
Bio-electromagnetic weapons can kill, torture, enslave and escape detection
American Mass Murder Weapon?
DEW EMF ILLEGALLY TARGETED SLEEP DEPRIVATION
Air Force Plan: Hack Your Nervous System

The rational for the Active Denial System:

The US military, like many militarizes around the world has found itself engaged in more and more complex peacekeeping and policing actions.   In areas like Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq, military activity is not limited to traditional battlefields, but rather involves security and policing of urban areas with large civilian populations.   Some of the greatest dangers and most difficult situations arise when crowds of civilians are involved.

A suicide bomber could easily hide in a mob of otherwise unarmed persons and even an unarmed crowd can potentially block movement of vehicles or endanger soldiers and civilians.  A heated protest can easily erupt into a riot.  Maintaining order in these type of situations has always been an extreme challenge.  The use of deadly force would undoubtedly work, but would be considered unacceptable in all but the most extreme situations.   Even well armed soldiers can find themselves cornered by a large group of angry civilians, and in such situations, they are faced with the limited options of doing nothing or using deadly force.

This problem has existed for both the military and police forces for decades and to this end, a number of non-lethal methods of dispersing crowds or suppressing entry to areas have been developed.   Some of the most common ones include the following:

• Tear gas and/or pepper spray
• “Rubber bullets” and less than lethal projectiles
• Acoustic deterrents (basically really unpleasant sounds)
• Water cannons or fire hoses
• Tasers and stun guns (for subduing a single individual)

While all of these methods have been successfully used around the world, they all come with major limitations and dangers.   Acoustic devices may not always work against those willing to endure the sound and even tear gas is no always effective.   Worse, these methods can cause serious injury or death.   This is especially true with rubber bullets and other projectiles.   While they are designed to only inflict bruises, if they are fired at the head or from too close  a range they can be deadly.   Water cannons can knock people over and cause broken bones, and have been notoriously been used against civil rights protesters, resulting in injuries.  Even tear gas and pepper spray can turn deadly, such as when it causes an asthma attack or impairs the breathing of those with respiratory conditions.

The perfect device for crowd control and non-lethal force would be capable of producing instantaneous discomfort or incapacitation while having zero potential for any long term injury.  It would require no direct contact with those being targeted, have unlimited ammunition and no potential for abuse of any kind.    The Active Denial System doesn’t quite reach this ideal, but it does come pretty close.

The Active Denial system is more similar to a big heat lamp than anything else, although it uses a frequency range slightly bellow the infrared that is normally used by such devices.    The ADS utilizes super high frequency microwaves in the range of 95 Ghz.   This frequency is much much higher than those normally used for communications or radar and is considerably less capable of penetrating materials or the human body.

Just as a microwave oven heats food the energy from the Active Denial system causes imediate heating of anything it encounters, including the human body.   However, unlike a microwave oven, which uses about 2.5 ghz frequencies, the 95 ghz energy is not capable of penetrating the body.   It will only heat the outer most layer of skin, maximizing the effect on the area where nerve cells can be found and avoiding any potential for damage to deeper tissues.

The ADS has a range of about five to seven hundred meters, as long as there is clear line of sight.   As with any directed energy beam  system, it must contend with the inverse square law.   To maintain effectiveness over distance, the ADS uses a narrowly-focused beam, resulting in low diffusion and beam spread.   Still, range is limited to local targets and the beam can be blocked relatively easily by most materials.   A person could therefore be protected from a the ADS by a variety of materials ranging from metal foil to thick multi-layered fabric.   The effect could even be defeated by wearing heavy winter clothing or thick leather.   However, this would require some level of advanced planning and all exposed skin would need to be covered.

The effect has been described as anything from a scalding water to a terrible sun burn.   It causes a reflex-like action to back away from the discomfort.   However, the effect is generally extremely temporary.   It was found during tests that most subjects had no injury at all if they immediately ran from the device.   Only those who forced themselves to stand and endure the device showed any sign of injury, which was limited to some redness of the skin.   In thousands of tests, only two subjects developed minor blisters.

Concern had been expressed over the potential for damage to the eyes, which are more sensitive.   In tests it has been discovered that those exposed to the rays from the ADS are generally unable to keep their eyes open and stare at it, as would be required for damage to occur.   In general, people will close their eyes in a reflex-like action.   The potential for damage was observed in experiments with rhesus monkeys, which sustained damage to the cornea of the eye after a few seconds of continuous exposure.   This damage was generally temporary, but longer exposure does carry the potential for more serious injury.

The potential for injury to the eye or skin is approximately zero when the operator of the system utilizes it with due restraint and avoids dangerous uses, such as disabling the safety features of the device or focusing the beam on individuals or groups who are trying to leave the area but whose passage is blocked.   Such missus of the device can, admittedly, result in injuries.

What the ADS Absolutely Cannot Do:

• Work as a “mind control” device by putting thoughts into someone’s mind or directly altering thoughts or emotion
• Penetrate walls or other obstructions to torture someone in their home
• Operate remotely and target individuals for torture, intimidation or mind control
• Track a person, spy on them or follow them remotely
• Operate at great distances
• Discretely target someone without detection (it’s a big machine and it has to be pointed right at you)
• Pick out a single person and follow them through a crowd while not effecting those right next to them
• Be used covertly (the unit is quite large and the reflector must be fairly large to generate a focused beam.  The frequency is too high for it to be hidden away.  Even most radome materials would block a large portion of the energy)
• Kill a person in anything other than the most extreme circumstances
• Modify the weather
• Cause earthquakes

Of course, the ADS does have potential for abuse, but that is entirely a question of how it is used. Just as the ADS could be used to disperse a violent and potentially dangerous mob, it could also be turned on a group of legitimately peaceful protesters who were observing all laws and not causing any trouble. The ADS could also be used to harass those going about their business or to enforce unjust restrictions on citizens. It’s even possible that the ADS could be used as a torture device, if the unit was turned on a prisoner who was restrained and unable to escape the beam.

While such uses would be a legitimate outrage and should never be tolerated, they are in no way unique to this technology. The potential for abuse is inherent to all non-lethal weapons and crowd control technologies and is entirely an issue of how they are used. Tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons can be turned on innocent and peaceful citizens. Tasers and pepper spray can be used to torture those incarcerated. Acoustic weapons can be especially potent when they are used continuously to deny sleep to those in a given area.

So yes, it could be used to unjustly persecute peaceful gatherings and take away the rights to free speech by individuals or groups – just as a water cannon or a tear gas grenade could.

Some have worried that the ADS may result in “trigger happy” operators, due to its lack of visible projectiles or other effects and its apparent reduced harm. Whether or not this actually turns out to be the case remains to be seen. However, in any circumstance it is important to remember that this is not an inherently unsafe, unjust or evil weapon. That depends entirely on the operator’s level of restraint (or lack there of) and the rules of engagement under which the device is operated.

Claims that the ADS is somehow intended to be used as  a weapon for mass extermination or even deadly force are absolutely ridiculous.   While it may be possible that the device could kill by severe burns,  if a person were to be restrained and subject to it for an extended period of time at a very high setting, it would be an extremely expensive, unreliable and complex way of killing someone.  A bullet would be far better at doing the job.

Seriously, if they wanted to kill a whole crowd of protesters, they’d be better off with a Gatling gun.  Apparently that does not convince some:

And before someone says that this is all based on what the government says about the ADS, it is not.  It’s also based on the physics involved.   95 ghz microwave energy can’t penetrate more than millimeters and directed microwave beams have limited range due to spread and atmospheric absorption.  That’s not just what the Pentagon says, that is verifiable fact.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 4th, 2010 at 12:48 pm and is filed under Bad Science, Conspiracy Theories, Culture, Not Even Wrong, Politics, inverse square. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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