Beijing -- A non-lethal ray gun, useful in particular encounter by servicemen, is the new weapon developed by the U.S. military, media reports said Thursday.
The new weapon had its first media demonstration Wednesday.
During the demonstration, military men fired beams at people "pretending to be rioters and acting out other scenarios" the U.S. troops might go through.
The military explained a so-called millimeter waves technology is used in the weapon. Its sudden, 54.44 degrees Celsius heat penetrates the very surface of skin and is only hot enough to make the targets think their clothes are about to ignite. Instead of killing them, the gun only makes them drop their weapons.
Now all branches of the military have expressed interest in it, the military said, "but the gun will not go into production until at least 2010."
It is one of the key technologies for the future to save lives, said an officer of the program that helped develop the weapon. "Non-lethal weapons are important, especially in the environments our forces are operating in," such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Interesting the way the language evolves through these reports:
A Reuters journalist who volunteered to be *shot* with the beam...
Journalists who volunteered to be *zapped* during the demonstration...
During the demonstration, military men *fired beams* at people...
Guess the IDF will be keen to get these, so they can claim to be only 'zapping' Palestinian school children rather than shooting them.
In the branding too, 'Active Denial System' seems to have been a bit too active a moniker to stick with. 'Silent Guardian' makes it seem like some trusty old friend, harmless eh?
And the "add it to their tool kit" quote, oh so harmless, not another weapon to add to their arsenal at all, just a harmless tool, don't worry.