Officials at the Pitchess Detention Center north of Los Angeles, where the experimental weaponry is being employed, recently gave a demonstration of its ability. It has been described as looking like a “dental X-ray machine with a flat screen on top” and works similar the storied “phaser” from Startrek.
Raytheon Missile Systems, the developer, calls it the Active Denial System, a type of nonlethal, directed-energy weapon that focuses millimeter waves on the skin of its target. The beam causes agonizing pain, but does no lasting damage; according to Mike Booen, a vice president of Raytheon Missile Systems.
The Air Force awarded a $7.5 million contract to Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Ariz., to build this portable version of the weapon. Supporters of the Raytheon device see it as a simple way to break up fights and riots supposedly without causing harm and that the guards, via remote-controlled joystick, can focus on specific targets as well as work from a distance.
The device works by sending out millimeter waves that penetrates about a 64th of an inch under the skin were pain receptors are located. Attorney Peter Eliasberg thinks using the device is not wise. “We’re going to use people in the jails as guinea pigs for some mega arms builder to test their device,” he said in a recent interview with NPR. “These weapons are sort of always sold as safe. They’re new. They’re high-tech. Nobody gets hurt. Well, we heard that about Tasers, and yet what we subsequently [have found] is that, in fact, Tasers cause heart attacks with people if they’re repeatedly jolted.”
The Air Force research laboratory originally studied millimeter-wave technology as part of the U.S. Department of Defense Joint Nonlethal Weapons Directorate. They admit that more than $51 million has been invested in the project since 1992. The Active Denial System focuses a 95-GHz beam of energy that penetrates a person’s skin. –torrance stephens, ph.d.
