Airm
en of the 820th Security Forces Group at Moody AFB, Ga., have begun testing the latest in long-range nonlethal weapon systems, one that emits a beam of energy that makes targets feel “hot” and just naturally want to get out of the way. An invisible beam projected by the Active Denial System creates a hot sensation on the skin, similar to but more intense than the feeling of an initial blast of hot air from an oven when it is opened. The beam operates on a 95-gigahertz millimeter radio frequency wavelength that moves at the speed of light. The effect is immediate but not long lasting. The 820th expects to take ADS through its paces in realistic combat scenarios to meet a Pentagon plan to field it for the war on terror by 2010.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…