In continuing tests of the new nonlethal weapon called the Active Denial System, an unidentified airman sustained second-degree burns. The 820th Security Forces Group at Moody AFB, Ga., is testing the device, which is supposed to cause targeted individuals to feel hot but not get burned. The 820th began testing the system earlier this year, working to meet a Pentagon date of 2010 for fielding. News reports indicated the airman, who is a member of the 820th, was treated at a local hospital and released.
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…