New 'ray gun' weapon could save innocent lives

Raw Story
Jan. 26, 2006

A new weapon that uses nonlethal force that might decrease the number of innocent casualties in Iraq, which some US commanders want "rushed" to the battlefield is still "under review" by the Pentagon, RAW STORY has learned.

The "Active Denial System" is a gun that emits an invisible ray which can stop the target without causing any serious pain or harming any bystanders.

Others aren't sure if the ray is so "harmless." Details of tests acquired via the FOIA act show that at least one test subject suffered burns "when the beam was accidentally used on the wrong power setting."

Excerpts from an article written by Lisa Hoffman for Scripps Howard News Service (registration restricted link):
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While some U.S. commanders in Iraq have pressed the Pentagon to quickly dispatch it to the Iraq battlefield, the lone, $51 million prototype - which took a decade to create - remains under review, Pentagon spokeswoman Maj. Susan Idziak said.

According to the trade publication InsideDefense.com, the head of the Army's Rapid Equipping Force has requested that the directed-energy weapon be rushed to the field, where it would be used to head off insurgent attacks and prison uprisings.

For Doug Beason, author of "The E-Bomb: How America's New Directed-Energy Weapons Will Change the Way Future Wars Will Be Fought," the slow pace is puzzling. Beason, who is director of defense threat reduction at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, says extensive testing has shown that the weapon lives up to its billing.

"I just cannot think of any reason not to send it over," said Beason, who said he was speaking only for himself and not for Los Alamos or any other government entity.
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Update: Added third paragraph