The Active Denial System: the weapon that's a hot topic
The US army says its new 'pain ray’ hurts but does no lasting damage. Its critics would beg to differ.
美國軍方說，它的新的'痛苦射線'會傷害，但並沒有持久的損害。批評者不敢苟同。
By Ed Cumming
Published: 11:27AM BST 20 Jul 2010
The Active Denial System or ADS, recently deployed for the first time in Afghanistan. Photo: ADAM NADEL主動拒絕系統或ADS，最近第一次部署在阿富汗。攝影：亞當納德爾
'It was as if some invisible jet impinged upon them… I saw them staggering and falling, and their supporters turning to run.” Since the first appearance of the “heat-ray” in H G Wells’s The War of the Worlds, ray guns have been a staple feature of science fiction: the classic sign of overwhelming technological superiority. But they are no longer fiction. Last month, Lt Col John Dorrian admitted that the US military’s brand-new Active Denial System (ADS) had been shipped to Afghanistan, the first time it has been present in an active theatre of war. According to the top brass, it is a “non-lethal, directed-energy, counter-personnel weapon”. Among the troops, however, its favoured description is rather shorter: “the pain ray”.
'它就像一些無形的射流衝擊他們 ...我看到他們搖晃欲墜和倒下，和他們的支持者轉向走人。“自從”熱-射線“的第一次亮相在HG威爾斯的世界的戰爭，射線槍已是科幻小說的特點：經典的超強技術優勢的標誌。但他們不再是小說。上個月中校約翰 Dorrian承認，美軍全新的主動拒絕系統（ADS）已被運到阿富汗，它首次出席在戰爭的活躍戰區。根據高層，它是一“非致命的，定向能的，和反人員的武器”。但在部隊中，它的鍾愛描述是相當短的：“痛苦射線'”。
Compared with most military vehicles, the device looks relatively harmless – like one of the broadcasting trucks you see outside big sporting events: an anonymous-looking military transport with what appears to be a square satellite dish mounted on top. But it contains an extraordinary new weapon, capable of causing immense discomfort from half a mile away without – its makers claim – doing any lasting damage.
相對大部份軍用車輛，設置看上去是相對地無害的 - 就像你所看到在大型體育賽事外面的一架廣播車：一無特色外觀的軍事運輸，有似乎是一正方形的衛星碟安裝在頂部。但它包括一非凡的新武器，能夠從半哩遠造成巨大的不適而沒有 - 它的製造商宣稱 - 做成任何持久的損害。
The ADS works by projecting a focused beam of 3.2mm wave electromagnetic radiation at a human target. This heats the water and fat molecules on the skin, causing their temperature to rise by up to 50C. Philip Sherwell, a Sunday Telegraph reporter who tried out the ADS in 2007, describes it as “unbearably uncomfortable, like opening a roasting hot oven door”. The immediate instinct is to escape the beam and seek cover – at which point the effect subsides.
ADS工作透過投影一聚焦光束3.2毫米電磁輻射波在對人的目標。這加熱在皮膚上的水和脂肪分子，導致他們的溫度升高到50℃。一個星期日電訊報記者菲利普舍韋爾，在2007年試驗過ADS，將它描述為“令人不能忍受的不舒服，就像打開烤爐的熱門”。眼前的本能反應是逃離光束和尋求遮擋 - 在這點影響會消退。
In some quarters, the ADS has been hailed as the future of crowd control. Kelley Hughes, a spokesman for the Pentagon’s Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD), which oversaw its development, says that “the ADS provides our troops with our most advanced, non-lethal escalation-of-force option. It will support a full spectrum of operations ranging from non-lethal methods of crowd and mob dispersal, checkpoint security, area denial and clarification of intent.”
Although its operational parameters are classified, the JNLWD says that the ADS has a range of up to 500m, 10 times greater than current non-lethal weapons such as rubber bullets. The technology has been in development for two decades, and has cost well in excess of $60 million. Each device costs $5 million, and safety testing has been ongoing for 12 years.
Mindful of the terrible publicity Tasers and other crowd-suppression techniques have received, the JNLWD has been at pains to stress its emphasis on testing.
“There have been more than 11,000 exposures, on over 700 volunteers,” says Hughes. “There have been six independent reviews. It has completed formal legal and treaty compliance laws. There is an 80-hour training course for using it. I am truly confident in the technology.”
Despite this, the journey to the battlefield has been far from smooth. In 2007, with the situation in Iraq at its most volatile since the invasion, US forces requested the presence of the ADS. It was never sent. Indeed, The Daily Telegraph has learnt that it has now been recalled from Afghanistan, without being fired in anger. A spokesman said that “no decision had been made” as to its future deployment, even though it seems unlikely that the Pentagon would have shipped a new weapon to an active war zone if it didn’t mean to use it at some point.
What are the problems? Well, Dr Jürgen Altmann, an expert in non-lethal weapons from the University of Dortmund, has observed that although the Army’s test subjects were permitted 15-second intervals between exposure, this might not be the case in real life. The ADS, he says, “provides the technical possibility to produce burns of second and third degree. If incurred over more than 20 per cent of the body, these are potentially life-threatening, and require intensive care in a specialised unit. Without a technical device that reliably prevents re-triggering on the same subject, the ADS has a potential to produce permanent injury or death.”
Other problems come from the limitations of the device itself. Rain, snow and fog hamper its effectiveness, and it can be blocked by highly reflective materials such as aluminium foil. In many situations – particularly in busy crowds – working out the right range will be complicated, and there is also the possibility of targets finding themselves unable to move out of the path of the beam. Hughes offers an uncertain defence: “The target includes sensors to see the whole beam path. An operator would immediately see if a person was unable to move out of the way.”
Yet even if the ADS falls short, the ongoing pressure to keep the civilian body count to a minimum has made the development of similar weapons a top priority for Western forces. The ADS is only one of a raft of new non-lethal measures the US has been developing, under varying levels of secrecy: others rely on bright lights and loud noises to blind or disorientate, or use radio waves to disrupt car engines.
It is difficult to draw conclusions until such weapons are used in combat, especially given the psychological effect they would have on those already suspicious of Western forces. But people who have seen the ADS in use seem to be reservedly enthusiastic. “It’s extremely intimidating,” says Sherwell. “It makes no sound, and you can’t see anything. But if it’s used according to correct procedures, and if it doesn’t do lasting harm, and if there are no burns or blisters – if all those ifs are correct, then it seems a great idea to me.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/7900117/The-Active-Denial-System-the-weapon-thats-a-hot-topic.html
48小時內5名外國軍事人員在阿富汗死亡
2010年07月22日17:10
來源：中國新聞網
綜合媒體22日報道，48小時內，至少5名外國軍方人員在阿富汗死亡。其中包括英國、丹麥士兵，以及美方軍事訓練人員。
據報道，英國國防部宣布，21日，2名英國駐阿富汗士兵在阿南部遭小型武器擊中死亡。當時這些士兵正在維護一個換駐儀式的安全，2人為救助在襲擊中受傷的同伴而死。
2人的死亡使得從2001年到現在，駐阿富汗英軍士兵死亡人數上升到了324人。
此外，21日當天，丹麥駐阿富汗部隊一隊士兵在阿赫爾曼德省遭遇路邊炸彈襲擊，1名士兵被炸死，另有1名士兵受傷。
當時，這些丹麥士兵正在執行巡邏任務。
另據報道，20日，阿富汗一名士兵在接受美國軍事人員訓練時，與訓練人員發生沖突，隨即開槍射殺2名美方訓練人員。
http://world.people.com.cn/BIG5/12225356.html
4名美國士兵在阿富汗南部遭炸彈襲擊身亡
2010年07月24日14:53
來源：中國新聞網
據外電報道，北約駐阿富汗部隊稱，4名美軍士兵24日在阿富汗遭遇的一次塔利班式的炸彈襲擊中喪生，這使得在阿富汗戰場上喪生的外國士兵數量接近2000人。
國際安全援助部隊稱這4名士兵被一個臨時爆炸裝置炸死。
該部隊一名發言人証實死亡的4名士兵為美國人。他們遇襲的地點位於阿富汗戰事最激烈的南部地區。
http://world.people.com.cn/BIG5/12239933.html
美國從阿富汗戰區撤回'痛苦射線'
痛苦射線槍在行動中
100％戰爭會在2月開始
-以色列證實新的爭議性武器“雷霆產生噐"
'目瞪口呆射線'將使你'盲從'
沒有留言:
發佈留言