Help support TMP


"Air Force Wants New Energy Weapons to..." Topic


4 Posts

All members in good standing are free to post here. Opinions expressed here are solely those of the posters, and have not been cleared with nor are they endorsed by The Miniatures Page.

In order to respect possible copyright issues, when quoting from a book or article, please quote no more than three paragraphs.

For more information, see the TMP FAQ.


Back to the Modern Aviation Discussion (1946-2015) Message Board


Areas of Interest

Modern

Featured Hobby News Article


Featured Link


Featured Ruleset


Featured Showcase Article

Hills for the Fulda Gap

Personal logo Editor in Chief Bill The Editor of TMP Fezian decides on hills for his Team Yankee project.


Featured Profile Article

Report from Bayou Wars 2006

The Editor heads for Vicksburg...


Featured Book Review


690 hits since 1 Apr 2013
©1994-2026 Bill Armintrout
Comments or corrections?


TMP logo

Zardoz

Please sign in to your membership account, or, if you are not yet a member, please sign up for your free membership account.
Tango01 Supporting Member of TMP01 Apr 2013 11:56 a.m. PST

… Cause Non-Lethal ‘Bioeffects'

"The Air Force is preparing to spend millions researching how unknown "bioeffects" happen when the human body is blasted by radiowaves and high-powered microwaves — which the Air Force hopes could lead to exotic new energy weapons.

Recently, the Air Force Bioeffects Division announced it's exploring how radiation from non-lethal energy weapons can causes changes to the body at the molecular level. The Air Force is pretty broad about what kind of weapons it wants to test: "directed energy, riot control agents, broadband light, acoustic sounds, and blunt impact materials." An award for a $49 USD million contract to conduct studies, laboratory tests and field experiments is expected in September, and tests in San Antonio are expected to last for seven years.

If those weapons are developed by another nation and used on Americans, the Air Force wants to know what kind of unusual health effects its troops might encounter. But there's a flipside. The announcement notes that discovering new bioeffects on the human body could have "defensive or offensive" uses, and lead to the "development and deployment of future DE [directed energy] weapons." Hmm.

The Air Force still has to do the research first. For that, it'll carry out "proteomic, genomic, and metabolomic studies that identify critical biochemical or molecular changes following exposure to DE [directed energy weapons] prior to or during mission operations." That could mean looking at how concentrated blasts of radio frequency waves and high-power microwaves manipulate our proteins, DNA and metabolites.


To be clear: The Air Force doesn't want to kill you by messing with your DNA. These are explicitly tests for non-lethal weapons. The announcement notes that the tests may involve human subjects (and animals), and that it will "prohibit research that presents unacceptable hazards or otherwise fails to comply with DoD procedures."

Most directed-energy weapons are also — in theory — supposed to leave you unharmed after you've run fleeing from them, possibly puking your guts out. If the Air Force wants to stop a stranger from approaching a base, a heat-ray or sound-blaster are useful "escalation of force options," as the announcement sensitively describes it…"
Full article here.
link

Amicalement
ARmand

Waco Joe01 Apr 2013 1:17 p.m. PST

Non-lethal weaponry has been a focus of DoD research for a while. jnlwp.defense.gov Here is the site for the program with videos, pdfs, pictures etc.

Mako1101 Apr 2013 1:50 p.m. PST

It's a good thing they are always truthful and open with the public, since otherwise, I'd be worried……

skippy000101 Apr 2013 1:58 p.m. PST

'Non-Lethal'?..Yeah, more like a MK1 Simple Blaster.

Sorry - only verified members can post on the forums.