US military report details ray-guns and microwave weapons

21 Mar 2008 | 15:02 GMT

By Sylvie Barak

A ONCE TOP SECRET US Military report on the biological effects of non lethal weaponry has been made public and discloses bizarre plans for "ray guns", laser dazzlers and fever inducing microwave beams.

The report, by US Army Intelligence and Security Command, is called Bioeffects Of Selected Nonlethal Weapons and was released under the US Freedom of Information Act. It deals with subjects like the development of directed energy weapons and "maturing non-lethal technologies" using microwaves, lasers and sound.

Despite the fact that the report sounds like it could easily have been taken straight from a Star Trek episode, some of the technologies detailed in it have already been tried and tested by the U.S military. Others, however, are still only conceptual ideas for future development and testing.

One theoretical idea, mentioned in the report, is to develope a technology which would send electromagnetic pulses into a person’s body causing them to have convulsions similar to an epileptic fit. Another idea involves using a microwave gun to beam heat waves into a person for at least 15 minutes, giving them a debilitating “artificial fever”.

A different kind of microwave weapon which, according to the report, has already been developed and tested produces something known as the “Frey Effect”. This effect basically means that near range microwave signals can be transmitted directly into a person’s ear, making them hear schizophrenic type voices inside their heads.

Laser dazzlers, which are also mentioned in the report, already enjoy frequent use by the U.S military, in order to produce incredibly loud sounds able to literally knock people off balance. The army uses these in Iraq and as a deterrent to pirates off the Somali coast. Not the software sort of pirate, we presume, more your Jack Sparrow-type rogue. µ

L'Inq
The Bioeffects Of Selected Nonlethal Weapons report

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