This is truly scary, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department announced its intent to use the Assault Intervention Device (AID) on prisoners in the Pitchess Detention Center in Los Angeles, stating its intent to use it in “operational evaluation” in situations such as breaking up prisoner fights.
Prison guards could soon stop fights with a harmless tool that shoots a laser-like beam, video game-style, down into a room where trouble is brewing. The Assault Intervention Device (AID), funded by the National Institute of Justice, is still large and unrefined but will soon be installed for trial in at least one prison, the Pitchess Detention Center in Los Angeles County.
The AID directs an energy beam, which is in the invisible millimeter wavelength, that penetrates just deep enough beneath the skin to make the target’s pain receptors shout. The sensation is a burn like touching a hot stove or an iron. It only lasts up to 3 seconds – the AID controls automatically shut the beam off to prevent shooting for longer without resetting the trigger finger. The beam can hit a target about 100 feet away, and is about as wide as a CD
[youtube width=”560″ height=”349″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwYvhY-g10A[/youtube]
The Assault Intervention Device appears to be just a rebranded Active Denial System (ADS), which was developed by the U.S. Military and classified as a non-lethal, directed-energy weapon!
The weapon uses a strong millimeter-wave transmitter primarily used for crowd control (the “goodbye effect”). Some ADS such as HPEM ADS are also used to disable vehicles. Informally, the weapon is also called Heat Ray!
Raytheon a major American military contractor and supplier of military and commercial electronics is currently marketing a reduced-range version of this technology (possibly the AID or similar).
The ADS was deployed in 2010 (unconfirmed reports have suggest much earlier) with the United States military in Afghanistan, but was withdrawn without seeing combat (this is allegedly untrue with a number of Afghanistan witnesses and victims claiming the military did actually use the weapon).
Many aspects of the ADS research are classified, but there has been some independent evaluation. According to public releases, there have been over 10,700 “shots” by ADS, and has been deemed safe for use. A Penn State Human Effects Advisory Panel (HEAP) has published findings of research showing.
- no significant effects for wearers of contacts or other eyewear (including night vision goggles)
- normal skin applications, such as cosmetics, have little effect on ADSʼs interaction with skin
- no age-related differences in response to ADS exposures
- no effect on the male reproduction system
- developing cancer from exposure is “very unlikely”
- no deleterious effect on birth defects
- the limit of damage was the occurrence of pea-sized blisters in less than 0.1% of the exposures.
The HEAP has concluded that ADS is a non-lethal weapon that has a high probability of effectiveness with a low probability of injury.
The ADS is currently only a vehicle-mounted weapon, though U.S. Marines and police are both working on portable versions.
ADS is just one of many secret beam weapons being developed by the military. Deemed safe in the right hands may sound ok, but what would happen if such technology ended up in the wrong hands?
Scary thoughts and a conspiracy theroy mind don’t help when you read this kind of news in the press!
Source: Discovery News – Invisible Beam to break up prison fights.
Reference: Wikipedia – Active Denial System.
