 Medium rare: the mobile microwave
- Illustration: <http://www.de.afrl.af.mil/>www.de.afrl.af.mil
-
- he Pentagon has always craved a phaser. Now it's turning
to microwaving as a potential means of singeing the enemy.
-
- The Department of Defense's bland name for this electronic
heat ray is the Vehicle-Mounted Active Denial (VMAD) system, a mouthful
of jargon that yields few clues about the weapon's nature. Allegedly designed
for an Orwellian task÷"humanitarian missions"÷the
VMAD is a giant version of your microwave oven, without the safety box
surrounding it. The generals want to move it around on a humvee.
-
- Official propaganda on the device is that it makes one's
skin only lightbulb hot, enough to force a person to run but not enough
to cook him. Of course, there is no proof this can be achieved, because
the results of tests on people are classified. It's safe, insist the inventors,
the air force's Directed Energy Directorate in Albuquerque.
-
- But anyone with first-hand experience broiling hot dogs
and other non-robust meats in their tabletop microwave might be chary of
such an assertion. Struck by the heat ray, "Sssss," went the
eyeball.
-
- What is the microwaver's target? It must be unarmed civilians,
because as described, the VMAD wouldn't seem to offer much against terrorists
or regular soldiers ready to fire back with conventional weapons. What
is certain is that the Pentagon's microwave projects lack oversight and
common sense. In one manic, grandiose claim, the Defense Department calls
VMAD "the biggest breakthrough in weapons technology since the atomic
bomb."
-
- The lust for military microwaving has also been a sinkhole
for tax dollars. While much of the work remains deep in the shadows, the
Directed Energy Directorate (DED) does allow that $40 million went out
the door for the VMAD over the last decade. An additional $15 million was
awarded to ITT Industries for research on high-power microwaving applications
in bombs and other types of ray guns.
-
- Microwaving facilities pictured as part of the Directorate
also look to have cost a small fortune. One 27,000-square-foot concrete
monolith is worth $9 million, resulting in a "cost-effective and timely
capability."
-
- Vendors capitalizing on the VMAD include Raytheon, CPI
(Communications and Power Industries), and Veridian Engineering÷a
tech firm menacingly cited for its part in researching "biological
effects."
-
- http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0249/smith.php
|
