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Next Generation Stun Guns?
RoyalCheese writes "Well, I've just been reading an interesting little article on New Scientist's website about new crowd control weapons that electrocute/stun the targets. Seems we will soon be at risk of being stunned by ionised air generated by laptop sized lasers..." Reader Spetiam adds "News.com.au reports on a new weapon that will be able to zap you from afar, wires not included: 'We will be able to fire a stream of electricity like water out of a hose at one or many targets in a single sweep,' XADS [Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems] president Peter Bitar is quoted as saying." So, this company has a free-hosting website and and a free-email address for their "president", and the photo looks like cardboard tubes wrapped with green camouflage tape. Hmmmm.
Of course, you still need to hike around a whopping big capacitor bank to have this work over any reasonable distance, and the repeat rate of fire would probably be lousy since the capacitors would have to be recharged....
Meanwhile, Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems (XADS), based in
Anderson, Indiana, will be one of the first companies to market
another type of wireless weapon. Instead of using fibres, the $9000
Close Quarters Shock Rifle projects an ionised gas, or plasma,
towards the target, producing a conducting channel. It will also
interfere with electronic ignition systems and stop vehicles.
"We will be able to fire a stream of electricity like water out of
a hose at one or many targets in a single sweep," claims XADS
president Peter Bitar.
Solid-state lasers
The gun has been designed for the US Marine Corps to use for crowd
control and security purposes and is due out in 2005. It is based
on early, unwieldy technology and has a range of only three metres,
but an operator can debilitate multiple targets by sweeping it
across them for "as long as there is an input power source," says
Bitar.
XADS is also planning a more advanced weapon which it hopes will
have a range of 100 metres or more. Instead of firing ionised gas,
it will probably use a powerful laser to ionise the air itself. The
idea has been around for decades, says LaVerne Schlie, a laser
expert at the US Air Force Research Lab in Kirtland, New Mexico.
It has only become practical with advances in high-power solid-state
lasers.
"Before, it took a laser about the size of two trucks," says Schlie.
"Now we can do it with something that fits on a tabletop."
The laser pulse must be very intense, but can be brief. So the
makers of the weapons plan to use a UV laser to fire a 5-joule pulse
lasting just 0.4 picoseconds - equating to a momentary power of
more than 10 million megawatts.
This intense pulse - which is said not to harm the eyes - ionises
the air, producing long, thread-like filaments of glowing plasma
that can be sustained by repeating the pulse every few milliseconds.
This plasma channel is then used to deliver a shock to the victims
similar to a Taser's 50,000-volt, 26-watt shock.
Pete Bitar, Vice President, has owned three companies, which he started, successfully operated, and sold or licensed off two of them for a profit. His education includes a Bachelor of Science in Business through the University Honors Program at Portland State University. Currently, Mr. Bitar is the President of Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems (XADS), a defense contractor, currently doing work with the Marine Corps on two SBIR Phase II research and development projects in the field of electronics and non-lethal weapon systems. Mr. Bitar brings defense contract acquisition and management experience to the team. He has a number of connections in a variety of fields, including aviation, aerospace, publishing, plastics, real estate, economic development, electronics, weapons research, and finance. Mr. Bitar has over 12 years of management experience, and has been successfully self-employed for more than half of his career. He also has over 18 years of pilot experience in a wide variety of aircraft.
Source: http://www.americanaviationcompany.com/staff.htm
Still sounds dubious to me. The picture of the stun gun is hilarious.
I read about stun weapons of this nature in New Scientist 7 or 8 years ago (I can't check the exact article. I stopped subscribing and threw away my back issues about 5 years back). At the time, the laser required was about the size of a desk. It seems quite possible that it could be made smaller now.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
all you will have to worry about is the 50,000 volt shock it is going to hit you with... you may be toast but your eyes will be ok to survey your charred corpse
Remember your physics, voltage doesn't kill, amps do. Besides I believe that standard police issue tasers already administer 50,000 volts over the wires for a period of 5 seconds. The only deaths that arise from this are because the heart fails to restart, usually because the victim was on some kind of drug that inhibited the process. (think cocaine not tylenol).
The stupidity of your average American is just about the same as the average European, we simply show it off better.
Apparently, they got almost 1 million dollers from the USMC for this. And yet they can't afford a real webpage. Does anyone else smell a scam?
Apple has never claimed not to be evil, they're just very stylish about it.
Alright... if you dont know it: the city "Dorf" (as declared location of the company (read the article)) is not a real city ("Dorf" is german and means "village") - Although there is "Dorfen"
Spelling mistakes: My is english spoken not tongue of mother.
But if your in england you can be shot for carrying one.
XTREME ADS (ALTERNATIVE DEFENSE SYSTEMS)
1508 E. 7th St.
Anderson, IN 46012
Phone: (765) 724-2226
PI: Mr. Pete Bitar
Topic#: NAVY 02-121
Awarded: 25NOV02
Title:Personnel Neuromuscular Disruptor Incapacitation System
Abstract:The STUNBEAM will effectively be proven to be the world's first available "wireless Taser", using electromagnetic energy to create ion "streams" which conduct a static charge which can disrupt neuromuscular control of any human or comparable animal target, at an output of between 25,000 and 100,000 volts with extremely low amperage. The weapon can also be used to disrupt electronic devices. Current technology already has proven results at very short, point-blank ranges of between five and ten feet. This Phase 1 work will deal with the ion streams themselves in the areas of columniation, tracking, limiting scattering effects, and static pulse conductivity in order to increase the range and controllability of a larger-scale device to between 50 and 300 feet. Since work has already been done in this area by Xtreme, one of the final results of the Option portion of this Phase 1 SBIR will be to build and deliver a working proof of concept device with a range of at least 10 feet, which will be useful in close-quarter scenarios as are common with the use of "Tasers". Xtreme has the technical ability, facility, and willingness to forge ahead in taking this technology to the incredible potential it has. The benefits of this system are unlimited. The unit will stun, not kill, its target, allowing for hostages to be rescued easily from almost any hostage situation, and criminals or enemy combatants to be captured, not killed, in a variety of military and law enforcement scenarios. This system will be easy to use and will be portable. Units can be sold commercially to police as well as to homeowners for effective, non-lethal self defense. Other applications of the massive ion generation of related devices can be used, among other things, in air purification and medical sterilization.
Actually in BDU's the blouse isn't tucked into the pants. However, the top button never gets buttoned, no branch I know of wears a white undershirt in BDU's, the BDU Pants aren't bloused, the BDU pants have zippers on the cargo pockets, which I believe the army is doing but it isn't out yet. No name or service tapes, no rank...
I work for a defense contractor, and when we have a picture of our product with soldiers, we get actual sodiers and take thier picture...
The worst part of being athiest.... You don't have anyone to talk to during orgasm!
just to comment.
The shirt should not be tucked in (the under shirt should but, is not visible).
I have never in my life ween a WHITE t-shirt under BDU's.
The "soldier" has a blocked haircut. I've had to do too many push-ups for that one.
Not sure what military he is supposed to be from but, I never saw pants like that when I was in the military.
The "rusty" bit, actually looks like its copper, so it probably should look like that. Although, to your point, I'm surprised its not polished for the photo.
----- If communism is a system where the government owns business, what do you call a system where business owns govern
SBIR Phase I is for feasiblity study only. If the sponsoring government agency is suitably impressed with Phase I progress, they will receive additional funds in Phase II to actually develop the thing.
Phase I money is tight and specific. It does not cover marketing expenses. Phase III is commercial development.
The whole purpose of SBIR is to grow new companies and create jobs via small businesses that prove worthy via incremental progress - hence Phase I, II and III. SBIR does not exist to feed the Boeings and Martins. It exists to shoulder what would otherwise would be unacceptable levels of research and developmental risk for small business.
As a person who co-wrote 2 SBIRs applications in the early 1990s, I have to take corrective action on one of your comments.
... when means that no matter how good your idea is, you need an established business to rubber-stamp your app ... and such things aren't done for free, as the sponsor takes some measure of control of "your" idea.
SBIRs had some pretty good PR that mimicked your "[support] people in garages with Ideas" remark, but the reality was that at least for some fields, the RFPs were ghost-written by the companies that were going to win them anyway (when they later "applied").
Just because the Cold War was "over", didn't mean that the aerospace industry welfare system augered in. The incestuous system simply put on a cloak of another layer of deception. The same people still met on the same golf course, at the same bar, and at the same industrial conference, and hammered out the same plans; but now, after being wined and dined, the government officials had to perform one more step of getting the RFP put into some periodic SBIR solicitation. In short, it's the usual corruption.
Also, as far as I know today, SBIRs are still suspiciously prone to approvals under the system of sponsorship
Spending SBIR money on marketing efforts should be a no-no, as you implied, but I wouldn't be surprised at all at how much that occurs.
[You have a stable society when some nut guns down a schoolyard and the law doesn't change.]