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Britain Bringing Out 'Sonic Gun' For Olympics Security

Posted by Soulskill on from the weapons-of-mass-annoyance dept.

skipkent writes with news that Britain is planning to use high-tech, non-lethal sonic weapons to provide security at the Olympics this summer. The Ministry of Defense says they intend to use the devices primarily as giant loudspeakers. But if they find themselves in need of a way to disperse crowds, the weapons can project sound up to 150 decibels, causing physical pain within a few hundred meters. "It has been successfully used aboard ships to repel Somali pirates." The maximum range for alarms and warnings is 3km. "Police and military planners say they are preparing for a range of security threats at the Olympics including protesters trying to disrupt events and attacks using hijacked airliners."

9 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. And what if this causes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    someone to go deaf or partially deaf? Will the UK compensate someone for that life-long disability? I thought the government was suppose to protect the people, not harm them in the name of corporate interests. The more reason to boycott The Olympics this year. Thankfully I'm not in/from the UK.

  2. I've used the LRAD... by Crash24 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...while conducting detainee operations (prison guard) in Iraq. It's basically a five-hundred watt directional speaker shaped like a big flat disc that can play back a shrieking wave (sounds like a modulated sawtooth from what I can remember) that's so loud that you'll feel your bones rattle if it's pointed at you - even from a hundred meters away. While we usually used it as a big megaphone, the disruptive tone was really only effective in surprise or as a threat. In compounds where certain idiots used the LRAD repeatedly, the detainees eventually learned to ignore it.

    1. Re:I've used the LRAD... by Crash24 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Anything that loud can cause hearing damage. It won't fuck your eardrums up like an actual shock wave from an explosion or flashbang, but standing in the beam without earplugs (we never used it for more than 30s or so at a time) sure won't help your tinnitus - my ears rang briefly after someone in my compound accidentally pointed an LRAD in my direction, but there was no lasting hearing loss. It's annoyingly loud outside the beam, but in my experience not deafeningly loud like an rock concert.

    2. Re:I've used the LRAD... by 1s44c · · Score: 4, Interesting

      And of course if people are planning to protest in the street, they'll take ear-plugs, which will take most of the pain and disorientation away. This will only be really effective against non-protestors.

      The take home message is that peaceful protesters anywhere in London will be subjected to experimental torture devices. Also anyone who happens to be near protesters.

    3. Re:I've used the LRAD... by Crash24 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The LRAD is hardly experimental, and I'd rather listen to it up-close-and-personal again than get pepper sprayed again. If the law enforcement types over there have any sense they won't subject peaceful protesters to this (knowing most cops, they probably will). Of course, if I were a protester I'd have a camera (or CCTV, it is London after all) on hand and be ready to capitalize on any perceived police brutality to further my cause.

    4. Re:I've used the LRAD... by Crash24 · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I did a AMA on Reddit about this last year.

      It most certainly did, though I was just a guy on the ground. Bucca was a "temporary" solution that became too permanent for its own good - it was oringinally a UK POW camp set up for the invasion that was slated to be closed until the Abu Ghraib fiasco. For most of these facilities, the prisoners weren't legally prisoners but detainees that were being held until they could be sent to the Iraqi civilian courts for trial or simply released based on intelligence. By '07 most detainees' families were actually receiving stipends from the US government for lost income. A shitty situation to be in, nonetheless.

      Most of the "bum city" pictures you see were from when the camp was re-opened around '05. By the time I arrived in '07 there were permanent structures in my compound - big caravans (sheds) with industrial-sized air conditioning. During Ramadan a few of our detainees were upset that we moved known insurgents to another compound...so they burned down their caravans (rubber bullets, tear gas and LRAD definitely did not stop them from pulling that off). They loved doing this when we would re-build the caravans after a big riot...but that time around, we decided that maybe they wanted tents after all.

  3. Four Year Games by future+assassin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Athletes are considered corporate cattle with reduced rights.
    Viewers are considered potential terrorists with weapons aimed at them.

    People still watch/attend the Four Year Games because?

    --
    by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
  4. Re:I'll counter by davester666 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You'll be shot with the 50 cal. mounted next to the sonic gun.

    --
    Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  5. Re:I'll counter by ozmanjusri · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How well would a good set of earplugs or even construction style earmuffs protect against the sound of this.

    A few years ago, a neighbor who wanted to buy the duplex half I was living in tried to chase me out. The first I knew about it was coming from deep sleep to full alertness in the early hours of every morning, with my heart pounding as though I'd just been shocked awake. It was devastating to my sleep patterns.

    The first few times it happened, I had no idea what was happening. I thought I had some medical or psychiatric condition developing, but then one night I stayed awake but quiet until about 2am, when the wake-up trick happened. While I was awake, the jolt felt weird, but not unbearable, a little like standing near loudspeakers at a rock concert, but silent.

    I was lucky, and had a full studio of sound and electronic gear, so over the next couple of nights I identified that the pulse was ultrasonic. A bit of research led me to these things, so I bought one of the quad transducer kits to see if it was the culprit, which it was. I did some experimenting, and found that while earmuffs do attenuate the sensation a little, the "body-throb" is still disturbing. If you don't control your mind, it really does produce a sense of alarm.

    Once my neighbor realized she'd been twigged, she switched from the single wake-up pulse to random attacks with the sweep and nausea modes. It was bearable, but wasn't pleasant, so I called the police and tried to explain it to them. They were polite, and spoke to the neighbor, but decided the only laws which might have been contravened were noise limits. I asked the council noise inspectors to check, but their meters aren't capable of detecting ultrasonic.

    In the end, the authorities didn't know how to deal with it, but the neighbor stopped using the device anyway, probably because of all the fuss.

    TLDR: They'll use ultrasonics which cause a sensation of fear and alarm. It's manageable by individuals, but a mob will almost certainly run.

    --
    "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."