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The Pentagon's Ray Gun Can Stall Cars (defenseone.com)
john of sparta quotes Defense One: The Defense Department's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program, or JNLWD, is pushing ahead with a new direct energy weapon that uses high-powered microwaves to stop cars in their tracks without damaging the vehicle, its driver, or anyone else.
The jammer works by targeting the car's engine control unit causing it to reboot over and over, stalling the engine. Like an invisible hand, the microwaves hold the car in place. "Anything that has electronics on it, these high-powered microwaves will affect," David Law, who leads JNLWD's technology division, said in March. "As long as the [radio] is on, it holds the vehicle stopped."
It weighs 400 pounds -- it's the size of a large copy machine -- and uses 300 kilowatts of power that's generated by a gasoline-powered turbine.
"To deploy it, the driver would pull out in front of the attacker and turn it on."
It weighs 400 pounds -- it's the size of a large copy machine -- and uses 300 kilowatts of power that's generated by a gasoline-powered turbine.
"To deploy it, the driver would pull out in front of the attacker and turn it on."
Ah, but its nice warm fuzzy AMERICAN microwave energy, not evil terrorist radiation.
Its like the American laser 'defense' weapons that instead of burning out eyes, just gently exfoliate the facial skin in a loving caress.
Because, you know, otherwise they would be illegal blinding weapons, against conventions the US signed.
Another technical achievement that can be defeated by aluminum foil. ;)
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If you have to take along a 300kW gasoline-powered turbine and a copy machine-sized unit, isn't it easier to just throw this stuff in the path of the car you want to stop?