What Is the Militarys Heat-Ray Gun, or “Active Denial System”?
What Is the Military’s Heat-Ray Gun, or “Active Denial System”?Answer: The “Active Denial System,” or heat-ray gun, is a crowd-control device developed by U.S. military manufacturer Raytheon and deployed for the first time by the U.S. military in Afghanistan in June 2010. Raytheon says that as of July 2010, it had produced and delivered three Active Denial Systems to the U.S. Air Force. The ray-gun is a joystick-operated computerized system linked to a large antenna that can be mounted on a Humvee or other large vehicles. It directs a focused, invisible 100,000-watt beam of energy at the speed of light across a range of up to 250 meters, or 750 feet, at human beings, burning them intolerably until they get out of the beam’s way. The heat ray penetrates the skin to a depth of about 1/64th of an inch. The effectiveness of the weapon is uncertain, as individuals may protect against the beam with any broad shield. The beam can be effective in dusty environments, in winds of up to 40 mph, a
