The American military have presented the world with a new weapon,
informally named the heat ray or microwave cannon. The “Active Denial
System” is a non-lethal weapon primarily designed for crowd control.
A video was uploaded on YouTube by USFORCESTV channel of the US
military testing a new super high frequency (SHF) weapon. Rumors have
long been spread about a “cannon”, which can be mounted on a military
vehicle to disperse crowds with the help of a high-powered beam of
electromagnetic radiation. Hearsay still causes the US Department of Defense deny it has spent $120 million on a mobile microwave oven.

The Active Denial System (ADS) beams a high-frequency, man-sized electromagnetic wave 1,000 meters.

ADS
fires a high-powered beam of high-frequency millimeter waves at 95 GHz
(a wavelength of 3.2 mm). Similar to the same way that a microwave oven
heats food at 2.45GHz, the millimeter waves excite the water and fat
molecules in the body, instantly heating them via dielectric heating and
causing intense pain. While microwaves will penetrate into human tissue
about 17mm (0.67"), the millimeter waves used in ADS only penetrate the
top layers of skin, with most of the energy being absorbed within 0.4
mm (1/64").A person affected by ADS feels a sudden blast of
heat that many compare to opening a very hot oven. The target feels
pain and reflexively steps or runs away. During the presentation US
servicemen managed to immediately disperse a group of disguised marines
who played the role of an aggressive crowd. The US military say
this weapon’s injury risk is far lower than other weapons like rubber
bullets or pepper spray. The ray does not cause cancer or exacerbate
existing cancer, nor does it causes fertility problems or birth defects.
That is according to Stephanie Miller, with the biological effects
branch of the Air Force Research Laboratory as quoted by Stars and
Stripes web edition. She also said the weapon has been tested on
more than 11,000 people, and in just two of those cases, it caused
second-degree burns. Experts believe the idea appeared in the mid
1990s during a US campaign in Somalia, where American soldiers were
often attacked by local population only armed with stones or sticks. Some kind of weapon was needed to avoid victims among civilians and to protect soldiers at the same time.

The
properties of an electro-magnetic field have been long used to put the
enemy’s electronic instruments out of order. The prototypes of a
microwave novelty were first used almost 30 years ago and have
significantly diminished in size since then: the first version reached
the size of a train carriage. Now it can be put on a Hummer. It is
reported the Pentagon is about to create an airborne version of the heat
ray.


SOURCE: http://rt.com/news/weapon-us-microwave-cannon-363/