New weapon that strongly resembles phonograph has potential to combat terror attacks

IT MIGHT closely resemble an old phonograph, but the US Army has been developing a futuristic ray gun that has the potential to combat terror attacks.

WHILE it might not seem like much, a new weapon that strongly resembles an old phonograph has the potential to combat terror attacks and save the life of innocents.

Pioneered by the defence department’s Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program (JNLWD), the new direct energy weapon has the ability to stop a cart in its tracks without harming the vehicle or its driver.

Using high-powered microwaves, the jammer forces a car’s engine control unit to stall by forcing it to repeatedly reboot.

Leader of JNLWD’s technology division David Law said the weapon would make cars stop dead in their tracks. “Anything that has electronics on it, these high-powered microwaves will affect,” he told Defense One. “As long as the [radio] is on, it holds the vehicle stopped.”

The defence department is working on two different version of the weapon it aptly dubbed the “Radio Frequency Vehicle Stopper”.

A 2012 Defense Technical Information Center document, “Multifrequency Radio-Frequency Vehicle Stopper”, further described the technology behind the system.

“The RFVS system uses high-power magnetron tubes to generate intense RF pulses that interfere with a vehicle’s electronics, rendering it temporarily inoperable. The engine cannot be restarted while the RF is on but is readily restarted once the RF is turned off,” it explained.

“Thus, the RFVS system allows for the maintenance of a safe keep-out zone in situations that might otherwise require the use of lethal force. The defined measure of success for this system is a demonstrated, effective capability against more than 80 per cent of the candidate target-vehicle-class list, which includes passenger cars and large vehicles.”

A smaller version built to resemble an old-time phonograph will be placed in the tray of a ute and used to stop vehicles in pursuits — it has a range of around 50 metres.

The second weapon will be a much larger version built to combat the growing number of vehicle related terror attacks like last week’s incident in Toronto which led to the death of 10 innocent civilians after a driver mowed down pedestrians.

Built to be stationary and three times the size of the smaller version, the weapon will use an amplification device and a larger dish to stop attacks from a “few hundred” metres away.

The challenge will be deciding on which spots needing protection from vehicle-borne terrorist attacks, while also using it at access control points and roadblocks.

It’s likely the weapon will also be used for “force protection” at bases holding soldiers in war zones.

The US department of defence hopes to have a working prototype by FY 2019.

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