Troops in Iraq Get High-Tech Noisemaker

[Khephra]

NEW YORK -- U.S. soldiers in Iraq have new gear for dispersing hostile crowds and warding off potential enemy combatants. It blasts earsplitting noise in a directed beam.

The equipment, called a Long Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, is a so-called "non-lethal weapon" developed after the 2000 attack on the USS Cole off Yemen as a way to keep operators of small boats from approaching U.S. warships.

The devices have been used on some U.S. ships since last summer as part of a suite of protection measures.

Now, the Army and Marines have added this auditory barrage dispenser to their arms ensembles. Troops in Fallujah, a center of insurgency west of Baghdad, and other areas of central Iraq in particular often deal with crowds in which lethal foes intermingle with non-hostile civilians.

more..........

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-sonic-weapon,0,4282207.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines

[Pale_Rider]

1. Sounds like something out of Dune ...

... the weirding modules!

Wonder if it looks like this!



From: http://www.arrakis.co.uk/colpage14.html

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

2. how long will it take for the crowds

to wear ear plugs? 3-4 secs tops.

[htuttle]

4. It sure will..

...piss them off though!

[GregW]

5. Yup! Ear plugs and diapers

There has also been research into non-lethal sound devices that use extremely low frequency waves (like 7 Hz) which cause nausea, loss of bowels, disorientation, vomiting and potentially internal organ damage and death.

[proud patriot]

3. I wonder if that's what was killing the Dolphins

:-(

[w4rma]

6. Non-lethal maybe, but not non-maiming. (n/t)

[Alpharetta]

7. up next, Electromagnetic Pulses

a big shock wave thru the crowd.

[mike1963]

8. Are they playing rap music through large boom boxes?

:eyes:

[cosmicaug]

9. I wonder....

I wonder if they're employing the technology that http://www.holosonics.com/ uses? That's probably the only real good way of making a "directed beam".

[Algorem]

10. That'll work great against protesters in U.S. very soon I'm sure.Like in

New York City August 29 to September 4th,say?

[daleo]

11. That was my first thought, too

Iraq can be the proving ground for all kinds of goodies to use against anti-Bushco protesters. This stuff could become very useful after November. Maybe I am too cynical.

[maggrwaggr]

12. "do you know that a human body and a pig explode at the same frequency"?

This was asked of me one time by my family member who spent his career developing top secret high tech weapons for the Army.

I asked him how he knew this and he told me. And this was years ago.

The Army's been developing lethal sound weapons for years.