Zapping humans has been put on hold, for the time being. The military is looking to use its microwave pain ray to blast unwanted birds, instead.
The Defense Department spent nearly a decade researching and developing the Active Denial System. It's a microwave beam that penetrates a 64th of an inch beneath the skin – and causes people to run away in agony. For years, troops in Iraq begged for the real-life ray guns, to disperse unruly crowds. But technical issues (16 hours to warm up) and political considerations (torture device, anyone?) kept ADS from ever seeing wartime action.
Air Force researchers don't want to see all that tech go to waste, however. So they've come up with a new – and less politically-charged – target for the pain ray's wrath. "Every year bird-strikes to aircraft, both military and civilian, cause millions of dollars of damage and in some instances, loss of human life," an Air Force request for proposals notes. Remember those Canadian geese that sent Captain Sully crash-landing into the Hudson?
The military has explored all sorts of techniques to keep the birds away. "However, no successful research has yielded any viable avian denial system," the Air Force sighs.
So maybe it's time to bring in Active Denial. It won't be quite as easy as simply pointing the ray gun at the birds. First, you have to make sure you can sort out a potentially hazardous flock from a non-threatening gaggle. Then, of course, "the frequency used for this system must not interfere with any current operational aircraft or ground-based sensor systems and it must not be able to target personnel." This ray gun is for bird-zapping only.
UPDATE: You will be utterly shocked to discover that Sharon Pawlak, the national coordinator of the Coalition to Prevent the Destruction of Canada Geese, hates this idea. "Unconscionable!" she e-mails Danger Room. "What about animal abuse don't these people get? There is no need to subject birds to pain, suffering and possible death."
[Photo: U.S. Army]
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