Shooting Pain

If you8217;re worried about terrorism, upset about the war in Iraq, and depressed by global chaos, violence and death, cheer up. The US military just invented a weapon that fires a beam of searing pain.

If you8217;re worried about terrorism, upset about the war in Iraq, and depressed by global chaos, violence and death, cheer up. The US military just invented a weapon that fires a beam of searing pain.

Three weeks ago, it was tested on volunteers at an Air Force base in Georgia. You can watch the video on a military Web site jnlwp.com/ActiveDenialSystem.asp. Three colonels get zapped, along with an Associated Press reporter. The beam is invisible, but its effects are vivid. Two dozen airmen scatter. The AP guy shrieks and bolts out of the target zone. He says it felt like heat all over his body, as though his jacket were on fire.

The feeling is an illusion. No one is harmed. The beam8217;s energy waves penetrate just 1/64 of an inch into your body, heating your skin like microwaves. They inflame your nerve endings without burning you. This could be the future of warfare: less bloodshed, more pain.

Military technology has always sought a greater precision from a longer range. In the Persian Gulf War, Kosovo and Afghanistan, the US exploited the increasing accuracy of laser-guided bombs. In the post-9/11 terrorist hunt and the occupation of Iraq, it has sent hundreds of remotely piloted aerial drones to spy and kill. The pain beam is more ambitious: It can spare civilians and even the enemy. Precision isn8217;t just the ability to kill. Sometimes, it8217;s the ability to disperse and deter without killing.

Like lethal weapons, nonlethal weapons have evolved from short to long range. Batons and pepper spray required hand-to-hand combat. Water cannons, rubber bullets, beanbag rounds and stingball grenades have extended our reach, but not far enough to keep troops clear of rocks or small-arms fire. Some of those nonlethal weapons are insufficiently discriminate. Tear gas torments a whole crowd, not just the miscreants using the crowd for cover.

Projectiles are also unpredictable. At long range, particularly in crosswinds, rubber bullets can hit the wrong people, or the right people in the wrong places. At close range, they can kill. Look at the absurdly named 8220;FN303 less lethal launcher.8221; It8217;s supposed to fire 8220;nonlethal projectiles at established nonlethal ranges.8221; But when launching things, less lethal is the best you can do.

That8217;s where the pain beam comes in. Unlike projectiles, beams are 8220;directed energy.8221; They travel in a straight line over long distances, ignoring gravity and wind. They cause no more damage at 10 ft than at 1,000. Unlike gas, they discriminate. Raytheon, the pain beam8217;s manufacturer, points out that the weapon 8220;allows precise targeting of specific individuals8221; and that the pain 8220;ceases immediately8221; when the beam is diverted or the target flees.

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The shift from hardware to software, from matter to energy, can do more than control the unpredictability of weapons. It can control the unpredictability of the people who fire them. Early nonlethal devices, such as rubber bullets and Mace, often caused injuries because of abuse by hotheads. When the pain beam was being developed, somebody accidentally fired it on a high setting, inflicting a second-degree burn. The designers responded by programming limits on the beam8217;s power and duration.

Years of work have gone into making the beam safe. It has been tested thousands of times on 600 volunteers. It has been reviewed and revised by the military8217;s Human Effects Review Board, a Human Effects Advisory Panel made up of nonmilitary experts in the field and military surgeons general. It has been tested for effects on skin cancer, fertility, jewelry and drunks. The results have been published in peer-reviewed journals. Never has an organization that is licensed to kill jumped through so many hoops to make sure nobody gets injured.

But the ability to inflict pain without injury doesn8217;t just make injury less necessary. It makes pain more essential to military operations8212;and easier to inflict. To achieve the desired 8220;repel effect,8221; I have to make you suffer. Knowing that your agony will be brief and leave no physical damage makes the weapon easier to fire. It8217;s almost as though, like the flames the AP reporter imagined were engulfing his jacket, your pain isn8217;t real.

Two weeks from now, military leaders will convene in London to discuss the pain beam and the next generation of directed-energy weapons, including microwaves and lasers. Law enforcement agencies are interested. Raytheon is already advertising the technology for commercial applications. The military is even developing a 8220;personnel halting and stimulation response8221; system8212;yes, a PHaSR8212;to stun targets instead of killing them. But don8217;t worry, nobody will get hurt. Sort of.

8212;Washington Post / William Saletan