<HTML>Waving at the enemy: A new line of defense
Los Alamos, October 18, 2005
[
www.lamonitor.com]
ROGER SNODGRASS,
roger@lamonitor.com, Monitor Assistant Editor
Doug Beason, associate director for threat reduction at Los Alamos National Laboratory, has put himself out there in his new book, "The E-Bomb."
Literally. He was a test subject during an experiment of the non-lethal weapon system called "active denial." Active denial is one of several forms of directed energy (DE) that are under development in the American arsenal and one of the two main electronic weapons featured in the book, an insider's unclassified look at warfare's future defenses
Beason has also put himself into a controversial arena, heavily guarded by competing weapons bureaucracies on one hand, and peace and disarmament activists on the other. Human rights groups, for example, complain that active denial, a flash of unendurable pain that leaves no marks, might also be used for torture.
"It hurt like hell, but I'm glad I did it," Beason said during a recent interview about his encounter with the active denial beam
Wearing only his shorts, the author as a team leader backed into the line of exposure from one of these experimental devices at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. in 2001, not once but three times. When the pain got to be too much, he dodged into a protected space.
"Only a back exposure was allowed," Beason said, who was thoroughly briefed by a flight surgeon before, and examined after, each shot.
The Defense Department called it an "Unclassified Human Use Protocol for Large Spot Human Pain Intolerability Experiments," and one of the strengths of Beason's that he is not only able to appreciate the ironies of military jargon, but also to make the mumbo-jumbo real.
"If successful, the test would prove that millimeter waves might someday be used as a non-lethal weapon," he wrote.
The technical explanation is that the weapon produces a very low frequency of electromagnetic waves known as millimeter waves. About 40 times smaller than the microwaves in a typical home microwave oven, the heat from the millimeter waves pierces less than one-hundredth of an inch into the skin.
"It felt like an oven door opened," he said. "One that you could not slam."
In less than two seconds, he had to flee. And even though the physical effects dissipated immediately, after the third exposure he was psychologically defeated.
He knew at once, "I'm not gong to do it again."
The book describes on a technical and strategic level how active denial might some day offer a life-saving alternative between "shouting and shooting," as a way to dispel a riot or a mob.
Beason's personal knowledge of the active denial system came out of his role as deputy director of Directed Energy at Kirtland AFB, which also played a scientific and technical part in developing the Airborne Laser (ABL), a secondary focus of the book.
He has also written and co-authored 14 books altogether, including several techno-thrillers with Kevin J. Anderson.
Drawing upon his skills as a novelist Beason uses dramatic scenarios to dramatize the uses of the new technology.
In one of these, three North Korean Taepodong-3 missiles streak toward Seoul, as another four missiles target San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and San Diego.
But there is an answer:
"One by one, infrared beams from the two airborne lasers jump from missile to missile, like picking off skeet targets at a shooting range. Exploding debris falls on enemy territory, leaving South Korea and the United States unharmed."
The Airborne Laser has performed successful experiments at White Sands test range in southern New Mexico. Not much is heard about it, despite an annual budget approaching $500 million.
"Directed Energy has a bad rap," Beason said. "The Star Wars movies did it a big disservice, because now half the people think it's already been done and the other half think it's just science fiction and can never be done."
People are familiar with directed energy from their TV-remotes and motion sensors, but they don't know that a vastly more powerful version of the technology can shoot down missiles 100 miles away.
Laser cannons and ray guns are apparently entering the battlefield, whether we like it or not.
With a bit of Tom Swift's wonder for amazing gadgets and a Ph.D. in laser physics, Beason, has had a special vantage for peering over the horizon and relating what the twenty-first century holds in store.
Unlike many books of popular science and technology, "The E-Bomb" is thoughtfully adorned with photographs, illustrations, charts, notes, a glossary and a bibliography.</HTML>
