armi ad energia diretta: soluzione europea

[rossana <rossana at comodinoposta.org>]

October 2003

When mobile phones pose a threat...
Non-lethal weapons used against hidden threats

Dr. Herbert Scholles

What does a police officer's truncheon or pepper sprayer have in common 
with high-tech systems like medium-energy lasers (MEL) or high-power 
microwave (HPM) devices? This and related issues were addressed at a 
conference on non-lethal weapons (NLW) to which the Science Press 
Conference (Wissenschaftspressekonferenz e.V) recently invited 
journalists in Bonn.

"Non-lethal weapons allow police forces to react appropriately in 
difficult situations. Aggressors can be put out of action without having 
to use firearms or even endanger lives," explains Dr. Herbert Scholles, 
head of development at Rheinmetall W&M GmbH. "Fundamentally comparable 
to the use of truncheon or teargas, modern NLW concepts offer more 
extensive possibilities and actively help to protect persons."

HPM systems like those being developed by Rheinmetall W&M in cooperation 
with Diehl Munitionssysteme GmbH & Co. KG enable military and police 
forces to deactivate the electronic systems inside vehicles and 
consequently to stop them without actually endangering persons inside. 
Mobile HPM platforms will make many a police car chase superfluous in 
future.

For instance, the Plasma Taser (working title) being investigated at 
Rheinmetall W&M's center of competence for weapons and munitions in 
Unterlüß is said to immobilize aggressors at a distance of more than ten 
meters. A 40 mm grenade gun ejects a plasma cloud (e.g. carbon) that 
conducts pulsed electrical energy to the target – without actually 
physically harming the targeted person.

Moreover, for police or military operations to succeed, it is often 
necessary to interrupt the communications possibilities of criminals or 
hostile forces. To give an example: a kidnapper who has escaped into a 
building will often have access to live reports on police action through 
TV, radio or internet. Scholles: "High Power Microwave (HPM) is an 
effective instrument in such situations since it can destroy or 
permanently put out of action all electronic facilities in the target – 
without endangering life or limb of persons located there." It is 
already possible to deactivate all common electronic devices including 
mobile phones with HPM systems approximately the size of a small suitcase.

Booby traps hidden in buildings or by the roadside can be triggered by 
mobile phone, motion detector or timer. Mobile HPM sources can cripple 
such explosives by destroying the fuze electronics from a safe distance.

This technology is also of considerable interest to the armed forces as 
demonstrated by military scenarios in the Balkans and Afghanistan. Booby 
traps that are hidden in buildings or by the roadside and can be 
triggered by mobile phone, motion detectors or timers are, for instance, 
a threat to soldiers. In the words of Scholles: "By switching off the 
electronic fuze of such systems, HPM will in future be able to help save 
the lives of military forces."

Incidents where e.g. civilians sitting in a car fail to stop when 
requested to do so by soldiers and are attacked as suspected aggressors 
are common in crisis-ridden regions – all too often with a tragic 
outcome. HPM systems present an effective alternative at such military 
check-points or for object protection – crippling the entire electronics 
of modern vehicles at the press of a button. Even kidnappers in cars 
remain unharmed as dangerous car ramming scenarios or the use of 
firearms are not necessary.

Rheinmetall W&M GmbH is actively engaged in laser technologies that will 
provide new ways of cost-effective target combat with opto-electronic 
devices. Advanced military systems – from the guided missile to the 
complete battle tank – depend on visual systems and sensors. And this is 
exactly what makes them vulnerable: already today, a medium-energy laser 
(MEL) is capable of destroying or deactivating the target optics of a 
hostile tank over distances of several kilometers without endangering 
the crew. Development expert Scholles believes that such laser weapons 
offer very considerable potential: "We aim to bring the MEL technology 
for air defence and for the protection of stationary or mobile 
facilities to production maturity by the year 2012."

http://www.rheinmetall.com/index.php?action=rhag&lang=3&query=