by seemslikeadream » Thu Jan 26, 2006 3:38 am
<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://reg.knoxnews.com/kns/web/registrationForm?from=www.knoxnews.com/kns/national/article/0,1406,KNS_350_4416249,00.html">reg.knoxnews.com/kns/web/...49,00.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>New weapon allows a soldier to zap enemy with energy bolt <br><br> WASHINGTON - A car moves toward a checkpoint in Iraq, and U.S. troops order it to stop. It doesn't. Fearing the vehicle is a suicide bomb waiting to happen, a soldier aims his weapon. <br><br>Using an invisible ray that travels at the speed of light, the soldier zaps the driver with a bolt of energy that feels like a body-wide bee sting. The beam's punch, which leaves neither a burn nor residual pain, instantly stops the driver. <br><br>When the soldier approaches the car, he finds not an insurgent intent on attack but a confused civilian who didn't understand the order to halt. If the beam had been a bullet, an innocent Iraqi would be dead. <br><br>That is one scenario that boosters use to describe the potential utility of the revolutionary "Active Denial System," a nonlethal weapon developed at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. <p></p><i></i>