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posted by janrinok on Monday April 30 2018, @10:28PM   Printer-friendly

Popular Mechanics reports

Pioneered by the defence department's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program (JNLWD), the new direct energy weapon has the ability to stop a cart in its tracks without harming the vehicle or its driver.

"The jammer works by targeting the car's engine control unit causing it to reboot over and over, stalling the engine. Like an invisible hand, the microwaves hold the car in place." David Law, who leads JNLWD's technology division, said in March: "Anything that has electronics on it, these high-powered microwaves will affect. As long as the [radio] is on, it holds the vehicle stopped."

[...] "The RFVS system uses high-power magnetron tubes to generate intense RF pulses that interfere with a vehicle's electronics, rendering it temporarily inoperable. The engine cannot be restarted while the RF is on but is readily restarted once the RF is turned off. Thus, the RFVS system allows for the maintenance of a safe keep-out zone in situations that might otherwise require the use of lethal force. The defined measure of success for this system is a demonstrated, effective capability against more than 80% of the candidate target-vehicle-class list, which includes passenger cars and large vehicles."

A video shows demonstrations of the weapon against cars and boats.


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by c0lo on Tuesday May 01 2018, @12:04AM (2 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 01 2018, @12:04AM (#673969) Journal

    Sounds likethere will be a market for old Mercedes diesels.

    New Chinese tractors as well. Add old Fergies and the like.(grin)

    Small eyelet (5-15mm) wire nets (dense chicken wire) may work well enough as Faraday cages - not foolproof, but a lot cheaper as defence than the means used by the attacker (may dissipate enough energy to mitigate the effects of an attack). Just look at the old radar antennas, before the phased arrays, they were wire nets and they didn't have serious leakage behind.

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    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 2) by hamsterdan on Wednesday May 02 2018, @01:03PM (1 child)

    by hamsterdan (2829) on Wednesday May 02 2018, @01:03PM (#674544)

    Buy a bunch of microwave oven doors, problem solved

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday May 02 2018, @02:55PM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 02 2018, @02:55PM (#674585) Journal

      Buy a bunch of microwave oven doors, problem solved

      Penetration depth [wikipedia.org] - with enough power, there will be some leaking behind the shield.

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      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford