CASTAIC – A high-tech ray gun built for the military that fires an invisible heat beam capable of causing unbearable pain will be tested on unruly inmates in the sheriff’s detention facility in Castaic, officials said Friday at an unveiling event.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Senior Deputy David Judge talks about the Assault Intervention Device (AID) during a demonstration at the Pitchess Detention Center's North County Correction Facility, Friday, August 20, 2010. The device transmits a focused, invisible millimeter wave at a suspect which causes an intolerable heating sensation. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department will conduct an operational evaluation with AID which is intended to stop or lessen the severity of inmate assaults.

The “Assault Intervention System” (AIS) developed by the Raytheon Co., could give the Sheriff’s Department “another tool” to quell disturbances at a 65-inmate dormitory at the Pitchess Detention Center’s North County Correctional Facility, said Cmdr. Bob Osborne, head of the technology exploration branch of the sheriff’s Department of Homeland Security Division.

The 600-pound, 7-foot-tall device won’t replace traditional methods such as tear gas, rubber bullets and batons, Osborne said.

“We’re looking to see if we can exploit this science for the benefit of the Corrections Department,” he said.

AIS fires a directed beam of invisible “millimeter waves” that cause an unbearable burning sensation by penetrating 1/64 of an inch into the skin, where pain receptors are located, said Mike Booen, Raytheon’s vice president of advanced security and directed energy systems.

The beam, which is about the diameter of a compact disc, causes an instant and intolerable burning sensation when it touches skin, but the sensation stops instantly when the device is turned off or the target moves out of the beam.

At a news conference, several people volunteered to feel the effects of the machine first-hand.

Sheriff’s Deputy David Judge manned the controls and fired the beam, using a joystick and a monitor, not unlike a video game, to aim the ray gun’s camera.

Judge simply aligned cross-hairs in the center of the screen with his target and pulled the trigger. The beam can be targeted very precisely, allowing deputies to single out one person or even a specific body part.

One volunteer was able to stand in the beam’s path for just 1.8 seconds before the heat sensation forced him to step out of the way.

“I don’t care if you’re the meanest, toughest person in the world. This will get your attention,” Booen said.

The machine is designed to emit a burst of no more than three seconds with each trigger pull, but deputies can repeatedly fire the weapon as needed.

Similar devices have already been sold to the U.S. military, however the machine demonstrated Friday is the first to be placed in an American correctional institution, sheriff’s officials said.

It is being installed as a test case at no cost to the Sheriff’s Department, as part of a program through the National Institute of Justice, officials said.

“Millimeter wave” devices have been tested on more than 10,000 subjects so far and has been shown to cause no lasting injuries, Booen said.

“It’s very, very safe,” he said.

The unit at the Pitchess Detention Center has a range of 80 to 100 feet, which is more than enough for the dormitory space it’s to be used in.

Raytheon, as a matter of policy, does not disclose the cost of the machines, Booen said, adding that he could not comment on how the military has used the devices.

When asked if the public can expect to see similar AIS devices mounted on patrol cars in the future or attached to deputies’ utility belts, Osborne said, “not in my lifetime.”

But Booen said his company is working on much smaller versions of the AIS. Progress on that research is a closely held secret, he added.

“That’s our vision,” said Booen. “We want to get to the point where it is a hand-held device.”

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday unveiled a long-range bomber drone called the Karar, designed to operate at high speed, state television reported.

State television footage showed the president applauding as a blue cloth covering the Karar (assailant) was removed to reveal a short aircraft marked “bomber jet” in military-green.

The broadcast showed the aircraft in flight, while Fars news agency quoted Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi as saying the drone had a range of up to 1,000 kilometres (620 miles).

“This jet, before it heralds death for enemies, is the messenger of salvation and dignity for humanity,” Ahmadinejad said in his speech at the unveiling in a hall at Tehran’s Malek Ashtar university.

State television said the drone was built to “carry and fire four stealth cruise missiles… and, depending on the mission, it can carry two bombs of 250 pounds (115 kilos) each or a precision missile of 500 pounds (230 kilos).”

Ahmadinejad said Iran’s defence abilities “should reach a point where we can cut off the aggressor’s arm before he acts, and if we miss, we should destroy him before he hits the target.”

“The main message of the Karar bomber is to prevent any kind of aggression and conflict” against Iran, he added.

The Karar was unveiled on Iran’s annual Defence Industry Day, and two days after the Islamic republic test-fired a domestically built surface-to-surface missile, the Qiam (rising).

Iran is expected to follow up with series of military announcements as the nation also marks “government week,” a period which Tehran uses to tout its achievements.

The country is also expected to test-fire a third generation Fateh (conquerer) 110 missile, after having already paraded a version with a range of 150 to 200 kilometres (90 to 125 miles).

The production lines of two missile-carrying speedboats, Seraj and Zolfaqar, are also due to be inaugurated.

Karar’s unveiling came days after Iran took delivery of four domestically-built Ghadi mini-submarines, a “stealth” vessel designed to operate in shallow waters such as the Gulf.

The moves coincide with Iranian warnings against any attack. Its arch-foes, the United States and Israel, have not ruled out military action over Iran’s controversial nuclear programme.

And on Saturday, Iran began to load nuclear fuel in its first nuclear power plant. The Russian-built reactor in the southern port of Bushehr, which is not targeted by UN sanctions, aims to generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity.

[Via:rawstory]

US Military Scientists are developing what they claim is a “spy in the sky” – a remote-controlled airborne detection system which can bounce radar off buildings to follow a vehicle though a city.

According to the ‘New Scientist’, Pentagon’s Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)  is developing the new radar system, which sees around corners and down into “urban canyons” — in fact, it can track vehicles across an entire city using just a few uncrewed aircraft.

Traditional radar relies on direct line of sight, so it’s often tricky to track a vehicle that keeps nipping behind buildings. But the military scientists believe that by using buildings as mirrors, the Multipath Exploitation Radar will be possible to identify a target vehicle from radar reflections.

The agency is exploring how Multipath Exploitation Radar (MER) might work by driving vehicles around a simulated urban area and collecting returns from an overhead radar. The scientists are aiming to combine the radar

data with a three-dimensional map of the test environment to calculate how the radar reflects off and between vehicles and buildings. This process should highlight which signals in the returning radar data can be used to plot the target vehicle’s path, they say.

“MER is expected to be compatible with the radar systems currently used to track vehicles,” a DARPA spokesman was quoted as saying.

The team anticipates that using reflected radar will cover more ground than a line-of-sight system, making it possible to monitor a city of about 1000 square kilometres, such as Baghdad, with just three airborne radars.

The three-dimensional model of a city needed to make sense of the reflection pattern could be created using LIDAR, the optical surveying technology which is routinely carried on aircraft.

MER makes use of Ku-band radar — frequencies of between 12 and 18 gigahertz. It is sensitive enough to produce distinct signatures for apparently similar vehicles, by detecting slight differences, such as the angle of an aerial or a wing mirror.

DARPA is also looking to develop an algorithm which would enable the system to track multiple vehicles.

Ain Sume of the Swedish Defence Research Agency says the “sound, well-known physical principles” behind MER make it feasible. His team built a radar system that detects people around a corner by using reflections from the opposite wall.

But Sume reckons it will take some time to turn DARPA’s plans into a viable system. Key challenges include maintaining a radar lock as the view shifts from line-of-sight to reflection and back, and establishing a unique radar “fingerprint” for each vehicle.

Blackhawk Helicopter (Chopper)

A proposed U.S. weapons sale to Saudi Arabia of Boeing Co. F-15 fighter jets also includes as many as 132 Boeing Apache attack helicopters and United Technologies Corp. UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters that bring the total value of the package to around $60 billion, according to a government official familiar with the plan.

The Pentagon and State Department about two weeks ago informally notified congressional committees that handle arms sales of the planned transaction, the official said.

“I think it would be the largest ever,” said William Hartung, director of the New York City-based New America Foundation’s Arms and Security Initiative.

“Other deals that used to be considered large,” like the $9 billion sale of 72 F-15s to the Saudis in 1992-93 or the kingdom’s $9 billion acquisition of U.S. AWACS surveillance aircraft in 1981, “aren’t even in the ballpark, even allowing for inflation,” Hartung said.

The package includes 84 F-15s at a cost of $30 billion and helicopter sales totaling about $30 billion that include spare parts, training simulators, long-term logistics support and some munitions.

The Saudis would buy about 72 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and as many as 60 AH-64D Longbow Apaches, the official said. The Longbow is the U.S. Army’s premier anti-tank helicopter, capable of firing laser-guided or all-weather air-to-ground missiles. The Longbows are in addition to 12 that Congress in 2008 cleared Boeing to sell to the Saudis.

Fits Obama Strategy

The proposal fits the Obama administration’s strategy of buttressing the defense capabilities of Middle East allies to counter Iran’s growing offensive missile might and suspected nuclear weapons program. It would be part of the Gulf Security Dialogue started by the Bush administration.

The Longbow Apache has been sold to Egypt, Israel, Greece, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, the Royal Netherlands Air Force, Singapore and Taiwan. Northrop Grumman Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. provide the Apache’s radar and sensors.

The Pentagon intends to formally notify the Senate and House foreign affairs panels by mid-September of the final arms package, the official said.

“In the past, a record-setting deal to a region of tension like the Persian Gulf would have drawn considerable congressional opposition,” Hartung said. “That does not seem to be the case this time around.”

Other Issues Dominate

“Other foreign policy issues from Iraq and Afghanistan to the consideration of the New START treaty, seem to have taken up most if not all of the attention Congress can or will spend on foreign policy matters,” Hartung said. The U.S. Senate is scheduled to consider the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia when it returns next month from its summer recess.

Saudi Arabia’s last significant U.S. weapons purchase was 72 F-15s in 1992, a transaction valued at as much as $9 billion. The last planes in that contract were delivered in November 1999.

The kingdom spent $36.7 billion worldwide on arms and support activities from 2001 to 2008, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.