TESTS of a controversial weapon that’s designed to heat people’s skin with a
microwave beam have shown that it can disperse crowds. But critics are not
convinced the system is safe.
Last week, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in New Mexico finished
testing the system on human volunteers. The Air Force now wants to use this
Active Denial Technology (ADT), which it says is non-lethal, for peacekeeping or
riot control at “relatively long range”—possibly from low-flying
aircraft.
ADT uses a 2-metre dish to create a narrow beam of microwaves that can be
scanned across a crowd or even…
