Raytheon's Silent Guardian keeps crowds under control

Raytheon sure loves its lasers, and it's proving so with the crowd-repelling Silent Guardian. The device, which is part of the Directed Energy Solutions program, is reportedly designed to be mounted onto a military vehicle where it can "throw a wave of agony nearly half a mile," penetrating enemy skin just 1/64th of an inch and not causing "visible, permanent injury." Essentially, the invisible beam has the ability to inflict "limitless, unbearable pain," which seems to stop just as soon as you're able to get out of the ray's path. According to its maker, the machine could be used in "various commercial and military applications including law enforcement, checkpoint security, facility protection, force protection and peacekeeping missions," and it's ready to calm the masses as we speak.

[Via InformationWeek]
Read - Silent Guardian product page
Read - Silent Guardian hands-on

[Vorin @ Oct 9th 2007 10:18PM]

Don't tase me bro!

[Chris @ Oct 9th 2007 10:20PM]

no no...

Don't LASE me bro!!!!

[Andrew @ Oct 9th 2007 10:33PM]

LOL

thats what you get when you try to ask john kerry a question

[fuelfilter @ Oct 10th 2007 12:40PM]

Its all fun and games till they point that thing in someones eye.

[john @ Oct 9th 2007 10:16PM]

the ability to inflict "limitless, unbearable pain,"

Steve Jobs already has this covered.

[mushrooshi @ Oct 9th 2007 10:17PM]

SHUT UP!

What do you have against macs?

[Nubaeus @ Oct 9th 2007 10:19PM]

mushrooshi,

SHUT UP!
Why do you enjoy limitless heat on your nuts?


On a side note, the "limitless, unbearable pain" sounds exactly like rowing on an ergometer (if anyone has any idea what I'm talking about I'm sure you can back me up)

[jimmyfinch @ Oct 9th 2007 11:08PM]

2500 meter - sub 8

....then I would puke.


(that was 12 years ago)

[Ian @ Oct 10th 2007 12:08AM]

ahh yes the dreded 6k.... goddamn im glad those days are gone, o yea and doing that at 5 in the morning is a blast too!

[nikola @ Oct 10th 2007 1:49AM]

I guess the dead and dying masses prefer stupid jokes and Doom comments to actual truth.

Yeah its a tech site but how funny is it gonna be when your kid calls you from the college protest you told him/her not to go to, and you find out they essentially tortured your own child into submission. Pray you don't have loved ones who believe in the right to dissent. Repeated exposure to this thing could riddle their body with PERMANENT pinched nerves.

Don't you just love America. Where we can claim we are better than everyone else because we are so free, and yet we laugh when our government openly plots to role mass-torture devices to use on its own people.

[Jumbie @ Oct 10th 2007 5:29AM]

Do you even have a clue what a pinched nerve is? If not, just think about what it means to pinch something and then re-evaluate the likeliness of that happening.

[Brad @ Oct 10th 2007 12:41PM]

@nikola: First off, it's not our government, but our private sector. This comes from Raytheon, and despite that they're heavily intertwined with our military, they are not (YET) our military.
Second, I would prefer the perception of being set on fire to ACTUALLY being set on fire.
Third, what makes you think this will be limited to the United States? Raytheon sells equipment all over the world. This could be anywhere within a month. I predict a huge market in third-world warlords, banana-republics, and potential war criminals.
Fourth; get off your soap-box. Just because it comes from an American company doesn't mean it's exclusively American, or that it is some reflection on American mass-culture. This isn't an excuse to bash a foreign (or even your home) country or your belief of the goals of its future, as-yet-unnamed leaders.
And last, "permanently pinched nerves" from a low-penetration microwave emitter? That's just plain idiotic. Do you learn science from cereal boxes? Do you think Wifi can hurt you, too?

Oddly enough, this is the first time an aluminum-foil hat would actually do some good. Or just a piece of sheet metal.

[Chicago Mike @ Oct 10th 2007 1:44PM]

Raytheon can not sell or export ANY technology without the permission of the US Government. It can not be "anywhere" within a month.

[darter9000 @ Oct 9th 2007 10:19PM]

Woohoo! Perfect another method of tortu... errr... another weapon in the war against terrorism! Long live the Chimp or the United States (COTUS)!

[nikola @ Oct 10th 2007 1:55AM]

Looks likes they are sending us a pretty dam clear message. Our government considers us, the American public, their enemy, and intends to inflict "limitless, unbearable pain" against us.

WAKE UP!!! THIS IS WHAT THEY INTEND TO USE AGAINST US! WHATS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE??

[TEM @ Oct 10th 2007 2:47AM]

Of course, the sky is falling, the sky is falling! The evil BushChimpyHitlerHalliburtonHippopotamus is making the sky fall! Wake up!!!

[darter9000 @ Oct 10th 2007 3:29AM]

The sky isn't falling! It's shooting at us! Ohnoes! Oh the humanity! Oh the mayhem! Oh the silliness!

[BananaBoat @ Oct 9th 2007 10:19PM]

Can it play doom?

[ethana2 @ Oct 10th 2007 12:04AM]

I wouldn't recommend trying it.

...and there is a time to ask that question-- that time is devices with processing power. This just has the power of, uh 'limitless, unbearable pain'.

[wootman @ Oct 10th 2007 4:28PM]

its the most releastic game of doom ever.
actually transports you into a bottomless pit of pain!

[David W. @ Oct 9th 2007 10:24PM]

This COULD be a very useful thing for police to have....if they could figure out a way to flood a building with the beam it would be a quick and easy way to end hostage situations...

[Flalex @ Oct 9th 2007 10:25PM]

"IF" being a big word

[Flyy (NDF) @ Oct 9th 2007 10:27PM]

The perpetrators would just use the hostages as human shields, no?

[David W. @ Oct 9th 2007 10:30PM]

@ Flyy...this is true, but at this point it's not even possible to get the technology inside the building...but I mean if they used a top down approach? iono

[larry @ Oct 9th 2007 10:27PM]

I, for one, welcome our new bovine overlords.

[Morgan Percy @ Oct 9th 2007 10:50PM]

You do know that Bovine means cows?

[Shane @ Oct 10th 2007 12:04AM]

Moo?

[its420 @ Oct 9th 2007 10:40PM]

the modern day fire hose, take that free thinkers.

[Valgas @ Oct 9th 2007 10:40PM]

now that i know its a torture device. it looks 1000x more uber evil-er.

[Clinton Christian @ Oct 9th 2007 10:41PM]

robot programmed to deliver limitless unbearable pain. hmm...

[Eric @ Oct 9th 2007 10:45PM]

Sure, it won't hurt you now, but what if we up the grid current on the PA a little more? How deep will it go then? Or maybe vary the frequency a bit? How soon before someone gets too close to when it is set to the 1/2 mile range and goes blind?

[gORE.Rubicon @ Oct 9th 2007 10:49PM]

@ Flyy - being non lethal, targeting hostages n perps at same time is no biggie
@ David W. - Target thru the walls, its wave millimeter unless they got lead plating lmao

[Wwhat @ Oct 9th 2007 10:58PM]

No biggie eh, I'd like to borrow the thing and test it a few days on you, no biggie right?

[Chris @ Oct 10th 2007 9:00AM]

@wWhat - You are telling me that if someone has a gun pointed at your head you would prefer to... uhh... see how it plays out, rather than take a quick shot from this thing in order to disarm the person about to kill you?

[Blake @ Oct 9th 2007 10:49PM]

Does anyone else find this a tad creepy?

[Wwhat @ Oct 9th 2007 10:54PM]

A tad? nice understatement.

[Chris @ Oct 10th 2007 8:54AM]

Yeah a bit... but at least the US is working on non-lethal weapons... Check out Burma a couple weeks ago, replace this device with a .50 cal, and that is what they use for crowd disbursement. That is just one example. It happens all the time all over the world.

I think it says a lot about the US and the western world in general when you look at the large amounts of money spent on non-lethal weapons and weapons designed to reduce collateral damage.

Of course, none of this matters if you are an uninformed cynic.

[Steve @ Oct 9th 2007 10:51PM]

I love how while Japan's Scientists are working on improving the quality of life through consumer electronics, ours our getting paid big money to come up with ways to inflict "limitless unbearable pain"

USA! USA! USA!

[Rususeruru @ Oct 9th 2007 11:14PM]

Well this way when the value of the dollar has totally crashed we can use American xenophobia to wage war on those Japs! By then maybe they'll have figured out that space laser and with a little calibration they can use it to wipe out swaths of crap on the surface. Enter WWIII 1/2.

Yes that's terrible.

[Wes @ Oct 9th 2007 11:32PM]

Pure genius.

[Josh @ Oct 9th 2007 11:54PM]

Sounds about right, well stated.

What happened to my flying car anyways?

[nikola @ Oct 10th 2007 2:04AM]

We don't have flying cars but we can microwave them water cells underneath yer epidermis(thats means skin). Bet yer grandparents didn't predict that one.


USA!! USA!! USA!!


*falls down in seering agony as skins boils*


USA! USA! USA!

[Chris @ Oct 10th 2007 11:08AM]

Don't forget that Japan doesn't spend much money researching weaponry because it just buys it from the US... like the sh!tload of highly advanced highly deadly Aegis cruisers they have on order.

[jay @ Oct 9th 2007 10:52PM]

They should deploy hundreds of these along our southern borders. end of illegal immigration :)

[Twitchy @ Oct 9th 2007 10:59PM]

Yeah, stop all those drunk-ass students fleeing to Mexico over spring-break.

[leonard.low @ Oct 9th 2007 10:54PM]

Jeeezus.

Since when did the infliction of "limitless, unbearable pain" on *anyone* become an acceptable civil or military tactic? Isn't that just another name for torture?

Sounds awfully like cruel and unusual punishment... :(

[Wwhat @ Oct 9th 2007 10:56PM]

As long as the person has to walk into it himself it's not torture, but if you direct it at crowds/individual it is, but fortunately the americans now condone torture so it's all swell..

[Eric @ Oct 10th 2007 12:26AM]

Sign me up for the pain, instead of the bullet through my head or chest.

[Brian @ Oct 9th 2007 10:52PM]

But...

Will it blend?

[ethana2 @ Oct 10th 2007 12:08AM]

Again, a question that should only be asked of devices with processing power. Don't overuse it, cause it just angers people.

And people, when this question is asked in the proper situation, remember that it tells us:
1. OGL compliant GPU/driver,
2. MMU,
3. No code signing. So feel free to freak out at this guy, but try not to when it is a valid question to ask.