With all the hassles you'll have to endure this 4th of July holiday -- the crowds, the traffic, the screaming kids -- you can still be glad about one thing: No one is about to blast you with a pain ray that makes you feel like you've caught fire. Beach-goers in April of '06 were not so lucky, as these photographs show.
On the shores of the Florida panhandle, the military tested out its pain ray, known as the Active Denial System. The trial "evaluated ADS in a harbor/maritime environment and included engagements against a variety of open and closed cockpit boats at sea at various ranges," according to a newsletter from the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD). It's part of a batteryof tests, meant to see if the ray gun can really hack it in a military setting; things are supposed to wrap up by September.
And zapping foes by the sea shore is only one of a number of different scenarios military researchers envision for the pain ray. A recent JNLWD presentation shows include Active Denial beams shooting out from the back of trucks, the sides of cruisers, and the bottoms of helicopters, too.
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