Raytheon to export new ray gun

Published 10 October 2009

Skin-heating Silent Guardian has attracted negative commentary from its earliest development days, and repeated requests for it from U.S. commanders overseas have thus been denied; foreign governments do not have such qualms

Many U.S. companies have moved their production facilities to developing countries because the cost of doing business there is lower. It is not only the case that employees are paid less, but there are lower health and environmental standards, fewer social requirements, and more. The U.S. government, in some areas, have acted similarly. For example, the United States transferred some terror suspects to countries such as Egypt, Jordan, or Morocco, where the authorities are less fussy about quaint issues such as torture and individual rights.

Now we learn that the United States is to export its nonlethal (or, as officials say, “less lethal”) microwave cannon, the Silent Guardian, a system which has never been deployed by U.S. owing due to worries over bad publicity. The foreign ally receiving the system is unnamed.

Aviation Week reports today that executives from makers of what the magazine call “people zapper,” have disclosed a sale of four containerized Silent Guardians to “a U.S. ally.” The company later admitted that the revelations were made by mistake, as the Pentagon had forbidden the firm to make the sale public.

The Silent Guardian works by aiming a wide-angle beam of microwave energy on its targets. The effect of the weapon on humans is to heat up the outer layers of human skin, causing a painful burning sensation and forcing people to disperse.

Lewis Page writes that the idea behind the microwave cannon was to offer U.S. troops, who often find themselves heavily outnumbered by angry crowds overseas, an alternative to opening fire or being overrun and forced to retreat. Page notes that the Silent Guardian has attracted negative commentary from its earliest development days, and repeated requests for it from U.S. commanders overseas have thus been denied.

The U.S. government may find itself unable to deploy the microwave gun because of public pressure, but it appears that at least one foreign government has no such qualms.