Israel Matzav: Israel's scariest technology?

Israel's scariest technology?

Israel is developing a sonic cannon for use in crowd control. While the cannon could be lethal if fired from distances of ten meters (something on which much of the media has focused), it is not lethal when fired from the intended range of 30 meters (Hat Tips: War News Update and Arutz Sheva).

An Israeli-developed shock wave cannon used by farmers to scare away crop-threatening birds could soon be available to police and homeland security forces around the world for nonlethal crowd control and perimeter defense.

Israel's Ministry of Defense recently approved a license for ArmyTec, a Netanya, Israel, technology development advisory firm, to market military and paramilitary versions of the Thunder Generator cannon.

Developed and produced for the agricultural industry by PDT Agro, a small firm based in Herzliya, Israel, the system detonates a mixture of common liquefied petroleum (LPG), cooking gas and air to generate a series of loud, stunning shock waves.

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The resulting shocks create a double deterrent to rioters and potential intruders, developers here say, by the extreme air pressure and sonic boom effect generated once the mixture propagates and expands through the air. One standard 12-kilogram LPG gas canister (retail cost: about $25) can produce up to 5,000 shock bursts.

"That's more than enough for hours of continuous operation," said ArmyTec President Shlomo Tabak, a former Israeli military special operations officer, whose command positions included anti-terror training and oversight of Special Forces development programs.

"It's all done in a controlled and safe manner, using the cheapest, cleanest fuel available. The trick is to cause it not to burn, but to explode," said Igor Fridman, president of PDT Agro, who developed the system.

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As for range, it all depends on the size of the cannon, Tabak said. The operational prototype demonstrated over the past six months to representatives of Israel's Ground Forces Command, Central Command and Israeli Police features a 5-inch barrel with a range of 30 to 50 meters.

"But if we make some changes in the diameter, our data shows we'll go up to 70 to 100 meters, without any other changes to the system," Tabak said.

If fired at less than 10 meters, the Thunder Generator could be lethal or inflict permanent damage, Fridman said. But when employed as intended at ranges of 30 meters or more, test data show that the shock waves will pass through people and objects without any lasting effects.

"Anyone within 30 to 50 meters from the cannon will feel like he's standing in front of a firing squad," he said. "He'll feel and hear the blast, but he won't be hurled to the ground. He'll be able to run away unharmed … and that's the point of this application."

Thunder Generator developers secured a U.S. patent on their system in mid-2009. In addition to its intended nonlethal effects on targets, they insist the system is safe and simple to use.

Menial laborers at Israeli farms and fisheries have been trained in less than 30 minutes, Liberman said, to operate the cannon to scare away birds migrating between Europe and Africa. He said nearly a dozen systems have been operating accident-free in Israel for nearly two years.

Hmmm.

Israel Matzav: Israel's scariest technology?