The "Discombobulator": Unpacking the Physics of the Weapon That Captured Maduro | Hacker News Reader

The "Discombobulator": Unpacking the Physics of the Weapon That Captured Maduro

medium.com

16 pointsmojosam12 comments

There were some early reports (2008) of the microwave auditory effect being less significant than heat:

>Bill Guy, a former professor at the University of Washington who has also published on the microwave auditory effect, agrees. ”There couldn’t possibly be a hazard from the sound, because the heat would get you first,” Guy says.

>Guy says that experiments have demonstrated that radiation at 40 microjoules per pulse per square centimeter produces sound at zero decibels, which is just barely in hearing range. To produce sound at 60 decibels, or the sound of normal conversation, requires 40 watts per square centimeter of radiation. ”That would kill you pretty fast,” Guy says. Producing an unpleasant sound, at about 120 decibels, would take 40 million W/cm2 of energy. One milliwatt per square centimeter is considered to be the safety threshold.

Source: https://spectrum.ieee.org/why-microwave-auditory-effect-crow...

It's true that this was almost 20 years ago and, who knows, maybe it was just a cover-up, but if the math is right and those soldiers weren't subjected to a lot of heat, this explanation could be ruled out.

Then again, if you have truly built a portable high-powered microwave weapon (assuming it is truly portable and not just something you stick on a helicopter), you can easily add a couple of directional speakers using standard LRAD (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-range_acoustic_device) technology. It's just a question of packaging and maybe some extra cable shielding.

Additionally, we cannot discount the possibility that there were two different weapons. One with a longer range and dealing with radars and missile systems (HPM?) and another, possibly more "conventional", with a shorter range to incapacitate soldiers. After all, AFAIK, US military disabled radars before descending on the ground (which makes sense), so you can disable radars from hundres of meters/ some kilometers away, while close-quarter combat can happen at shorter ranges.

This sounds like the Havana Syndrome of a few years ago. We all know a particular N. American government that wouldn't mind testing a sci-fi weapon on its own citizens.

this was exactly my first thought as well. And it was long enough ago that it sure seems like it could be a test of that system, whatever it was. and we somehow weren’t able to figure out what it was or how it worked...

Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46754101

Pentagon buys device via undercover operation suspected link to Havana Syndrome

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46608913

Could be this simple lockpicking device: https://www.lockpickingsets.de/lockpicking-set/discombobulat...

Somebody at the pentagon likes World of Warcraft: https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Discombobulator_Ray

A nice, detailed write up, but still it's all conjecture.

The "known" technique of eliminating radar sites is our HARM missles.

Without radar, the missles don't have data to know where to go

See also

Government denies using 'sonic cannon' at Serbia protests

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqjdpy8dyzzo

God this fuckign hurts to read

The Subheading! Here's why it matters: - Five sentences - Three Sentences - Five More Sentences

The abbreviated point you were trying to reach - it only took fifteen minutes!

The title is bad enough: the weapon that captured Maduro?

"We went to fire our missles but then, all of a sudden, the US military made us read posts on Medium and then it felt like our brains were rattling and we started bleeding out of our nostrils."

I honestly expected more outrage from people : this weapon usage is exactly the kind of thing the Geneva convention was all about, just not mentioned by name. It's worrying that everyone is ok with one country sending troops to microwave their enemies and steal away their leader.

The Geneva convention has been ignored for a very long time. Example: Using a .50 cal on humans is against the Geneva convention and yet has been used quite frequently in combat everywhere for the last 30 years. The only benefit I have seen and experienced from the Geneva convention was to get out of palletization (their odd term for mobility training) when I was in the military as at the time I was a sole survivor DoD Directive 1315.15 derived from the Geneva convention. I was honestly surprised that even worked. Instead they made me clean ceiling lights for a few hours.

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