Ever since Transmetropolitan’s bowel disruptor terrified a dystopian future and Minority Report made the movie-going world wonder — if only for a fleeting moment — if they’d rather be shot with a bullet than hit with the sick stick, there have been actual weapons developed in the real world that seem straight out of science fiction. While it hasn’t been used to win a war just yet, the beginnings of sonic weaponry already exist, and the US Navy already has laser weaponry that is controlled with a device reminiscent of a video game controller. China’s new weapon, dubbed the Poly WB-1, doesn’t make you uncontrollably poop or incapacitate you through induced vomiting, but it burns you from the inside out from over half a mile (or one kilometer) away.
The Poly WB-1 uses millimeter wave beams to excite the water molecules within a victim until they heat up, causing overwhelming — but non-lethal — pain. Basically, it’s like a household kitchen microwave turned into a long-range, targeted weapon.
As you can see from the image to the right, the beam is attached to a very conspicuous truck, complete with military colors and emergency lights — you don’t have to worry about someone sneaking it through a security checkpoint at an airport or concert just yet. Publicly, at least, the the Poly WB-1 isn’t slated for miniaturization just yet, but will instead be attached to ships.
While a pain beam sounds absolutely terrifying, it’s arguably a step in a safer direction for military conflict than the tried-and-true lethal favorites of bullets, bombs, and fire. It’s also a much safer alternative to weapons that use chemical or biological agents.
Though the Poly WB-1 sounds like it’s from the future, it’s not the first non-lethal pain beam that acts like a microwave. The US developed its own microwave pain beam back in 2007, the Raytheon Active Denial System, as a means of crowd control. It was deployed in 2010, but wasn’t ever used — reportedly because of a 16-hour boot time, and massive fuel cost if left in standby mode after boot — and recalled the same year. It was also a satellite-like object placed atop a truck.
Even if China has figured out the boot time and fuel cost, it may be keeping the weapon as insurance or a looming threat, rather than actually using it — the negative publicity of a long-range pain beam that microwaves people might be too much for China to handle if the rest of the world has a problem with it. For now, just be glad you can’t sneak that thing through a metal detector.
Extreme tech
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