U.S. military to research 'battlefield illusions' weapons

[FBM]

U.S. military to research 'battlefield illusions' to baffle enemies

Will use hi-tech optics and sound to confuse enemies
Research division is investing $4 million in technology
Aims to cause 'auditory and visual' hallucinations

By Rob Waugh

Last updated at 5:03 AM on 16th February 2012


The American military's technology research division Darpa is to investigate hi tech 'battlefield illusions' designed to baffle enemy troops, according to budget figures announced this week.
The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency is investing $4 million in the project, which includes research into causing 'auditory and visual' hallucinations in enemy troops.
The technologies could be similar to current measures designed to confuse radar systems, but applied to human beings.


The 'illusions' would likely use optical technology, and will be built to be mounted on vehicles.

'The current operational art of human-sensory battlefield deception is largely an ad-hoc practice,' says the agency.

The agency aims to investigate 'how humans use their brains to process sensory inputs,' to create technologies that will provide a tactical advantage on the battlefield.


Darpa says it aims to, 'Demonstrate and assess the operational effectiveness of advanced human-deceptive technologies on military ground, sea, and airborne systems,' according to the report in Wired.

Wired magazine's Noah Schachtman says, 'This is not the first time that military researchers have tried to confuse foes with sights or sounds that aren’t really there.'


'The defense contractor BAE Systems recently developed an 'invisibility cloak' which it says can hide vehicles’ infrared signature,' says Schachtman.

'In the early years of the war on terror, many in the defense tech community floated the idea of a 'Voice off God' weapon. The idea was to use directed sound waves to convince would-be jihadis that Allah himself was speaking in their ears — and ordering them to put down their suicide belts.'

In the Fifties, the UK and U.S. governments both researched using 'weaponised' forms of LSD and another hallucinogen, BZ, for battlefield use.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... z1mc1Nn45w


So now I'm trying to think of some good visual and auditory illusions to use in battle. If the enemy were French, maybe the smell of deodorant would be enough to get them to surrender.

[Audley Strange]

So the goat starers are still powerful in Military R&D. Next week "invisible robot vampire raptors" for use in times of domestic uncertainty, and "electronic psychic anti-Hendrixes" to pied piper all those burning man poseurs further out into the desert to be burned alive by the sun and their new "giant magnifying glass drones". By the end of the year I fully expect they'll have created a steam made from stupidity and arrogance that does nothing but keep threatening National Security to keep them well paid for making up sci-fi shit without having the talent to build it or write a story about it.

[FBM]

Some of it may be plausible. There were some stories a while back about certain frequencies causing nausea in crowds, causing people to feel unbearably hot, and so forth. I'm not at all sure about visual hallucinations, though. Not sure how that would be possible without introducing chemicals into the scene, which would cause a lot of controversy.

[Rum]

[FBM]

Holy shit, that's funny to watch...

[Lozzer]

I've always loved how reserved and monotonous our narrators are from those old black and white films

[MrJonno]

Shouldnt they be using these weaposn on the their own public and troops to persuade them that they are actually 'winning' and doing something useful?

[klr]

It's been done ...

[FBM]

Shouldnt they be using these weaposn on the their own public and troops to persuade them that they are actually 'winning' and doing something useful?

They're already adept at that. They've got to come up with something that works on people who aren't civilized enough to speak American so that we can put WalMarts and Starbucks in their cities. Coca-colonization.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

[amused]

They just need a big-ass Bat Signal projector to put images on the clouds.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

There's a Trojan joke in here somewhere.

[Woodbutcher]

Wow! You could hallucinate without drugs! Imagine the market for home entertainment. Everybody would want one in their living room instead of a TV. And two in the bedroom. There's probably a market for an ipod as well....

[FBM]

Maybe they'll make an android app for it!

[Audley Strange]

Some of it may be plausible. There were some stories a while back about certain frequencies causing nausea in crowds, causing people to feel unbearably hot, and so forth. I'm not at all sure about visual hallucinations, though. Not sure how that would be possible without introducing chemicals into the scene, which would cause a lot of controversy.

You can cause audio and visual hallucinations with ELF's yes, however they are not particularly effective in comparison to a couple of grams of dried shrooms or a dunt of DMT. I'm not doubting the plausibility of it, but the effectiveness of it, plus I love all these costly hair-brained ideas that in the end would not stop wars being won by ground troops.