NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Just how effective are microwaves if used as unconventional weapons?

BUMP

If highly concentrated, and over short distances, they could, in theory, be hideously destructive. Difficult to apply. Really difficult. I'll have to consult with some of our senior researchers to see if it is feasible with contemporary technology.

Colonel Will Blackman
Acting CO
Varessan Military Research and Development Centre
Varessan Commonwealth

BUMP

From what I know about microwaves it will only work against organic material and anything metal will just reflect it. So microwave weapons will probably backfire and hit your own troops in the end.

From what I know about microwaves it will only work against organic material and anything metal will just reflect it. So microwave weapons will probably backfire and hit your own troops in the end.

Don't metal things catch fire when put in microwave ovens?

I thing some kinds of metal. If I put steel in a microwave it would probably blow up the microwave but aluminum foil starts to burn.

BUMP

OOC (impersonating Hitler): I vant ze microvave generator on ze stealth UAV to fly into enemy territories and cause uber organic damage!

BUMP

Might want to look at this (http://www.buergerwelle.de/d/doc/gesund/munzert-directed-energy-weapons.htm). Most topics of dicussion using microwave weapons seem to view them as an EMP-type weapon. More anti-electronics than anti-personel.

Generally, if you're using microwave weapons, do not make it an impact-expolsive device. Microwave missiles will need to be exploded in the air for maximum effect, and most types of metal usually refract/reflect microwaves, so your best bet is to use them on infantry units. Better yet, don't use them at all. If your nation hasn't signed any treaties, thermonuclear devices have much of the same effect and don't need to be timed. And metal is no problem.

BUMP

OOC: I just want them to be placed on a stealth UAV, fly it over enemy territories and make sure they can't have children for the next I-don't-know-how-many years.

I just want to know its effects (on personnel and electronics) and its levels of environmental contamination.

Still not that effective. You might want to try something with a shorter wavelength. But then I'd stop you and slap a whole mess of restrictions on you for improper warfare. So maybe not.

use X rays for that that will definately work then for sterilizing. Or if possible some type of gamma radiation projector.

use X rays for that that will definately work then for sterilizing. Or if possible some type of gamma radiation projector.

Sounds like a plan.

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/nov03/1103ebom.html

Excerpted:"Focused like a laser
The type of narrowband HPM weapons that the U.S. military is looking at offers everything that e-bombs do not. They're nonlethal, reuseable, and tunable, and they can be fired from miles away. Like a laser, the focused beam disperses only slightly over great distances. With a frequency range that is between about 1 and 10 GHz, they can penetrate even electronics shielded against a nuclear detonation. The deepest bunkers with the thickest concrete walls are not safe from such a beam if they have even a single unprotected wire reaching the surface.

A microwave beam is created much like a laser beam. Between the batteries (or other power source) and the beam sit three elements: capacitors that turn the stored energy into an electron beam of nanosecond bursts, a microwave source that converts the electron beam into focused, high-frequency electromagnetic waves, and an antenna that points and shoots the beam...."

Excerpt 2:"How big? To drive the Sinus-6's beam continuously for an entire second, you'd need to supply about 25 gigajoules—"the entire output of a typical coal-fired electrical plant for 10 full seconds," Schamiloglu says. Another reason for pulsed rather than continuous power is to avoid a problem at the output end: the air around the antenna would heat to a plasma that in turn would interfere with a continuous beam at these power levels...."
Hope that helps.

Here is one on Lethality
DO Microwave Weapons Kill (http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000CBC91-B6FD-1E51-A98A809EC5880105)