- A non-lethal artillery shell designed to disable all
the enemy's electronic equipment without killing anybody has been
developed at a secret site in south-west England.
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- The shell was designed following revelations that Russia
was well ahead of the West in the development of so-called radio-frequency
weapons. A paper given at a conference in Bordeaux in 1994 made it clear
that the Russians believed it possible to use such weapons to disable
all of an enemy's electronic equipment.
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- Written by Dr A B Prishchipenko and entitled Radio Frequency
Weapons on the Future Battlefield, it described Soviet research dating
back to the late Forties, provoking near panic among western military planners.
It gave credence to the nightmare scenario of a high-technology war in
which all the radio, radar and computer systems on which their weapons
depended would be disabled leaving them completely defenceless.
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- Then two years ago, it emerged that the Russians had
developed an electro-magnetic device, a so-called E Bomb, capable of disabling
electrical and electronic systems and which could be carried in a briefcase.
Amid intelligence reports showing that the IRA had discussed the possibility
of closing down the City of London with an E Bomb, British research into
the technology was stepped up.
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- Matra BAe Dynamics set to work on producing a western
version, as well as a means of countering the Russian weapon, in its Novel
Technology section. It has now persuaded the MoD that the weapon is feasible.
As a result of "a highly successful demonstration", the team
won the BAe Systems Chairman's Gold Award for 2000.
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- The announcement of the award made no mention of the
type of weapon other than to say that it offered "a new capability
for exerting force or the fear of force, a completely new war fighting
capability to coerce and disable an adversary without inflicting lethal
force". At the same time, the MoD published a summary of requirements
for "Radio Frequency Munitions delivered by 155mm shell or rocket"
as a possible future requirement, the first step in the procurement process.
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- The shell or rocket will follow the normal trajectory
of a standard missile but contain only a few grammes of explosive used
to open it up as it approaches the target. An array of aerials then spring
out and a burst of radio frequency of less than a second's duration is
transmitted, disabling all electronic equipment within a given range.
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- The weapon will allow commanders to disrupt completely
the enemy's command and control systems. Computers on weapons, tanks and
aircraft will crash and radios and radar systems will become useless. The
weapon will also bring the civil structure to a standstill, causing national
telephone, television and radio networks to go down and electrical grids
to collapse.
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- Used properly, the weapon can be deployed even in areas
of concentrated population without risk of civilian deaths. This makes
it particularly useful where the enemy is deliberately concealing its military
assets in civilian areas. The system is low cost and can be deployed rapidly
and without warning, making it very difficult to counter.
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- One senior military officer said it was possible the
new weapon might lead to the situation where an enemy could be conquered
without fighting. "If you can take out the civilian economic infrastructure
of a nation, then that nation, in addition to not being able to function
internally, cannot deploy its military by air or sea, or supply them with
any real effectiveness, if at all."
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