US Military is currently busy working on a gun that can create quite a sound upon firing, however, doesn’t fire any bullets. Weird, right? The project is being carried out by Pentagon’s Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program. It is a non-lethal 130db noise gun that is capable of firing quick laser bursts to create a powerful sound.
The weapon, named as Laser Induced Plasma Effect (LIPE), directs sound at a specified target and makes use of insanely super quick burst of plasma energy to fire the sound wave. The aim is to reduce the civilian casualties. The thinking is to use it as a scaring tactic. The gun, incapable of firing actual bullets, shall be tested in the upcoming months. It has been reported to be so fast that it creates a blue ball of plasma and becomes charged via direct lasers to create intense sound out of thin air.
The aim of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program is to come up with weapons that ‘play a critical role in filling gaps between ‘shooting and shouting.’ It could be used to effectively shock enemies to retreat, for crowd control and for security checkpoints.
David Law, the Joint Non-Lethal Program’s Technology Chief, said, “The goal of LIPE was to recreate the sound of 130 decibels at a distance of 100 meters. That’s about as loud as standing behind a fighter jet taking off from an aircraft carrier. The loudest concert ever recorded by notoriously noisy rock group The Who was 120 decibels at a distance of 50 meters. The technology behind LIPE has been proven at short range in the lab, with long-range testing to begin in the coming months.”
