PTI
BEIJING, JULY 18
CHINA has developed a nonlethal, microwave-directed energy weapon that causes a unbearable burning sensation to its targets and can be used in crowd control, anti-pirate and anti-terrorism operations.
The WB-1 MMW Denial System can cause unbearable pain without injury by projecting millimeter-wave beams onto a human body to excite the water molecules under the skin.
The system features high operational safety and has huge potential for crowd control and suppression of terrorists, as well as other defence uses, People’s Daily reported.
It has an effective range of 80 meters, but a power enhancement upgrade will increase its range to up to 1 kilometer.
“The weapon has a promising market prospect because it is very suitable to be used by the ships of the Coast Guard and marine surveillance authorities in law enforcement operations,” Cui Yiliang, an expert on ships and naval armament told China Daily.
China is not alone in developing such weapons, often dubbed as the “pain ray”, and the US has also developed Active Denial System under the Department of Defence’s Non-Lethal Weapons Program and deployed it in Afghanistan in 2010.
‘Drone shot down by Pakistan made in China’
IN an embarrassing disclosure for Pakistan, Chinese official media today reported that the “spy” drone Pakistani army shot down along the LoC, claiming it belonged to Indian security forces, was made in China.
The drone was “recognised in Beijing as the Chinese made DJI phantom 3,” the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC)-run People’s Daily said in a report on its website.
Quoting Shanghai-based Observer website, the report said that the Phantom 3 advanced drone represents the most intelligent, most powerful, and most accessible drone to date.
Observer says the drone sells for USD 1,200 each.
DJI is a Chinese technology company founded in 2006 by Frank Wang and headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong.
The firm manufactures commercial and recreational unmanned aerial vehicles for aerial photography and videography, it said.
The People’s Daily report confirming the Chinese identity of the drone may put Pakistan military in a spot considering the close and strategic ties between Islamabad and Beijing.
The Indian Army and the Indian Air Force (IAF) had already denied the allegations.
Questioning the Pakistani allegations, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar had said the “photograph of the drone in question indicates that it’s not of Indian design, nor of any UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) category held in the inventory of the Indian armed forces.
“It appears to be of Chinese design, and is commercially available off-the-shelf.”
India’s rebuttal came as tension escalated along the LoC, following firing and mortar shelling by Pakistani forces. Indian forces have responded to the Pakistani action.
