China develops nonlethal, microwave energy-based weapon for crowd-management

BEIJING: 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.