Essentially this
is a neatly aimed EM pulse tuned to react with the incoming vehicles wiring
harness to override all control electronics naturally shutting down the
vehicle. This is an excellent non-lethal
solution that neatly handles incoming threats.
Setting up is as
simple as measuring out and establishing appropriate signage. Better yet personnel can be in standoff mode
before the vehicle complies. It will be
much safer all around. Of course it
will not stop multiple threats as easily, but that is why you channel traffic.
The best payoff,
it becomes possible to eliminate the inevitable civilian casualties produced
when the only option happens to be a bullet.
Radio-beam
device can disable car and boat engines from 50m
E2V has developed a non-lethal weapon that can
disable the engines of motor vehicles and small boats at a distance of up to
50m in under three seconds.
Dubbed RF Safe-Stop, the unit, which weighs
approximately 350kg, has so far been integrated into Nissan Nevara and Toyota
Land Cruisers and is designed to temporarily disable a vehicle’s electronic
systems and bring it to a halt. Such non-lethal systems are said to be
particularly suited to stopping vehicles
suspected as being used as car bombs.
Andy Wood, product manager at e2v, told The Engineer
that RF Safe-Stop can be fitted also into ground, fixed base installations,
rib-type boats and that there are ‘blueprint’ ideas to integrate it into a
helicopter.
Such non-lethal systems generate intense RF
(radio frequency) pulses and Wood euphemistically said these pulses ‘confuse’
a vehicle’s electronics, rendering them temporarily inoperable.
RF Safe-Stop works differently on different vehicles
although the principle of coupling electromagnetic waves into the target’s
wiring looms remain the same.
‘At the weight of frequencies we’re taking about - L
and S-Band - the wiring loom of, say a metre…is almost the perfect aerial,’
said Wood.
The electromagnetic blast travels through the wiring
loom as a series of pulses, arriving at the vehicle’s engine management system
or immobiliser to halt it.
‘Basically the ECU (engine control unit) or
immobiliser…once affected, will try and reset. As long as you keep it
‘confused’ the engine won’t restart.’
The RF generator is driven by a solid state
modulator designed and
built at Chelmsford-based e2v and Wood explained that a UPS unit has been added
to systems designed for use on vehicles.
‘What we’re assuming at the moment is if, for
instance, you had a fully charged set of batteries you’d get about two hours of
operation, use about a 10 per cent RF energy burst from it …So [with] two hours
stand-by, you get 12 minutes of RF operation,’ he said.
‘If you’ve got it on a vehicle, or a boat…you could
be trickle charging that all the time. Unless you exceed the 10 per cent duty
cycle with something like a 100A (amp) alternator at 24V you should…not run out
of power.’
Operators of RF Safe-Stop won’t need specialist
training as e2v is aiming for a system that that allows the user to do nothing
more complicated than push a red button when the target is in range.
‘So long as he’s got a green light on his display he
knows he can push the red button and typically, in one operation, get a five
second burst,’ said Wood. ‘Normally, the effect happens in three seconds. You
should be pretty certain that with one shot you’re going stop whatever engine
it is you’re trying to stop. Then you repeat as and when - if you see the
person in the vehicle is trying to restart it you just give it another shot and
demobilise the vehicle again.’
The company recently demonstrated RF Safe-Stop at
DSEi and Wood said the technology has stimulated interest from 17 nations and
five UK government bodies.
Wood believes orders for the system will be taken in
the coming weeks, adding that e2v’s dedicated applications team can tailor RF
Safe-Stop according to requirements.
No comments:
Post a Comment