Disruptor rays and beams (no Audi content)

[Mike Arman <armanmik@n-jcenter.com>]

I do remember seeing something about a little cart which shot out of the
front of a police car and was supposed to run underneath a fleeing car
ahead and disrupt the ECU. Had a couple of spiky antennas on top - the
whole idea struck me as kind of Rube Goldbegrish - hard to aim, hard to
guide, perfect example of design by committee (a camel is a horse that was
designed by a committee). I'm quite sure that this particular committee has
never even SEEN a car, let alone been involved in a high-speed pursuit of one.

HOWEVER - EMF interference with various "black boxes" is very real. Second
However - the fields have to be VERY strong - A Blackhawk helicopter
crashed in Germany after flying directly in front of a multi-megawatt radar
antenna. The EMF fried the fly-by-wire controls. Newer models are
"hardened" to avoid repeats. USAF did some experiments with EMF pulses from
nuclear weapons - (remember, I DID SAY *high* powers were required) - there
was a cold war era photo of a B-52 on a wooden trestle built out of the
side of a mountain (wood so as not to affect the readings) and the B-52,
which is a BIG airplane, looked like a toy - that's how big the trestle
was! Results were classified.

Storing the power needed for generating large pulses can be done with large
capacitors - like a truckload of them - not terribly portable! - and there
are significant engineering problems in switching tens of thousands of amps
instantaneously - you could handily vaporize a crowbar laid across the
terminals, for instance.

As was pointed out, in addition to generating the pulses, you also have to
AIM them - unless you use a nuclear bomb which doesn't need to be aimed at
all, but is admittedly a rather drastic solution to stopping someone
exceeding the speed limit by 5 MPH. What is needed is some sort of "lens"
for the pulse so it fries only what you are mad at, not everything for
miles around. Besides, if you can aim the pulse, it doesn't need to be as
big - you get the maximum zap for the watt.

What I'd like is a little EMF "pistol" which would fry boom boxes and loud
car stereos. I'd even pay money for it, too!

Best Regards,

Mike Arman