• Gadget makes bombs, mines go off 'on average' 20m away
    16 replies, posted
[quote=The Register] Colombian and Swiss boffins say they have developed a cunning electromagnetic device which can make landmines or terrorist bombs explode from a distance. Félix Vega and Nicolas Mora, doctoral students at the école polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, developed the bomb-triggering device as part of their doctoral theses. It works by using powerful radio waves to induce currents in the heating filaments within electrically-actuated detonators, so causing them to go off without benefit of any energy from the mine or device's firing system. The radio waves are emitted in short, intense pulses, targeted at specific parts of the radio spectrum. “We then realised that in spite of the wide diversity of these mines, they are however all in similar frequency ranges,” says Mora in an EPFL statement issued yesterday. “So we developed a system that concentrates on those, and thus loses less energy.” According to the EPFL: The EPFL Electromagnetic Compatibility Laboratory tested this system in Colombia last November, using actual improvised mines provided by a team of professional bomb disposal experts, which they were able to set off at an average distance of 20 meters. That might do for clearing small landmines or bombs, but it would be dangerous for dealing with bigger devices – and large roadside or buried bombs intended to knock out armoured or protected vehicles are all too common these days. And "an average of 20m" means, of course, that half some of the devices detonated closer than that. In many cases, too, making a bomb go off just where the bomb-maker has placed it might be construed as helping him carry out his plan. The old bomb-disposal instructor's line "we have become the terrorist, haven't we" – often delivered sarcastically to trainee ordnance-disposal operators – might become relevant here. But the two Colombian PhDs seem happy with their invention nonetheless. “Now we have to develop a smaller prototype that is weather-resistant and especially easier to transport in the field,” says Vega. “In Colombia, we often have to travel on small country roads.” Alternatively, one might try calling in some US "Prowler" electronic warfare aircraft, reportedly able to detonate roadside bombs from far above. Admittedly, the Prowlers may be/have been achieving a somewhat easier task – that of inducing firing currents in long command wires used to trigger bombs as US convoys pass them, rather than tiny filaments inside the detonators themselves (or wiring inside a compact device). A long receiving antenna makes transmitting significant amounts of energy easier – it seems that not everyone remembers to use twisted-pair firing wire. Even if Vega and Mora could get their device up to the performance of US electronic-warfare planes, however, they would still be far from solving the problems of bombs and mines. It is a simple matter to build such things to function mechanically, without any electronics in them at all: no amount of cunning electromagnetic trickery will work against such a device. ® [/quote] Source: [url]http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/16/useless_bomb_gadget/[/url]
Woah that would have been really handy for that one marine who los both his legs in that live leak video.. :tf:
I can just imagine seeing every army man going around with one of them and just waving it everywhere in battle.
I wouldn't be surprised if it kills all sensitive electronics in range, too. Cellphones, computers... If it's able to induce enough current to set off a chemical fuse with heat, it will also roast transistors comfortably.
This will be really useful for removing the landmines from previous wars in many 3rd world countries (mainly in Africa).
Device makes bombs go off in certain radius. Kids playing on top of a bomb. Someone sucked balls at making the bomb and thus doesn't explode even with kids playing on top of it. Convoy with this device goes past the kids. Soldier waves at the kids, a happy smile on his face. A second later, he stops smiling.
Reminded me of this [img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5636656/AggressiveDefenseSystem.png[/img]
Nice, mines are such a bunch of shit. They get dug in all over the place and then left there when the conflict is over or the parties lose interest and for decades to come playing children step onto them and other innocent people who had nothing to do with it, and having to remove them with trained monkeys or even people is idiotic and not easy to accomplish. (Robots are not always available, or affordable. You can be happy if some group/organization takes up the task of removing them.) For the most part they just get left there and thats it.
WARNING: May cause people with pacemakers to unexpectantly to keel over and die.
Does it work on bombs with coax cables?
20m away? Would you still get hit by shrapnel?
[QUOTE=Zethiwag;28114625]20m away? Would you still get hit by shrapnel?[/QUOTE] I'm guessing you'd send a robot with the device strapped to it within range and trigger it that way, and there's always room for improvement and refinement. Man, think about how useful this could be if projected over an entire battlefield, all of the enemies explosives would spontaneously detonate, of course you would need to make sure your equipment is shielded or else bad things will happen.
[QUOTE=Zethiwag;28114625]20m away? Would you still get hit by shrapnel?[/QUOTE] mount device in IED-resistant(ish) vehicles ?? life saveR~
Or: Run all people and luggage through a room with this device who are at an airport: No breach of security, and all terrorists would be dealt with accordingly to the damage they wished to cause.
I would assume the device works by focusing the radio waves in a line, instead of just emitting it all round, to get the maximum power without fucking over their own communications. Not something where you just install a bomb-blower-upper on your jeep and run through a minefield. [editline]17th February 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=DoctorSalt;28115100]Or: Run all people and luggage through a room with this device who are at an airport: No breach of security, and all terrorists would be dealt with accordingly to the damage they wished to cause.[/QUOTE] And cause any electronics they carry with them that uses the same wiring to get cooked? [editline]17th February 2011[/editline] Is there an english translation of the thesis? I'd be interested to read up. Hell, some diagrams would be awesome. [editline]17th February 2011[/editline] If it's actually released
There was a device similar to the one in the OP in the American remake of the TV show "V". In the show, there's a device that was used to blow up terrorists' bombs in their safe-house. The episode was just on Tuesday. I don't recommend the show though, I find it to be rather predictable and dumb.
I read it as miles.
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