When the signal goes out over radio to shoot, there’s no warning ” no flash, no smell, no sound, no round. You just know you want to get the hell out of the way, right that microsecond.
Problem is…you’re never really sure what direction to go in.
This is one of the leading projects in the Pentagon’s semi-secret Non-Lethal Weapons Research Division. It’s called The Active Denial System, among other things. It’s also simply called The Pain Ray, by those elite few who signed on to be human guinea pigs.
The Pain Ray delivers 12 joules of energy per square centimeter, 1/64th of an inch deep into your skin. That’s just enough depth to hit your nerve endings square on the short and curlies, sending them into a frenzy. But it’s also a depth shallow enough that won’t cause permanent damage to the unlucky stiff on the receiving end. No organs get cooked, no hearts get stopped, no arteries will boil – you just cry like a baby who dropped his ice cream cone.
Source
WIRED