Nowadays China grows economically and seems to have great plans in expanding its influence further. The Chinese military also fits in these plans and as such it develops ways of outfitting its armed forces with hi-tech weapons to have an edge when compared to the Western powers and even neighbouring Japan. One of these new types of military equipment dubbed Poly WB-1 contains a different and modified version of the banal magnetron. It’s the same old magnetron used for heating up your chicken casserole, ready-made lasagne or pre-made dishes on the microwave oven. And if you didn’t know that already the said magnetron can be bad for you.
And that’s where the weapon bit comes into play. The Poly WB-1 aided by a deflector dish or antenna of sorts can transmit low intensity radio waves up to distances of 1 Km. Apparently a concentrated beam with a wavelength measuring only millimetres could penetrate the superficial layers of your skin, which it seems is more than enough to render someone incapacitated due to unbearable pain added by lingering burning sensations. And remember, the device is meant to incapacitate and is referred as non-lethal, so it’s not meant to kill but to hurt you badly. I’m not even sure how this claim could be even remotely comfortable to digest but this is I guess a subject open for debate.
The non-lethal microwave Poly WB-1 is intended to be used by authorities for crowd control and dispersing the occasional angry mob as well as incapacitating enemy troops on the battlefield thus stopping armed conflicts without resorting to lethal measures. At least, in theory. The device however is too large to outfit the troops as a handheld prop and thus has to be mounted on large military or armoured vehicles complementing the pressurised water cannons or the tear gas arsenal. The US military also had something similar intended as a non-lethal method for crowd control. Dubbed the Raytheon Active Denial System it was tested in 2007 but subsequently abandoned due to technical shortcomings and limitations: it required 18 hours just to start, had exaggerated fuel consumption when it was in idle mode.
The Chinese microwave beam of pain Poly WB-1
This crowd-dispersing mob-repelling pain-inducing microwave device won’t win any PR points and this affects in time the public opinion. This for the time being could stall broad production and discourage the use of such a weapon and its existence in any country’s arsenal could only serve as an intimidating factor.