The fact that sound can both heal and cripple, people understood for a long time, but until recently this knowledge had almost no practical application. Today, acoustic weapons are successfully used to disperse rallies and defend against pirates.
Bells and trumpets
People have long understood that sound can be a weapon. From the earliest historical examples, one can recall the famous Jericho trumpets, when during the siege of Jerusalem, the troops of Joshua destroyed the walls with the sound of trumpets. The historical reliability of this attack has not been confirmed, but the principle itself is important: the perception of a sound wave as a damaging factor.
The sound of a special frequency can not only cripple, but also heal. Today it has already been scientifically proven that bell ringing has a healing effect. When ringing at frequencies above 25 kHz, the shells of harmful microorganisms are destroyed, which is why they lose their destructive power. Bells are not liked by hepatitis and flu viruses. However, not all viruses die from bell ringing, only about 40%.
In addition, in the zone of the sound effect of the bell, due to the decrease in the hydrodynamic resistance of the vessels, the blood and lymph flow increases. In Russia, with the help of a bell, migraines and melancholy were treated. It was believed that the ringing of bells perfectly awakens a person after a sleepless night and sobering up after the abuse of strong drinks.
Sound metrics instead of radars
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With the development of science and technology, the military began to pay more and more attention to the potential of using sound for combat purposes. In particular, the Wehrmacht was developing its acoustic weapon, but Germany, fortunately, went down the wrong path. The German sound cannon used low-frequency sounds (infrasound) as a destructive force, which cannot be directed by a beam in a given direction, so not only the experimental enemies, but also the operators themselves, suffered from the weapon. Today, infrasound is used to scare away rodents and moles in areas, for this a directional beam is not needed.
Developments on the creation of directional acoustic weapons were carried out in parallel both in the United States and in the USSR. Even during the First and Second World War, sound metering equipment was used to recognize approaching enemy aircraft and determine the location of artillery crews, but with the development of radars operating on radio waves, interest in acoustic weapons began to disappear, since they were less effective for their intended purposes.
An example of the use of sound as an element of psychological suppression of the enemy can be considered the operation of tank forces near Kiev, when the tanks of General Pavel Rybalko advanced on the enemy under the powerful howl of sirens. The offensive was also accompanied by a light attack by antiaircraft searchlights. The combination of these methods led to the disorientation of the Germans and their flight.
LRAD
Interest in acoustic weapons returned during the Cold Wave. This was due, first of all, to the starting development in the field of non-lethal weapons. The growing civic activity, when thousands of people began to go out to protest actions and mass marches, showed the expediency of this work. Civilians are not military, you won't shoot at them with machine guns, but you need to keep the disgruntled masses under control.
After the Cold War, with the spread of local wars (Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yugoslavia), acoustic weapons found use. Experience has shown that the use of aviation and military weapons leads to significant losses among the civilian population. Acoustic weapons were especially relevant in dispersing mass protests and unauthorized rallies.
The first acoustic weapon to be used successfully was the LRAD sonic gun produced in 2000 by American Technology Corp. This name is an abbreviation for "long range acoustic hailing device".
LRAD develops a sound pressure of 162 dB at a distance of one meter from the instrument. This sound is dangerous to the human ear. For comparison: the sound of a fire siren is 80-90 dB. The frequency of sound vibrations "LRAD" is 2100-3100 Hz. The sound of the device has a depressing effect on the human nervous system and can even lead to painful shock. The radius of destruction of the installation is from 100 to 300 meters, while the sound is heard at 9 kilometers. The farther a person is from LRAD, the less impact the sound has on him.
Unlike its predecessors, "LRAD" is very mobile, its weight is 20 kilograms, the diameter of the installation is 83 cm.
In 2005, Somali pirates decided to hijack the cruise ship Seabourn Spirit with 151 passengers on board. They began to fire at the ship from machine guns and grenade launchers, but when trying to board, they literally began to slide along the sides and soon retreated in disgrace. The crew of the liner “fired” at pirates of the XXI century from the installation “LRAD” installed on board. Ship defense is by far the most famous example of the use of acoustic weapons. After this incident, global trading companies literally bombarded the American manufacturer with orders.
Hyperspike
Today, the champion of power among the brands of sonic weapons is the acoustic warning device manufactured by Wattre Inc. called the Hyperspike. Within a meter radius from the device, the sound pressure is 182 dB, at a distance of 128 meters - 140.2 dB. Considering that decibels are a logarithmic value, it turns out that the RMS amplitude of the Hyperspike, expressed in Pascals, is about 30 times greater than that of LRAD. The device is currently used on ships of the US Coast Guard, in civil and military aviation.
