U.S. soldiers could be using ray guns and plastic 'ice' on the battlefield within decades, according to DARPA, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency

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WASHINGTON: Star Wars-style ray guns and plastic ice-slicks could be the future of weaponry, according to the U.S. Department of Defence.

DARPA, the Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, envisions fleeing Iraqi insurgents slipping on artificial ice sprayed on the road and an angry mob in Afghanistan dispersed by non-lethal ray gun blasts.

The agency sponsors research into numerous aspects of military operations, particularly technology, it claims, "where risk and payoff are both very high and where success may provide dramatic advances for traditional military roles and missions."

The artificial black ice is one of its newest projects. DARPA recently called for proposals from scientists to develop a polymer-based material that acts like the sheer ice that forms on roads in cold temperatures, sending unwitting drivers spinning out of control.

But the agency wanted polymer ice because it could be used against enemies in any climate, including hot, arid ones like Iraq and Afghanistan where U.S. troops are currently fighting.

The idea is to lay down the ice to cause adversaries to slip, while U.S. troops would make use of a to-be-developed 'reversal agent' - something to be incorporated into their boots and tyres - that would allow them to gain traction on the 'ice'.

"Such a system will provide unprecedented situational control and sustained operational tempo," said a DARPA spokesperson, "including the ability to shape the terrain by constraining adversaries to specific areas [and] degrade the ability of our adversaries to shoot and chase us."

Closer to development is a ray gun that DARPA unveiled last week, a so-called active denial system (ADS): a weapon that emits a beam of energy that makes the target feel a strong burning sensation on their skin, repelling them without causing genuine injury.

Mounted on a trailer, ADS is a parabolic antenna-like unit that shoots out a focussed radio-frequency beam more than 500 metres, giving it a much greater range than current crowd-control devices like rubber bullets or water cannons.

When they hit their target, the beams penetrate the skin to about 0.4 millimetres, causing a sensation that makes people think their clothes are on fire. This could be used to scare off a menacing mob without causing real injury, according to DARPA.

DARPA stresses that ADS is not a laser, nor does it use more dangerous microwave energy. "We need to discriminate - [we need] non-lethal weapons with longer ranges and universal effects. This is exactly what we get with ADS," said Colonel Kirk Hymes, the head of DARPA's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate.

It has taken DARPA 12 years to get ADS to this point, and it will be several more to get it on the battlefield. Hymes says such weaponry is part of the equipment U.S. soldiers need in the battlefields of the 21st century.

"Our warfighters have identified a need for additional non-lethal capabilities, because distinguishing between combatants and non-combatants on the modern battlefield can be very difficult," he said.