Insonification for Area Denial; JSR-97-120

[6], 19, [3] pages. Footnotes. Formulae. Figures. Tables. Approved for Public Release. This report examines concepts for area denial by use of focused sound sources. A need has been expressed for technology to deny large areas and facilities within them in a way which does not kill or permanently injure. Desired features for systems which might accomplish this include 1. area coverage which may extend to as much as 1 km2; 2. persistent coverage; 3. capability for use in unfriendly areas from a remote transportable platform. The production and maintenance of intense local air disturbances has been suggested as a way of achieving this. Methods have been proposed for injecting a large amount of energy into air and rapidly directing that energy to another location. There has been interest and support for using very intense Insonification of an area to accomplish the goal. There have been reports of an acoustic attack on the U.S. Embassy in Cuba. CBS reported that it sounds sort of like a mass of crickets. But not quite. A high-pitched whine, but from what? It seems to undulate, even writhe. Listen closely: Some hear multiple, distinct tones colliding in a nails-on-the-chalkboard effect. The Associated Press has obtained a recording of what some U.S. Embassy workers heard in Havana, part of the series of unnerving incidents later deemed to be deliberate attacks. The recording, released Thursday by the AP, is the first disseminated publicly of the many taken in Cuba of sounds that led investigators initially to suspect a sonic weapon. Listen to the sound in the video above. The recordings from Havana have been sent for analysis to the U.S. Navy, which has advanced capabilities for analyzing acoustic signals, and to the intelligence services, the AP has learned. But the recordings have not significantly advanced U.S. knowledge about what is harming diplomats.