Large millimetre-wave dish antenna on an elevating trailer pedestal at first light
All systems

Sirocco™

Clears a road without firing a shot, and everybody walks home.

Non-lethal area denial · In development

Everybody walks home.

The hardest problem at a checkpoint is the gap between shouting and shooting. There is nothing in between, so the escalation goes from words to rounds in one step. SIROCCO is that missing step. A 95 GHz beam penetrates a fraction of a millimetre into the skin and produces a heating sensation nobody can stand still for. The crowd moves. Step out of the beam and it stops instantly, with no injury and nothing to recover from. It is built on the same physics as the fielded Active Denial System, in our cassette and at our price.

~900 m
Effective range · modeled
<1 s
Onset to intolerable
0
Expected lasting injury
Effects demonstration at first light: the dish emitter elevated on its trailer, and downrange a soldier twisting away from the beam with a forearm raised across his face
Effects demonstration. He is turning away, not going down, and he is unhurt

How it works

01

Fill the escalation gap

Between a warning shout and a rifle there is currently nothing. A commander who only has lethal options will eventually use them. SIROCCO gives back the decision.

02

Skin deep, by physics

At 95 GHz the energy stops in the outer fraction of a millimetre of skin. The sensation is severe and the mechanism is superficial heating, not tissue damage.

03

Instant off

The effect ends when the person leaves the beam, which is what makes it work. Nobody has to be treated, evacuated or buried.

04

Governed in hardware

Dwell limits, sector masks and range gating are interlocks in the emitter, not policy in a binder. The operator cannot hold the beam on a person.

Specification

Figures marked modeled are analytical design points subject to verification.

Frequency
95 GHz millimetre wave
Penetration depth
~0.4 mm · epidermis only
Effective range
~900 m · modeled
Onset
Sub-second
Recovery
Immediate on leaving the beam
Beam control
Steered · operator-gated dwell limit
Host
Towed trailer · vehicle · fixed site
Interlocks
Hard dwell cutout · range and sector masking
Compliance
Designed to DoD non-lethal weapons review standards
Status
In development · effects modeled

Engineering

Geometry is illustrative. Nothing on this sheet is classified.

Sirocco beam geometry and steered sector, absorption depth through a magnified tissue section, and the escalation ladder
HVD-EFX-C002 · Beam and absorption geometry · scroll to readUnclassified
The dish emitter on its trailer at night on a concrete hardstand, dish elevated toward the horizon with a generator set behind it
Emplaced. Outriggers down, generator running, dish on the horizon
Close view of the machined feed horn and support spars at the centre of the parabolic reflector
Feed assembly at the centre of the reflector
Interior of a ruggedised control shelter at night, one operator at a console with a slewing handle, the emitter visible through the open door behind
Dwell limits and sector masks are enforced below this console, not at it

Ask us about Sirocco.

Program offices, primes and end users. A HIVE engineer replies personally, usually within one business day.

Open a channel Back to the systems
Channel
briefing@hive-defence.com
Location
Southern California
Response
One business day
Handling
Unclassified only