The US uses a programme called Suter, which is integrated into the country’s aircraft. It attacks enemy networks and communications, including air defence networks. (Photo: AP/PTI)
President Donald Trump last week said that the United States’ forces had used a weapon called “the discombobulator” during the military strike on Venezuela on January 3, in which the country’s leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured. Speaking to The New York Post, Trump stated that the weapon was designed to disable enemy defensive infrastructure, and he was “not allowed” to talk about it.
The President had earlier told NewsNation, a US news channel, that a “sonic weapon” had been used in the operation. However, there is still no clarity about what the discombobulator used by the US in the latest operation comprises.
Experts told The Indian Express that the discombobulator may or may not be a single weapon and could comprise more than one capability. It could have jointly disabled Venezuela’s military defensive systems in a highly defended area.
The discombobulator could also have included systems that produce high-pitched sounds and blinding effects to temporarily deafen, blind, or disorient people during an operation.
All of these systems could have been deployed individually or in combinations to achieve the desired effect of disorienting people and disabling military defences.
- Active denial system (ADS): Also called the heat ray, it is a directed energy weapon which can affect people by penetrating their skin deep enough to create a burning sensation. This can force them to run away from the spot, and cause confusion and panic.
- Vortex ring generator: It typically uses high-pressure pulses to either hit a person or deliver a payload of stink bombs. This causes disorientation and, in some cases, nausea among the targets.
- Acoustic hailing devices (LRAD): Also known as sonic cannons, these systems can emit a highly directional, piercing sound, which is loud enough to disorient people by causing nausea, vertigo, and confusion.
- Visual dazzlers: They are high-intensity, pulsing laser weapons, which can cause a blinding impact on a person, rendering them disoriented on a battlefield. Reports from Venezuela spoke of soldiers bleeding, vomiting or being incapacitated, likely to be caused by the use of high-intensity acoustic waves.
A discombobulator could also typically involve a range of sophisticated electronic warfare (EW) systems that can jam an adversary’s air defences, including radars and sensors.
The US created the Counter-electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project, which can render electronics ineffective by projecting microwave pulses.
In the past, the US has also carried out sophisticated cyber operations. For instance, the country developed Stuxnet — a malicious computer worm — designed to disable parts of the Iranian nuclear programme. Cyber attacks are part of the suppression of enemy air defences (SEAD) missions.
Also, graphite munitions, which are non-lethal weapons designed to disable electrical power grids, can also be a part of a discombobulator.
Operators running Suter 1 can see what enemy radar operators are looking at. Suter 2 seizes control of enemy networks and can direct their sensors. Suter 3 penetrates links to surface-to-air missile launchers.
Curated by Aisha Patel
