Michael Peck
For Dungeons & Dragons roleplayers, part of the fun of make-believe adventure is searching for hidden chambers where the monsters keep their treasure. For that matter, it's a familiar theme in horror movies to have villains and vampires pop out from behind walls and bookcases.
But for U.S. commandos, hidden compartments are not entertainment. They are obstacles to a successful mission to capture fugitives, or seize documents and weapons. And on a house raid in hostile territory, there isn't a lot of time to go tapping on walls to find a stash.That's why U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) wants a detector that can quickly spot where the loot is hidden. The goal of the research project is to develop a handheld device that can detect hidden chambers in an average-sized room (168 square feet) and at a range of about 6.5 feet during sensitive site exploitation, or SSE, operations.
The sensor should be able to penetrate to a depth of 2 feet and have enough battery power to run for forty to fifty minutes. However, while it needs to detect hidden spaces, it doesn't need to scan the contents inside. “It doesn't have to 'see' thru a metal surface/container; the presence of a metal chamber in a wall would be a suspicious indication,” SOCOM says.
The sensor should be able to penetrate to a depth of 2 feet and have enough battery power to run for forty to fifty minutes. However, while it needs to detect hidden spaces, it doesn't need to scan the contents inside. “It doesn't have to 'see' thru a metal surface/container; the presence of a metal chamber in a wall would be a suspicious indication,” SOCOM says.
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/us-commandos-want-technology-special-forces-raids-22731
