Sting-ray weapon could be used

SECRET WEAPONS: Sting-ray weapon could be used against Taliban

AMERICAN forces in Afghanistan may use top-secret weapons in the war against Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda organisation.

New weapons, such as stealth helicopters and "directed energy weapons", which drive off approaching infantry with painful rays, are already in the arsenal of military planners as they attempt to track down and destroy the Al-Qaeda forces.

Up to $500 billion has been spent in 20 years on such weapons as part of what are known as "black projects".

For the fight against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, silent helicopter technology would be of the greatest benefit to frontline forces. The American military has worked for about 20 years on at least two helicopter projects. One is ultra-quiet, the other so stealthy that Stinger missiles would be unable to lock on to them.

There was a glimpse of the technology in 1988 when a unit of secretly converted US army Bell OH-58D helicopters, stealth-modified and heavily armed, was deployed to the Persian Gulf off American frigates to protect commercial shipping from Iranian fast-attack boats.

US sources say that at least one of the helicopters had a seat lashed to its side to allow a soldier with a silenced sniper rifle to shoot Iranian Revolutionary Guards on the decks of oil platforms being used as bases for the attacks.

Military scientists have also been working on a "reactive skin", enabling aircraft to change colour to blend into their background - a visual stealth to add to the radar and infrared kind already in place on the F-117A stealth fighter and the B-2A stealth bomber.

Yet another innovation is a millimetre-wave ray, developed in the past 10 years at a cost of about $40m. It is intended to heat moisture in the outer skin enough to sting surrounding tissue like scalding water. It is said to cause no lasting damage.