October 23, 2003	Thursday	Sha’aban 26, 1424

WASHINGTON, Oct 22: The United States is sending new high-tech systems to Iraq aimed at thwarting strikes on its forces, including a “virtual microphone” in the sky to help pinpoint snipers, the head of the Pentagon’s cradle of technologies said on Wednesday.

Other anti-guerilla gizmos would help detect roadside bombs and booby traps that have been killing US-led forces in Iraq, said Anthony Tether, head of the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

The devices use everything from lasers and acoustic sensors to electromagnetic technologies, he said, adding they would ship in the next three to four months or sooner, after undergoing stepped-up, last-minute development and testing.

A total of 203 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq since President George Bush declared major combat over on May 1, including 104 in hostile fire.

“They’re not going to be 100 per cent solutions,” Mr Tether told reporters at a breakfast forum. “But when you’re in a situation where you have no solutions, even a 25 per cent solution is going to be great.”

One reason for rushing in unproven technology, he said, was “to put uncertainty into somebody who wants to do something (hostile) that now he may get caught ... That’s what we’re trying to do”.

One project uses a large ground-based carbon dioxide laser to project a kind of microphone in the air with a range of “tens of kilometres” to determine where a shot came from by gauging particle movements, Mr Tether said. —Reuters