German newspaper article: https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000262056/die-schallwaffe-von-serbiens-machthaber-wurde-identifiziert
Translation (DeepL + minor corrections):
The sonic weapon of Serbia’s ruler has been identified
Recordings on social media show sound cannons on the riot police’s off-road vehicles. The interior minister becomes entangled in contradictions.
The disturbing images of panic among the peaceful participants at a protest rally in Belgrade went around the world. In numerous videos show thousands of people suddenly trying to escape and trying to flee and stumbling over each other. Some of them fall.
An extremely shrill sound can be heard in the videos. There are many indications the use of a sound weapon by the large contingent of Serbian riot police. Serbian riot police represented in the large contingent. The regime of President Aleksandar Vučić denied any use of such a weapon, DER STANDARD reported.
However, images emerged on Wednesday that contradict the official account from Belgrade. On the images, which were shared by opposition politician Marinika Tepić on X can be seen in police off-road vehicles on which so-called are clearly fitted with so-called Long-Range Acoustic Devices (LRAD). As research by several Serbian daily newspapers has revealed, this is likely to be that this is a product of the US company Genasys.
Weapon for psychological warfare
Specifically, the Serbian police are said to have used an LRAD 450XL. This is, despite its name, a device in the medium size category. Officially the device is marketed as completely harmless: according to a video from the manufacturer, it is a powerful speaker with an MP3 player.
The speaker is designed to make announcements which, according to the manufacturer Genasys are still understandable at 1700 meters distance. The fact that that it can also be used to quell protests is indicated by the sound the sound pressure levels: Sounds at 145 decibels are said to be continuously continuously for over eight hours thanks to the built-in rechargeable battery. Sounds can be reproduced at a relatively sharp angle of 15 or 30 degrees.
Loud noises above 85 decibels are already harmful to human hearing. Acute acoustic trauma can occur from 140 decibels. A fraction of a second is enough to damage the hearing. The weapons are marketed as “non-lethal” and manufacturers do not mention permanent hearing damage.
What the manufacturer only briefly mentions in the official product video is the button for the alarm sound. Only when you click further through the website, it becomes clear that the device is mainly sold to armies or police units. According to the manufacturer 100 countries and over 500 police authorities in the USA are already using such sonic weapons.
The LRAD 450XL is also advertised as a device for psychological warfare: It can be used to acoustically simulate the sounds of gunfire or even even entire battles acoustically. Something that conventional loudspeakers fail, according to the website. The “loudspeaker” also makes it possible to immediately create an acoustic “safety corridor” and disperse crowds of people.
On the hood
The device has a magnetic stand. This allows the weapon to be mounted on the hood of a car. In the case of the material that has now emerged, this is on the Defender jeeps of the Serbian police.
Remote control is also possible. The manufacturer offers a kit for wireless control from a distance of around 200 meters. This is consistent with the statements of the anonymous police officer in the Danas report: he stated that several such weapons were used during the mass protests on Saturday.
Interior Minister Ivica Dačić confirmed on Tuesday that the police have sonic weapons. These were purchased in 2021 and are the property of the Serbian Ministry of the Interior. However, they are not used according to the Minister of the Interior: “These systems (…) have not been neither put into operation nor installed in any of our vehicles or systems installed,” Dačić told Danas.
Sonic cannon? Yes, no, maybe
The police sources quoted by the publication contradict this account. All major police stations in Serbia would have sonic weapons, they say. Research by the newspaper Vreme also comes to the same conclusion.
Dačić had previously stated that the Ministry of the Interior had neither a sonic cannon nor similar sonic weapons. It was later said that this claim was “clumsy”. “What was meant was that the Ministry of the Interior has not included this instrument in its arsenal of means of coercion,” Dačić explained. And: “These systems are in boxes in our warehouses.” On Wednesday afternoon, things sounded different again: yes, sonic weapons were available, but they had only been used as loudspeakers, Dačić explained at a press conference.
President Aleksandar Vučić had categorically ruled out the possibility that the Serbian army had sonic cannons. A diversionary tactic, because it is obviously not the army, but the police police that uses such systems.
At the same time, Vučić announced legal action against all those who accuse the police of using such weapons. Furthermore it was said that a drone gun had triggered the panic, which is highly doubtful from a technical point of view. In principle, drone guns are nothing more than jammers, and these are completely harmless to humans.
“At a moment when everyone was quiet, when thousands and thousands and thousands of people were completely peaceful and not threatening anyone, you come up with the idea of demonstrating violence. That is an attack on on your own people,” says military analyst Aleksandar Radić, sharply criticizing the use of a sonic weapon. (Peter Zellinger, 19.3.2025)
TelegrafRS without much content: https://www.telegraf.rs/english/4075115-this-is-the-device-filmed-close-to-the-assembly-this-is-how-the-communication-tool-works
LRAD-450XL manual: https://genasys.com/content/uploads/2021/08/LRAD-450XL_D00101-Rev.-B_3-4.pdf
Miran Pogačars Video: https://x.com/MiranPogacar/status/1902310681988255912
How can these be damaged or made inoperable?
smash with big stick
From a distance though
Smash with long stick
A glass bottle that’s filled for 2/3rds with 50% gasoline and 50% diesel, with a rag soaked in the same mixture put into the neck, set aflame and thrown towards the location of the fascists.
You can mix in some crumbled styrofoam for more napalm-like burning, but that could be extremely dangerous for the fascists.
Do NOT tuck the rag into the neck, that risks the whole thing igniting in your hand or the liquid flying out in the air. The bottle should be sealed. Instead tie the rag around the bottle, so that the liquid inside only comes out and ignites when the bottle breaks (hopefully on a fascist’s head).
That’s true. (Although most European countries do not use screw caps for beer bottles)
The are other ways of sealing a bottle, for example using a cork. In a pinch pressing the metal cap back on usually works decently, as long as it’s not too deformed.
The fuel mixture matters? I thought it was enough to lix gasoline and styrofoam.
Gasoline for boom Diesel for burn
Diesel makes it burn harder and longer. But using diesel directly is less stable because it requires more heat to ignite.
Styrofoam makes it sticky.
With Styrofoam you basically created a napalm bomb…
Long range drill press.
Long range hydraulic press
Really big stick.
Dick not big enough 😢
use a rocket propelled dick then.
In case you are on a budget
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbnDr_IbdIU&t=10
Trebuchet?
Uneven globs of paint would probably dampen it enough to make it less effective.
A high powered CO2 laser could puncture the membranes probably.
If they can be remote controlled and that’s the case, anyone could remote control them. But destroying physically might be easier.
You might be able to shut it down with microwaves.
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6XdcWToy2c
It might not be so mobile, but it could easily be carried to the top of a building and then just pointed in the right direction. This depends heavily on the amount of hardening/ effectiveness of the grounding of the system, cone configuration, inverse square law, how big of a magnetron you can get your hands on, how big your testicles and/or ovaries to touch the on switch after a 🤡 like me wires it up, etc. Its also somewhat temporary. They should be able to restart the system and it still work.
Its probably easier to harden yourself against the system with a pair of soft earplugs doubled up with hard plastic ear protection as in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXKTBQBugIA
A small team with some plywood/ plastic shields, in combination with ear protection should be able to almost walk up to it.
It seems like Euro’s are more concerned with sonic weapons than tear gas/ pepper spray? Its far more common at the actions I’ve been at for things to get spicy than for sound cannons to be deployed.
Tear gas and pepper spray are also very common here in the eu. This appears to be one of the few cases where a sonnic weapon has been used (at least to my knowledge)
Never heard of such weapons being used by european police too.
spoiler
I never really appreciated how perfectly the lid turns to clearly display the “jam” logo despite crashing into the thing. And it’s not like it tumbles off, it stays legible.
Beautiful
Direct hit from an RPG? Fuck knows.
I guess it’s hard to phisically damage it directly with some flying objects since it’s protected by the police. But you could damage it with a high energy electro-magnetic impulse pointed directly to the LRAD, as close to it as possible. Depending on the impulse you might hurt people by that.
Since when are EMPs capable of hurting people?
Microwaves are capable of hurting people.
Ah OK. Thanks.
I’m wondering if simple noise cancellation headphones would work to defend against these. They use sound wave to hurt me, I use sound wave to cancel their sound wave.
Nah, 150-160dB is about the loudness of a medium caliber (7.62x51mm) rifle. But constant and super high pitched. So you’ll need proper hearing protection headsets used for construction/firearms at a minimum.
Plexiglass also helps and can be used as backing for protest signs. Which will also protect everyone behind you, granted they also have hearing protection.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXKTBQBugIA
Lots of fire crackers placed into a small container and ignited and then thrown at said device