AN/EDQ-12 ANDREWS
In case you want to know what that means: Army Navy/Countermeasure
Radiac Special Purpose. Twelfth system of its type.
I'm a big buff of DEW and RF weapons (among other things) and was interested in the tech behind the ANDREWS. I should note that there is currently NOTHING approaching the power of the CPB systems noted in Shadowrun. For all the hype on RF and DEW systems in the media - it's just that -hype. Fielded laser weapons are primarily limited to dazzling/blinding applications. Hard-kill systems are either in the very very very early stages (requiring multiple vehicles or fixed facilities) or are just plain fantasy and BS (Russian RF weapons).
We know the ANDREWS is a CPB (Charged Particle Beam) weapon. That much is clear from the writing. I assume it is electron based (could be proton-based for all it matters). The description itself is sort of puzzling, I'm no expert on particle beams obviousl, but the literature suggests the beam would quite simply cause the target to explode. Tertiary effects include effects similar to EMP. The effects are compared to a very high powered lightning bolt (in fact a PB shot is called a "bolt") so I assume that's where the description comes in, although no source mentions any electrical effects as being an aspect of the bolts.
It should be noted that a CPB, unlike a laser, does not albate the target and can actually penetrate shielding and armor, so it will either dump enough energy into the target to cause it to explode or sufficienctly damage internal mechanisms enough to disable it.
Military applications of particle beams also includes one nasty cousin called the "radiation cone" weapon that simply dumps massive amounts of hard radiation into personnel. About 8 krads is noted as being the threshhold for fast kill. Needless to say the system would be insanely large, but the tech that reduces the CPB of the ANDREWS to a semi-portable size would also allow other systems of this type.
Open-source information is pretty dated but since so little advances have been made in the field it's actually pretty current as far as it goes. The Russians planned on deploying proof-of-concept NPB systems in the early 90's but it got canned. One reason is because the first gen system weighed 30 tons and would require an Energiya. Compare that to the ANDREWS :)
LINKS
Here's some info I found really
quick:
http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1984/jul-aug/roberds.html
http://web.nps.navy.mil/~library/bibs/dewweb.htm
http://www.au.af.mil/au/2025/volume3/chap14/v3c14-3b.htm#v3c14-3b