Wacky Weapons' Golden Age

The 1990’s were a golden age for new (and often wacky) concepts in less-lethal weapons -- from sticky foam to capture nets, acoustic blasters to rubber ball-firing claymore mines. A new paper by Neil Davison of the Bradford Non-Lethal Weapons Research Project shows how police and military scrambled to find new types of these arms, above and beyond the traditional rubber bullets and tear gas.

Development was initially chaotic with many players involved. "Many research and development activities were characterized by opportunistic and secretive endeavors at the Department of Energy’s national laboratories, in particular at Los Alamos," Davison notes. (The sticky foam they developed turned out to be a potential suffocation hazard, but is being deployed anyway, as this is not necessarily a big issue in nuclear defense.)

The period was also marked by several high-profile events where less-lethals were tried out, more or less ad hoc. Take the siege at Waco, where various attempts to drive out the Branch Davidians ended in failure:

Before the operation to break the siege the FBI had sought other techniques to try get those inside to leave the compound including shinning bright lights during the night and playing recordings of unpleasant sounds and music. Furthermore there were reports that they had flown in a Russian scientist who had been developing techniques to alter behavior using subliminal messages. The idea was to deliver these messages during phone conversations between the negotiators and those inside but the plan fell through.

In the end CS [tear] gas grenades were used, but these failed to get the cultists to leave the building. As a result, seventy-six people died when the compound burned down. Clearly, better less-lethals were needed.

Many of the more speculative programs ended in failure, like the efforts to develop infrasound -- super low-tones -- as a weapon: “Programme ended in 1999 due to lack of demonstrated effects,” Davison notes.

Perhaps the biggest boost for less-lethals came with operations of US Marines in Somalia in 1994:

*With assistance from the Army they acquired: five types of 40mm grenade-launched kinetic energy projectiles, three types of 12
gauge shotgun projectiles, various OC spray devices, stinger grenades, flash-bang grenades, sticky foam, and aqueous foam. The foam devices were supplied by Sandia National Laboratory, which had been developing the systems for the Department of Justice. Two different laser systems were also supplied to the Marines by the Air Force, who had been conducting research on these at the Phillips Laboratory. One was the
Saber 203 Laser Illuminator, a red diode laser weapon intended to temporarily blind or “dazzle”. Another was a prototype solid-state green laser weapon. *

*During the operation in March 1995 there was very little use of these various weapons. Sticky foam was used to augment barriers, and it seems both laser systems were used on a limited basis to warn people off by illuminating them with the beam rather than being employed directly to affect vision due to concerns over damaging effects on the eye. Nevertheless the deployment of the weapons, and associated media coverage, was considered to have played an important role in deterring violence and in the successful completion of the withdrawal.
The Marines’ interest in “non-lethal” weapons was galvanized and the commander of the operation, Anthony Zinni, subsequently became an outspoken advocate. *

As the reportrecounts, the melding of the many different less-lethal programs from different organizations gave rise to the Joint Nonlethal Weapons Directorate. A host of projects are currently taking place under its aegis.

Many believe that the new technologies they develop – like the Active Denial System
'pain beam' – will prove crucial in future conflicts. Experience in
Iraq suggests that the US can defeat any conventional foe easily, but has more problems in the aftermath against unconventional forces.
Less-lethals could help.

Maintaining the support of the local population is always a key principle when fighting guerrillas, and few things lose support so much as killing civilians. As Noah noted previously, up to 50 Iraqi civilians may have died because twelve years after Somalia there is still a lack of suitable laser dazzlersto stop them at checkpoints.

Davison has already covered the earlier history of nonlethals in a previous report. But it's the story of next decade which is likely to prove the most significant of all.