A couple years ago, I wrote an in-depth profile of Pete Bitar, a lightning-weapons entrepreneur from Indiana. His company, Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems, was marketing less-lethal directed energy weapons. Unlike Ionatron, which received a good chunk of its funding through congressional pork, Bitar, a newbie in the defense world, got his initial money after applying through an open competition for small business innovative research proposals. One of his first contracts was for a lightning weapon.
I followed Bitar's story through several months of his battle to break into the ultra-competitive weapons market. Some of Bitar's ideas -- like the lightning gun -- seemed far-fetched. The company's penchant for photoshop and Styrofoam models didn't help either. But I admired his entrepreneurial spirit. I have to admit, however, I had my doubts that his company would last.
But it appears that two years later, Bitar is doing a pretty good business (or at least he's still in business). According to a local paper:
It looks like the bulk of Bitar's business is now in "optical distractors" (similar to LE Systems' Dazzler), designed to temporarily disorient an aggressor. When last I spoke to Bitar, he was also hoping to break into the counter-IED business, but couldn't say much about it.
His lightning gun, I suspect, never got much beyond the Styrofoam stage.
