posted 06-18-2004 07:12 AM            

From NEW SCIENTIST ...

Sweeping stun guns to target crowds

19:00 16 June 04

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Weapons that can incapacitate crowds of people by sweeping a lightning-like beam
of electricity across them are being readied for sale to military and police
forces in the US and Europe.

At present, commercial stun guns target one person at a time, and work only at
close quarters. The new breed of non-lethal weapons can be used on many people
at once and operate over far greater distances.

But human rights groups are appalled by the fact that no independent safety
tests have been carried out, and by their potential for indiscriminate use.

Taser success rates by distance

The weapons are designed to address the perceived shortcomings of the Taser, the
electric-shock gun already used by 4000 police departments in the US and
undergoing trials with some police forces in the UK.

It hits the victim with two darts that trail current-carrying wires, which limit
its range to a maximum of seven metres (see graphic). As a single shot,
short-range weapon, the Taser is of little use in crowd control. And Tasers have
no effect on vehicles.

Ionised gas

These limitations are beginning to be overcome. Engineers working for the US
Department of Defense's research division, DARPA, and defence companies in
Europe have been working out how to create an electrically conductive path
between a gun and a target without using wires.

A weapon under development by Rheinmetall, based in Dorf, Germany, creates a
conducting channel by using a small explosive charge to squirt a stream of tiny
conductive fibres through the air at the victim (New Scientist print edition, 24
May 2003).

Meanwhile, Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems (XADS), based in Anderson,
Indiana, will be one of the first companies to market another type of wireless
weapon. Instead of using fibres, the $9000 Close Quarters Shock Rifle projects
an ionised gas, or plasma, towards the target, producing a conducting channel.
It will also interfere with electronic ignition systems and stop vehicles.

"We will be able to fire a stream of electricity like water out of a hose at one
or many targets in a single sweep," claims XADS president Peter Bitar.

Solid-state lasers

The gun has been designed for the US Marine Corps to use for crowd control and
security purposes and is due out in 2005. It is based on early, unwieldy
technology and has a range of only three metres, but an operator can debilitate
multiple targets by sweeping it across them for "as long as there is an input
power source," says Bitar.

XADS is also planning a more advanced weapon which it hopes will have a range of
100 metres or more. Instead of firing ionised gas, it will probably use a
powerful laser to ionise the air itself. The idea has been around for decades,
says LaVerne Schlie, a laser expert at the US Air Force Research Lab in
Kirtland, New Mexico. It has only become practical with advances in high-power
solid-state lasers.

"Before, it took a laser about the size of two trucks," says Schlie. "Now we can
do it with something that fits on a tabletop."

The laser pulse must be very intense, but can be brief. So the makers of the
weapons plan to use a UV laser to fire a 5-joule pulse lasting just 0.4
picoseconds - equating to a momentary power of more than 10 million megawatts.

This intense pulse - which is said not to harm the eyes - ionises the air,
producing long, thread-like filaments of glowing plasma that can be sustained by
repeating the pulse every few milliseconds. This plasma channel is then used to
deliver a shock to the victims similar to a Taser's 50,000-volt, 26-watt shock.

Instrument of torture

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Weblinks

Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems

HSV Technologies

DARPA

US Air force Research Lab

Taser International

HSV Technologies of San Diego, California is also working on stun and
vehicle-stopping shock weapons with ranges of over 100 metres. And another
company, Ionatron of Tuscon, Arizona, is due to supply a prototype wireless
vehicle-mounted weapon to the US Department of Defense by the end of 2004.

But the advent of wireless stun weapons has horrified human rights groups. Robin
Coupland of the Red Cross says they risk becoming a new instrument of torture.
And Brian Wood of Amnesty International says the long-range stun guns could
"inflict pain and other suffering on innocent bystanders".

And there are safety concerns. Of the 30,000 times US police officers have fired
Tasers, in 40 instances people stunned by them later died. The deaths have been
attributed to factors such as overdoses of drugs and alcohol, or fighting with
officers, rather than the electric shock.

In a statement, Taser International chief Rick Smith said: "In every single case
the medical examiner has attributed the direct cause of death to causes other
than the Taser." Amnesty is not convinced, however, and wants an independent
study of the effects of all existing and emerging electric-shock weapons.

David Hambling

posted 06-18-2004 09:41 PM            

This is called "biological Process Control" and is usually deployed by Helicopter.

It is listed as a non-lethal weapon by the Defense Technical Information Center. It was developed by the United States Air Force Scientific Advisory Board some 7 years ago.