Less-lethal weapons: Crossing over
Police Review/Jane's 6.10.2006
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By Gary Mason
In the field of less lethal weapons - particularly the next generation of devices - there is a close tie-in between civilian-based policing and the military. This is primarily because both organisations, while having very different operational objectives, want the same result.
They want a longer-range less-lethal device that can quickly incapacitate or deter assailants without injuring them or producing long-term harmful side effects. The military needs a broader range of effective, less lethal weapons because their role has increasingly developed into peace-keeping and protection missions in which use of lethal force is the least desirable option. That is why the military have funded research into the development of a wireless firing Taser with a greater range than that currently used by UK police forces.
Military to civilian technology
One area that is being explored is that of directed-energy devices - particularly those which use heat to deter assailants.
At a directed-energy weapons conference held in London this year the US Department of Defense Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate gave a presentation on the desirability of active denial systems, prototypes of which have already been developed by the US military.
Active denial systems have an extended range and an extremely small risk of injury. The Active Denial System is a counter-personnel, non-lethal, directed-energy weapon that projects a focused beam of millimetre waves to induce an intolerable heating sensation on an adversary's skin, says its developers.
The ninth annual Jane's LLW Conference takes place at the Royal Armouries in Leeds from 25-26 October. The conference aims to cover a range of LLW techniques from Europe and the US including low-light operations. For more information about this event click here.
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© 2006 Jane's Information Group
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