Set your PHASR to stun

[Captain Kidd]

US military develops less than lethal laser weapon

The US government has unveiled a "non-lethal" laser rifle designed to dazzle enemy personnel without causing them permanent harm. But the device will require close scrutiny to ensure compliance with a United Nations protocol on blinding laser weapons.

It looks like it might use a rangefinder to determind the distance to the target and will adjust its power level to match. Not that I would volunteer to test that theory. The thing even looks a bit like a beefy version of a phaser rifle... Imagine that; with the acronym shoehorning they did, molding it match is easy.

[novaderrik]

i wonder if it is easier to accurately aim than a Trek phaser?

[SolusLupus]

Looks fun. ^_^

[The Supreme Canuck]

Er... kind of hard to hit a target's eyes, isn't it?

[SolusLupus]

Er... kind of hard to hit a target's eyes, isn't it?

Well, it depends. If you're firing a weapon where every shot is an individual shot, then yes - it's hard to hit the eyes when you can only hit during one second and have no real way to tell if you're really going to hit it (such as using firearms).

however, using a "spray" weapon (like a hose), it's much easier to hit someone. You have a larger area, and you can take time to "aim" with what you're firing with as well -- I mean, you can hit a lot of very small things with a laser pointer, for instance, just taking time to aim after "firing" it.

[The Supreme Canuck]

Oh, good point. Makes sense.

[publiusr]

Or they could save a bundle of money and buy a timing light--which is all this is.

I seem to remember a proposed Soviet weapon called the "Elipton." Any info about that?

[Damburger]

Laser blinding weapons are nasty, and I don't buy for a second that they can garuntee not doing permanant damage whilst still having a viable weapon.

For a long time military weapons have been designed to main not kill, because a dead soldier can simply be left behind, whilst a wounded one has to be taken care of which ties up another man. Blinding people permanantly unfortunately is a natural progression of this philosophy.

edit: even if the thing does work as advertised, its asking for abuse. You could get an abu ghraib kind of incident where somebody holds somebodies eyes open and fires the thing point blank for 30 seconds straight. Or you could get enterprising soldiers 'chipping' their weapons so the rangefinder thinks the target is further away than they actually are.

[SolusLupus]

Yay, anti-military propaganda

Laser blinding weapons are nasty, and I don't buy for a second that they can garuntee not doing permanant damage whilst still having a viable weapon.

They're attempting to make it as good as possible to prevent permanent damage. What would you rather have us do? Just keep shooting foes, and never look into any "non-lethal" weaponry? Or do you have other non-lethal weaponry in mind?

Also, tazers, stun-guns, etc., can actually be deadly as well, if the victim you are shooting has a bad heart.

For a long time military weapons have been designed to main not kill, because a dead soldier can simply be left behind, whilst a wounded one has to be taken care of which ties up another man. Blinding people permanantly unfortunately is a natural progression of this philosophy.

Which makes the assumption that the attempt of the laser weapon is to blind them.

even if the thing does work as advertised, its asking for abuse. You could get an abu ghraib kind of incident where somebody holds somebodies eyes open and fires the thing point blank for 30 seconds straight.

And they could also use a knife and stab the victim in the eyes. There are other low-tech methods of blinding foes. Should we give up the laser weapon automatically? Yeah, that's logical.

Or you could get enterprising soldiers 'chipping' their weapons so the rangefinder thinks the target is further away than they actually are.

Sure, if you can get a soldier that can successfully do that without breaking the weapon. Tip: It's unlikely that they could make those modifications safely, nor is it likely that their commanding officer would be pleased.

[Damburger]

Yay, anti-military propaganda

Wonderful, another military worshipper.

Regardless of if it offends your sense of loyalty, my arguments were perfectly valid. Giving soldiers another potential instrument of torture isn't a wonderful idea.

[SolusLupus]

Wonderful, another military worshipper.

On the contrary, I do not worship the military in any way, shape, or form. I just tend to think that people are generally good people, and I doubt that soldiers would immediately jump at the ability to torture people as you claim.

However, I've heard of a lot of propaganda that paints the military to be as horrible and as evil as possible.

Some of that propaganda is actually true, though. (For instance, some soldiers really did awful things in the Vietnam War).

Some of it isn't.

Regardless of if it offends your sense of loyalty, my arguments were perfectly valid.

And regardless if it offends your sense of paranoia, my arguments are perfectly valid as well.

[publiusr]

Here is something for thought.

There has been a lot of talk about beamed energy propulsion.

What better way to disguise a laser weapon? Something big enough for Leik Myrabo to use could gut any Galileo satellite a nation barred from GPS might use. That concerns me. A big laser in space can zap land mines where debris from explosions won't hurt comsats. But shooting up with ground-based systems could make for an international incident.

He is a model conspiracy for you. Some of the hangars at "Area 51" aren't hangers at all, but laser or radar weapons. Levy's telescope is not in a round structure, but a boxy structure that rolls back. The hangar door raises up to let the mirror have clearance. Or the roof itself is an emitter.

No alien spacecraft, and few test planes, with the Boeing Phantom works doing much of that. Buran was a 'copy' of Columbia--maybe Groom Lake is a copy of Sary Shagan and Terra-3.

Just a thought.

[doltish]

Giving soldiers another potential instrument of torture isn't a wonderful idea.

What tools of war aren't a potential instrument of tortue? Metal wire, sheets of paper, surgical tools, and just about any other thing that can be found on a military base can also be used to torture people.

The last thing the DoD needs is blind Iraqi people being interviewed on TV telling the world that the last thing they saw was a green light and the face of GI Joe.

They are making this thing so they don't have to shoot the guys in the face - this sounds about as close to anything that can be noble in war.