|
Military and security forces have been using less than
lethal weapons for many years. Yet, except for specific chemical
agents, most of these measures were based on "brute force", and
required physical close encounters with the target which can rapidly
escalate to lethal means. Involvement of military forces in
peacekeeping, law enforcement, humanitarian assistance, and homeland
security missions supports the demand for non lethal or less than
lethal capabilities that offer maximum flexibility in the use of
force. Non lethal systems provide commanders with weapons explicitly
designed and primarily employed to incapacitate personnel or
materiel while minimizing fatalities, permanent injury to personnel,
and collateral damage to property and the environment.
 When properly used, non lethal weapons should result in no injuries,
fatalities or after effects. When used in military applications,
non-lethal weapons are useful in crowd control and riot situations,
where hostile forces take cover in crowds, in operations in urban
terrain, or anti-terrorist actions where minimize collateral damage,
or in counter-terror activities, in hostages situations.
Non lethal technologies generally fall into four
categories: chemicals, electrical devices, blunt impact munitions
and directed energy. This article focuses on the military
applications of anti-personnel non lethal weapons. Among such
weapons are advanced incapacitating agents, electrical shock
devices, laser, acoustic and high power microwave directed energy
weapons. |
