Guard Gets Sonic Blasters, other "Non-Lethals"
It makes sense that the Pentagon "wants to equip select National Guard units with new non-lethal weapons." Troops along the Mexican border and in hurricane-prone regions could use something more than an M-16 to help keep crowds in line. But boy, are the tin hats gonna freak, when they find out that sonic blasters are part of the non-lethal toolkit.
"This move stems from a key lesson -- that an exclusive reliance on lethal force is inappropriate -- learned by the Pentagon following last summer’s deployment of active-duty and National Guard forces to the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina," Inside Defense reports.
These equipment sets consist of items that many law-enforcement organizations currently use and represent a small slice of the Defense Department’s growing effort to make use of technologies that can be used to control crowds and thwart actions of individuals without applying lethal force...
The kits, according to the Pentagon official, include non-ballistic face shields; expandable riot batons; non-ballistic body shields; non-ballistic riot shin guards; plastic flexicuffs; Tasers and Taser cartridges; FN-303 launchers, which are paint guns; and a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun for firing beanbags. It also includes riot baton training suits, riot strike pads, high-intensity white lights and containers to carry the full ensemble.
The $8.8 million request would also buy 47 Acoustic Hailing Devices, a collection of generators, amplifiers and speakers that concentrate and project sound waves -- both warning tones [often-painful warning tones - ed.] and voice commands -- to distances beyond the range of small-arms weapons.
Troops in Iraq have been dipping into the toolkits since '03. And the "hailers?" They've been used to keep the peace at the '04 political conventions, ward off Somali pirates, and shout out to Gulf Coasters after Katrina.
Sadly, the LRAD wherever it has been used, has proven to be a major disappointment. After an initial flurry of military purchases a few years ago, there have been no reorders from the US military. It has been found that a determined adversary is not easily deterred by these devices. Worse, the operator of the LRADs is in an exposed and vulnerable position, as the photograph makes clear.
The company producing these devices, American Technology Corporation, has been notorious for overstating the capability of the LRADs and the article reads like a typical overblown ATCO press release.
Posted by: Jax at August 14, 2006 8:42 AM