North Korea's pilots, gunners, and radio operators run to their aircraft, only to find that genetically engineered bacteria have eaten away the tires and other rubber components. Planes already in the air lose contact with their base as a computer virus infiltrates their avionics and cuts off all transmissions. An odorless liquid sprayed from U.S. and South Korean F117-A stealth fighters showers ground troops stationed along the border, turning gasoline into gooey slush and cordite--necessary for guns to fire--into harmless black dust.
A second allied attack wave drops barrel-size canisters emitting flickering laser light and a low-frequency hum audible for miles. Blinded enemy soldiers fall unconscious under the spell of the psycho-corrective devices; they will feel no aftereffects other than a dull headache when they awaken.
Pyongyang capitulates a few hours later. Death toll on both sides: Zero.
Welcome to the future of war and law enforcement, where the object isn't to kill and destroy but to restrain and disable, where Dirty Harry carries a stun gun loaded with rubber bullets and Rambo trades in his grenade launcher for protein foam. Over the last 10 years, a fascinating--and largely classified--field of research has devoted itself to "nonlethal weapons": devices that aim to disable guns, tanks, and other equipment and to stop fleeing enemy soldiers or suspects. The resulting devices wouldn't seem amiss in the latest Schwarzenegger blockbuster, and some of them are already in the hands of troops and law-enforcement officers around the world.
The search for nonlethal weapons began in 1985 when the U.S. Supreme Court banned the use of lethal force to stop a fleeing suspect with its decision in Tennessee v. Gardner. Empowered by that mandate, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) began funding a generation of less-than-lethal technologies. According to David Boyd, director of science and technology at the NIJ, the new weapons will help stop fleeing felons, ease hostage situations, and reduce violence in one-on-one confrontations.
The potential has been seized by the military as well. This year, the U.S. Senate approved $37 million in funding for development of nonlethals by the Department of Defense (DOD). Not only are these gentler weapons often more effective, explains Charles Swett, assistant for strategic assessment in the office of the Secretary of Defense, they also cost less. Perhaps most important, they provide commanders and policy makers with an option that falls somewhere between deadly force and no force at all.
What sort of weapons can we look forward to in the nonlethal arsenal? Technologies under development or consideration include computer viruses that crash communications systems, blinding lights, immobilizing foams, debilitating acoustic emitters, electromagnetic pulses that disrupt electronic systems, and stun guns. Some of these are in use now, some are making their way out of the laboratories for testing, and some are still just intriguing ideas percolating in the minds of creative researchers.
Browse our Nonlethal Weapons Catalog to see what the police, special agents, and soldiers of tomorrow might use to keep the peace.
Copyright (C) 1996 by Omni Publications International, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.