Non-lethal Weapons – Future Forecast

Non-lethal Weapons – Future Forecast

This post is also available in: heעברית (Hebrew)

The future battlefield is nothing like that of the past. If history has taught us of wars being fought between armies in the open field, sterile of citizens, then the present, and probably the future as well, shows us that the tables have turned and that now the battle and military clashes occur in urban areas which aren’t free of citizens. In light of this, armies around the world, who usually try and hurt as few un-involved citizens as possible, aim to develop and put to use non-lethal weapons.

Mr. Ofer Fridman, a doctoral student who specializes in non-lethal weapons in Reading University in England, gave a speech in the Future Forces conference in Herzlyia and said that different security services, whether it’s the army or other law enforcement agencies, have to mind these questions in order to charactarize the weapon they are looking for:

  1. What affect do they want to cause the other side? (In this context it’s important that the affect is temporary and reversible.)
  2. What way should the weapon be used? Shooting or throwing?
  3. For what lengthes is the non-lethal weapon intended?
  4. Will the weapon be shot via rifle or gun?
  5. What will be the size of the weapon? (bigger=more affect)
  6. What is the mission requiring the non-lethal weapon? While law enforcement agencies want to disperse demonstrations or disturbances of peace, rescue hostages etc., the military forces strive to use non-lethal weapon to prevent escalation, create a way to operate when instructions regarding use of fire limit the ability of the military to operate, and to seperate innocents from enemy soldiers, as well as to prevent the enemy from entering a certain territory.

Fridman goes on to explain that while the police force has total seperation between lethal and non-lethal system, the military’s operating conditions are more dynamic and the transition between dealing with citizens to dealing with obvious enemies can be very quick. That is why, unlike the police, the military uses weapons of hybrid capabilities, meaning they can shoot as both lethal and non-lethal weapon in one.

Towards the end of his lecture, the speaker tried to predict the field of non-lethal weapons. He said that in the future, the affective distances to operate non-lethal weapons will grow and that systems invented will be based on existing systems instead of inventing new ideas each time. The systems will also, he said, be smaller than the ones currently in use and their range of capabilies will be wider – from much more deadly to much less than what is in use today.

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