interesting article from January 2012, By Dan Parsons The (Joint...

interesting article from January 2012, By Dan Parsons

The (Joint Non-Lethal Weapons) directorate is a small line item in the Pentagon’s budget. In fiscal year 2010, the program received $120 million, a little more than half of which supported joint programs. That money covers the directorate’s analysis of nonlethal weapons for each military service including Special Operations Command. Responsibility for buying and fielding the devices, falls to the services.

“We’re here to guide the services through those programs. We tell them what’s out there, what it can do and help them devise service-specific nonlethals.”

-> As the directorate knows MST it sounds like everyone who's interested in non lethal in the US military would also know about MST!

They range from the familiar — flashbang grenades — to the exotic — 12-gauge shotgun rounds that fire mini Taser-like projectiles. The latter are fired at medium range out to about 100 meters, attach barbs to an enemy and deliver a debilitating electrical charge.

“But these only work from a few dozen to maybe 100 meters,” Etcho said. “Any farther than that and you run into problems with them not making contact through clothing. Get too close and a headshot, which is always a bad thing, could kill someone. Then it defeats the purpose.”

--> so they want Tazer rounds with variable velocity. who does that?

The same goes for 40mm rubber grenades, which have a limited range in which they are effective. Shoot too far and they’ll bounce harmlessly off the target. Shoot too close and they can cause serious damage, he said.

“There are a lot of challenges with range that might not be immediately obvious,” said Tafolla. “We want to be able to get out hundreds of meters. But there are challenges with physics at those ranges.”

A projectile has to be going a certain speed to reach someone at a distance, which makes current systems sometimes more dangerous than desired when they reach the target.

Weight is another issue. Troops regularly lugging 100 pounds of gear or more will balk at being asked to carry even another pound, Tafolla said. For that reason, “We have to be very judicious about what we develop and what we field,” he said. “There’s not a Marine out there who would complain about greater capability. But they don’t want to add any more weight to what they’re carrying.”

--> 40mm variable velocity, accuracy at ranges, ultra light weight....

The directorate is pushing for industry to catch up and form partnerships with services looking to increase their nonlethal capabilities.

--> formed a few this year...

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2012/January/Pages/ChallengesPersistwithNonlethalTechnology.aspx