Pulsed Energy Projectile

EVER watched Star Trek and wondered what it must feel like to be hit by a phaser set to "stun"? If you're unlucky enough to be caught up in a riot in the future, you may well find out. Because the latest idea in non-lethal weapons is a laser that can knock you off your feet.

If it works, it could change the way the military and law enforcement authorities deal with civil disturbances. They claim that this laser is more accurate than plastic bullets, more controllable than tear gas and more flexible than either, and it can be fired accurately from up to 2 kilometres away.

It sounds like a triumph of innovation, yet no one wants to talk about it. Its developer, Mission Research of California, will not comment. The Institute for Non-Lethal Defense Technologies is silent on the matter. A leading scientist in the field says he is "not at liberty" to discuss the topic. And he can't even tell me why. The Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD) at Pennsylvania State University is the driving force behind the project, yet it took five months to deliver a statement answering my questions. And it could hardly have been less informative.

But the existence of the Pulsed Energy Projectile (PEP), as this weapon is called, is scarcely a secret. In the last financial year, US government budgets show that it received $3,173,000 in research funding.

Maybe no one wants to comment because of the way it works: the PEP will be a tough sell for any public relations team. If it's fired at you, the laser vaporises the first thing it hits. That could be your shirt - or your skin. This creates a plasma that heats the surrounding air so fast that, basically, the air explodes. The resulting shock wave will knock you to the floor.

If it sounds like just another crazy military concept, it's not. The PEP is now in the late stages of development and, judging from JNLWD documents, should hit the streets by 2006. The current plan is to mount the laser on a truck, plane or helicopter, fire it from a safe distance, and stop rioters, snipers or soldiers without risking harm to military personnel. In June, USAF Special Operations Command proposed converting a B-2 bomber so that it could perform vertical take-off and carry, among other things, non-lethal lasers to blast people, such as gunmen in crowds, from a couple of kilometres away. This airborne capability is something the US military has been seeking since the ugly scenes in Somalia in 1993.
Information about the PEP is extremely hard to come by. Halfway through researching this article, someone shut down the JNLWD's online library. All US military websites are undergoing a "detailed security review" at the moment. But some clues come from the accountants' trail (see "Show me the money") and if you look hard enough, you can glean some technical details.

The best source seems to be a report written by Harry Moore of the US Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, Picatinny, New Jersey. In 2000, Moore presented the PEP concept to a joint services meeting on small arms. His presentation is still available on the Internet (www.dtic.mil/ndia/smallarms/Moore.pdf).

archive.newscientist.com...

If it's fired at you, the laser vaporises the first thing it hits. = How is that a good thing?

Electric shock weapons could go wireless

I was fortunate enough to read the article from newscientist when it was first published. But thanks for the post, i struggled to find it online.

There's certainly enough research going on to see these wepaons introduced within the next few years. Whether they'll choose to do so is a different matter. Gas, bullets and pure brutality are already efficient methods of crowd control and law enforcement. But no doubt PEP's will be more effective in making any protesters feel completely helpless and hopeless. And as methods/tools of law enforcement what better way to knock somebody into line than a electric shock therapy.

I Remember Watching PBS and Northrop Was Having a Conference in Los Angeles and The Speaker he explained a Missile defense Laser that is on a Boeing 737, it's part of homeland security.
The Laser Could Destroy a missile
Does anybody know what's it call?

Originally posted by MorbidAngel2010
The Laser Could Destroy a missile
Does anybody know what's it call?

Yuppers its called the Star Wars Program, started with Reagan I believe. I watched a special on the History channel, and it showed a plane with a HUGE laser in its hold. This was from like the 70-80s era, any ways the plane had to line up the laser with inflight missles in order to neutralize it. Really complicated stuff back then, but today not a problem.

Originally posted by MorbidAngel2010
I Remember Watching PBS and Northrop Was Having a Conference in Los Angeles and The Speaker he explained a Missile defense Laser that is on a Boeing 737, it's part of homeland security.
The Laser Could Destroy a missile
Does anybody know what's it call?

I believe it is the excalibur system from TRW. It has also shot down artillery shells in flight.

Try going to airbornelaser.com everthing you wanted to know about the airborne laser.

Yuppers its called the Star Wars Program, started with Reagan I believe. I watched a special on the History channel, and it showed a plane with a HUGE laser in its hold. This was from like the 70-80s era, any ways the plane had to line up the laser with inflight missles in order to neutralize it. Really complicated stuff back then, but today not a problem.

this is recently part of homeland security the starwars program was just SDI Weapons

It seems that almost all information on this weapon has been suppressed. What are the chances that the PEP is being used experimantally in Iraq.
There is plenty of inforamtion about the ADS, but nothing on the PEP, strange.

It could be an extremely usefull weapon especially if deployed on a satellite.

Originally posted by ufo3
It could be an extremely usefull weapon especially if deployed on a satellite.

Yes it could and is probably the reason the Russian invested so much and still are.

One potential method might be a powerfull ground-based laser
(why was the infrared sensor on one of our satellites suddenly blinded as it passed over the USSR?) A laser on the Mir space station recently "illuminated" an ICBM during the cruise phase of its flight in space, demonstrating Soviet ability to detect and track a missile, according t o Pentagon sources (Washington Inquirer , July 24, 1987).

The purpose of Mir may indeed include bringing about "peace" -- Soviet style.
implies absence of opposition.

www.oism.org...

The Soviets are also developing an airborne laser. Assuming a successful development effort, limited initial deployment could begin in the early l990s. Such a laser platform could have missions including antisatellite operations, protection of high-value airborne assets, and cruise missile defense.

The Soviets are working on technologies or have specific weapons-related programs underway for more advanced antisatellite systems. These include space-based kinetic energy, ground- and space-based laser, particle beam, and radio frequency weapons. The Soviets apparently believe that these techniques offer greater promise for future antisatellite application than continued development of ground-based orbital interceptors equipped with conventional warheads. The Soviets also believe that military applications of directed energy technologies hold promise of overcoming weaknesses in their conventional air and missile defenses.

The USSR's high-energy laser program, which dates from the mid-1960s, is much larger than the US effort. They have built over a half dozen major R&D facilities and test ranges, and they have over 10,000 scientists and engineers associated with laser development. They are developing chemical lasers and have continued to work on other high-energy lasers having potential weapons applications - the gas dynamic laser and the electric discharge laser. They are also pursuing related laser weapon technologies, such as efficient electrical power sources, and are pursuing capabilities to produce high-quality optical components. They have developed a rocket-driven magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) generator which produces 15 megawatts of short-term electric power - a device that has no counterpart in the West. The scope of the USSR's military capabilities would depend on its success in developing advanced weapons, including laser weapons for ballistic missile defense.

www.fas.org...

The Soviets have now progressed beyond technology research, in some cases to the development of prototype laser weapons. They already have ground-based lasers that could be used to interfere with US satellites. In the late 1980s, they could have prototype space based laser weapons for use against satellites. In addition, ongoing Soviet programs have progressed to the point where they could include construction of ground-based laser antisatellite(ASAT) facilities at operational sites. These could be available by the end of the 1980s and would greatly increase the Soviets' laser ASAT capability beyond that currently at their test site at Sary Shagan. They may deploy operational systems of space-based lasers for antisatellite purposes in the l990s, if their technology developments prove successful, and they can be expected to pursue development of space-based laser systems for ballistic missile defense for possible deployment after the year 2000.


www.fas.org...