Last year, military-funded researchers were eager to talk about their new generation of non-lethal strobelight weapons. Sure, there was considerable controversy in the scientific community over whether you could really incapacitate someone with a flashing light. But these researchers thought tests would prove just how useful the weapons could be. Now the tests are complete, the results are in, and they are… classified. So what's the big secret?
The most ambitious project is the "immobilization device" built by Peak Beam Systems for the U.S. Army. Fitted to a small unmanned helicopter, "the Xenon based searchlight [can] be pulsed with a unique modulation (strobe) effect that results in immobilization to those within the beam," according to a contract announcement. Peak Beam's deal also includes "any necessary medical research on frequency and amplitude modulation of high-intensity light that will cause immobilization to those within the beam." [emphasis mine]
I talked to Peak Beam's CEO, Will Harcourt, last year. He told me then that the beam would not actually paralyze people, but would cause sufficient dazzling, disorientation and other psychophysical effects –- even in daylight and at a considerable range –- to prevent them from effectively getting away. The "square wave" (very fast rise and fall time) of the Xenon light has greater physical effects than other strobes and "takes strobing to a new level."
This month, I caught up with Harcourt to find out how the testing had gone. He told me: "Our project and all the details are classified at this time. All I can tell you is that the project is proceeding." Ahem.
Another project which received a lot of attention was the LED Incapacitator being developed by Intelligent Optical Systems for the Department of Homeland Security. This is a flashlight-sized device for use by security and police forces, using a special combination of flashing frequencies. Again, the exact effects were disputed: Would it simply dazzle and disorientate, or would it have more dramatic effects? The media dubbed it "the puke saber" after inaccurate reports that it caused vomiting (it doesn't, though some test subjects reported feeling nausea).
Human effects testing of the LEDI took place last year, and these were intended to determine the device's capabilities. Bob Lieberman, president of Intelligent Optical Systems, could only tell Danger Room that "we've gotten some very promising results from our human effectiveness tests." No more details were forthcoming.
So what are the actual effects of these devices? We know they don’t cause epileptic fits or vomiting. But they will certainly cause dazzling or flash blindness. What else might they do?
At least two researchers mentioned that . There are also medical accounts of "flicker vertigo." That's when pilots have been exposed to flickering light, such as sun through a revolving propeller or rotor, and have suffered a variety of effects including unconsciousness. The medical profession tends to ascribe these effects to previously undiagnosed light-sensitive epilepsy, but this remains a matter of debate.
There is also plenty of anecdotal information about current strobes from the police, who use strobing flashlights. This is not scientific and the evidence has not been validated, but there does seem to be a consensus that they are effective. An article in Police & Security News on the tactical use of strobe flashlights notes that they are effective at disabling peripheral vision and preventing the subject from firing back effectively. It also causes disorientation and indecision: "You definitely see a 'What the f***?' look in suspects' faces the first time you hit their eyes with a strobe. You seem to gain a second or two or even more of inaction on many suspect’s parts with the strobe, whatever the physio-psychological mechanism."
An Officer.Com article on police strobesconcurs, adding the observation that certain types of drugs seem to amplify the effects of strobes (although there is no scientific research to back this up).
Both note that a strobe from a moving source is more disorienting. These are still only "first generation" devices where the strobe is not engineered to have any particular effect. Given the amount of work that is going into the combinations of flashing rates and frequencies of the new devices, it's not unreasonable to expect that they may have stumbled on something effective. A strobe that, for example, knocks people over would be quite a handy weapon, even if it only works on a percentage of the population. Hence the secrecy.
On the other hand, outside medical and non-lethal weapon researchers remain resolutely unconvinced that strobe lights can have much of an effect. Questions were raised about experimental protocols and the results. "I'd like to see their documentation," said one skeptic. But until any reports are released, any effects will remain scientifically unproven. And a strobe is just another flashing light, and not any sort of weapon.
As a curious historical foonote, it turns out that the Canal Defence Light-- a WWII tank-mounted strobing secret weapon -- was also used for crowd control. One general claimed that CDL-equipped British and American tank divisions could have overrun Germany before the Russians -- if only his fellow generals had used the weapon. However, a unit of the Royal Tank Regiment did use the strobe weapons in in India, during the Calcutta riots of 1946
Muslim and Hindu and Sikh mobs attacked each other with iron bars, sticks and other weapons, leaving some four thousand dead. A "squadron" of CDL tanks was sent in, along with the police, to quell the riot. According to one witness, "the eerie flickering of their lights as they passed from street to street playing on the dead and on the devastation, in which they died, made a Dore's Inferno of Calcutta." The police and strobe-saddled tankers managed to protect government and military installations. But, in the end, they could not stop the rioters from killing each other and destroying homes.
Update: A researcher, who wishes to remain anonymous but whose credentials check out, tells DR:
"There have been a number of [unpublished] studies on strobing of light and other electromagnetic sources that can not only render people dazzled, but also unconscious and even to the point of seizing (like epileptic seizures). The point of undiagnosed light sensitive epilepsy is an underreported phenomenon and was partially responsible for this project going black. It is possible to photically drive just about everyone and find the point at which their visual cortex "drives" or responds to the frequency that is being presented as a visual stimulus… if the stimulus is powerful and coherent enough, just about everyone can be affected."
If this is the case, then the potential for misuse looks like ample reason to classify the research.
[Photo: Peak Beam Systems]
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