Security

Military Buying More 'Non-Lethal' Gear for A-stan's Roads

The directives from top commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal are clear: Coalition troops in Afghanistan are supposed to avoid civilian casualties wherever possible. And that goes double for convoys operating on Afghan roads. Now it looks as if the U.S. military is stocking up on non-lethal gear to avoid the use of deadly force around traffic […]

080222-F-6911G-075The directives from top commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal are clear: Coalition troops in Afghanistan are supposed to avoid civilian casualties wherever possible. And that goes double for convoys operating on Afghan roads.

Now it looks as if the U.S. military is stocking up on non-lethal gear to avoid the use of deadly force around traffic control points and convoys. In a solicitation issued yesterday, Task Force Phoenix in Kabul put out a request for "escalation of force" accessories, including air horns, pen flares, megaphones and sirens.

This kind of gadgetry is not new: A couple years ago, the Army's Rapid Equipping Force created a mix-n-match "Escalation of Force" kit for units deployed to Iraq. It included warning signs in English and Arabic, yellow traffic cones and laser dazzlers. Depending on a unit's needs, these kits could also include spike strips, spotlights or loudspeakers; some units even figured out how to hook up their Phraselators to loudspeakers so they could blast prerecorded warnings.

But the real key to avoiding civilian casualties on the roads and around checkpoints may be training. In mid-2007, the Center for Army Lessons Learned at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, published a handbook on escalation of force procedures, which included featured an interactive DVD with training scenarios that replicated some of the shoot/don't-shoot situations soldiers might encounter in the field. The Pentagon has also built simulators, like the one pictured here, to train servicemen on convoy procedures and escalation of force.

[PHOTO: U.S. Department of Defense]

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