A dazzler is a non-lethal weapon which uses intense directed radiation to temporarily disorient its target with flash blindness. They can effectively deter further advances, regardless of language or cultural barriers, but can also be used for hailing and warning. [1] Targets can include electronic sensors as well as human vision. [2]
Initially developed for military use, non-military products are becoming available for use in law enforcement and security. [3] [4]
Dazzlers emit infrared light against various electronic sensors and visible light against humans. They are intended not to cause long-term damage to eyes. The emitters are usually lasers, making what is termed a laser dazzler. Most of the contemporary systems can be carried by a person, and operate in either the red (a laser diode) or green (a diode-pumped solid-state laser, DPSS) areas of the electromagnetic spectrum. The green laser is chosen for its unique ability to react with the human eye. [5] Dazzlers maintain eye safety by producing diverging light that is less coherent (focused) than typical lasers. This produces a larger, less concentrated spot at greater distances which is easier to aim at longer distances and retains the desired effect on targets. [6]
Some searchlights are bright enough to cause permanent or temporary blindness, and they were used to dazzle the crews of bombers during World War II. Whirling Spray was a system of search lights fitted with rotating mirrors which was used to dazzle and confuse pilots attacking the Suez canal. [7] This was developed into the Canal Defence Light, a small mobile tank mounted system intended for use in the Rhine crossings. However, the system was mainly used as conventional searchlights.
Handgun or rifle-mounted lights may also be used to temporarily blind an opponent and are sometimes marketed for that purpose. In both cases the primary purpose is to illuminate the target and their use to disorient is secondary.
The first reported use of laser dazzlers in combat was possibly by the British, during the Falklands War of 1982, when they were reputedly fitted to various Royal Navy warships to hinder low-level Argentinian air attacks. [8] [9] However, Michael Heseltine, the UK's Secretary of State for Defence immediately after the conflict, stated that whilst the dazzlers had been deployed they were not used. [10]
At the end of Operation Desert Storm, F-15E crews observed the Iraqi military's massacre of Kurdish civilians at Chamchamal. The pilots were forbidden from firing on the Iraqi soldiers and instead used their lasers as dazzlers against the enemy helicopter pilots. This ultimately proved ineffective in crashing any attack helicopters. [11]
On 18 May 2006, the U.S. military announced it was using laser dazzlers mounted on M4 rifles in troops in Iraq as a non-lethal way to stop drivers who fail to stop at checkpoints manned by American soldiers. [12] Other militaries have taken up use of them as well. [13]
One defense against laser dazzlers are narrowband optical filters tuned to the frequency of the laser. To counter such defense, dazzlers can employ emitters using more than one wavelength, or tunable lasers with wider range of output. [14] Another defense is photochromic materials able to become opaque under high light energy densities. Nonlinear optics techniques are being investigated: e.g. vanadium-doped zinc telluride (V:ZnTe) can be used to form electro-optic power limiters able to selectively block the intense dazzler beam without affecting weaker light from an observed scene.
Weapons designed to cause permanent blindness are banned by the 1995 United Nations Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons. Dazzlers intended to cause temporary blindness or disorientation fall outside this protocol.[ citation needed ]
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A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word laser is an anacronym that originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. The first laser was built in 1960 by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories, based on theoretical work by Charles H. Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow.
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The veiling-glare laser is a proposed laser dazzler, a non-lethal weapon which would use light in the ultraviolet (UV) range. The intended effect would be to cause fluorescence in the lens of the eye, producing intense glare and making clear vision impossible. In September 2002, the Joint Nonlethal Weapons Directorate announced the proposal was under development.
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