A Pentagon office that helped develop microwave weapons that cause intense pain, lasers that temporarily blind people, and devices that emit intolerable levels of sound, is now working on a technology that uses electrical pulses to incapacitate people. If the research proves successful, it could lead to a new, more effective type of wireless stun gun.
Called the nanosecond electrical pulse (nsEP) project, the research focuses on using brief electrical pulses to temporarily paralyze an individual by disrupting the nervous system, similar to the way the Taser, another popular nonlethal device, works. But where this project differs from most other stun guns, according to the Pentagon, is that it could theoretically be built as a wireless system, and have a longer lasting effect.
The Pentagon's Joint Nonlethal Weapons Directorate, which is sponsoring the work, declined a request for an interview, but answered written questions. "It is hoped the technology can be made small enough to fit in a small, self-contained round," Dave Law, the chief of the office's technology division, wrote of the research project. "The round would have a power source and therefore would not need wires."
Taser International makes a line of incapacitating weapons that typically work with darts attached to wires, or by placing a weapon contact with a person. Though there is a wireless version of a Taser, called the eXtended Range Electronic Projectile, which works from a shotgun, nanosecond electrical pulses offer the possibility of shrinking the size of the a nonlethal round further, making the weapon more portable than current stun guns.
And perhaps more important, the paralyzing effect of the weapon would last longer than current stun guns, according to the Defense Department. "Initial studies of nanosecond electrical pulses indicate that they not only can affect the nervous system in this manner, but may also be able to provide longer-duration temporary incapacitation than the electrical waveforms in currently available HEMI devices," says a fact sheet about the program.
How long that effect might last is unclear; officials with the Joint Nonlethal Weapons Directorate declined to elaborate. "Temporary skeletal muscle effects have been observed in brine shrimp, rats and swine," said Dr. Bruce Wright, a human effects engineer in the directorate, said in an emailed response.
Nanosecond electrical pulses may have applications for nonlethal weapons, but this rapidly developing area of biological research has also attracted interest because of its potential medical applications, including as a treatment for cancer. Though the Joint Nonlethal Weapons Program Office did not respond to questions about what researchers have been supported by their funding, the Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia has emerged as the leading player in this field.
The Joint Nonlethal Weapons Programs Directorate has spent just short of two million dollars on the research over the past few years, and is currently reviewing funding for the next year and beyond. Other Defense Department offices, such as of the Office of Naval Research and the Air Force Research Laboratory, have also been involved in the research.
But how soon, if ever, the research will lead to a weapon in unclear; Pentagon officials working on the program declined to speculate on the time line. "This technology is not yet mature enough for human testing," wrote Dr. Wright.
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