Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response rifle
Encyclopedia
Rifle
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
(PHASR) is a prototype non-lethal
Non-lethal force
Non-lethal weapons, also called less-lethal weapons, less-than-lethal weapons, non-deadly weapons, compliance weapons, or pain-inducing weapons are weapons intended to be less likely to kill a living target than are conventional weapons...
laser
Laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
dazzler
Dazzler (weapon)
A dazzler is a directed-energy weapon intended to temporarily blind or disorient its target with intense directed radiation. Targets can include sensors or human vision. Dazzlers emit infrared or visible light against various electronic sensors, and visible light against humans, when they are...
developed by the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
. Its purpose is to temporarily disorient and blind a target. Blinding laser weapons have been tested in the past, but were banned under the 1995 UN
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons
Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons
The Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons, Protocol IV of the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, was issued by the United Nations on 13 October 1995...
, which the United States acceded
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties
The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties is a treaty concerning the international law on treaties between states. It was adopted on 22 May 1969 and opened for signature on 23 May 1969. The Convention entered into force on 27 January 1980. The VCLT has been ratified by 111 states as of November...
to on January 21, 2009. The PHASR rifle, a low-intensity laser, can skirt this regulation, as the blinding effect is apparently temporary. It also uses a two-wavelength laser. The PHASR was developed at Kirtland Air Force Base
Kirtland Air Force Base
Kirtland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in the southeast quadrant of the Albuquerque, New Mexico urban area, adjacent to the Albuquerque International Sunport. The base was named for the early Army aviator Col. Roy C. Kirtland...
, part of the Air Force Research Laboratory
Air Force Research Laboratory
The Air Force Research Laboratory is a scientific research organization operated by the United States Air Force Materiel Command dedicated to leading the discovery, development, and integration of affordable aerospace warfighting technologies; planning and executing the Air Force science and...
Directed Energy Directorate in New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
.
External links
- US military sets laser PHASRs to stun
- LE Systems, Inc., manufacturer of the Laser Dazzler
- Air Force News Release
- Text of the UN Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons
- List of countries participating in the UN Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons
- http://www.emag.cz/phasr-nechte-se-oslnit/ Description (in Czech language)