Peacekeeping and Policing
Less Lethal Munitions Provide Military Options.
by Tom Marlowe
U.S. Marines burst into a house and begin clearing a room. A family huddles before them, but a young teenaged boy jumps up and bolts through the back door. Marines give chase, but they do not know for certain if he is running because he is scared or because he is going to warn the insurgents next door of an American operation.
Clearly, the Marines in this scenario would benefit from incapacitating the teenager, but is it necessary to kill him? General David Petraeus, who directly oversaw U.S. forces in Iraq until his recent promotion to commander of Central Command, would remind his fellow soldiers that “people are the prize,” invoking a philosophy that victories in the nation require the support of its citizens.
And so the U.S. military has been using less lethal or non-lethal weaponry to subdue individual targets and crowds without lethal force, providing an opportunity to sort out a situation without raising ire among Iraqis or Afghanis over the loss of family members or friends. Such scenarios have become increasingly common as soldiers and Marines have assumed peacekeeper or law enforcement duties instead of traditional combat activities.
George Fenton, vice president of government and military programs at Taser International of Scottsdale, Ariz., hears such stories all the time. Fenton, a retired Marine Corps colonel, talks to active duty Marines regularly to listen to their stories of situations where less lethal weapons may provide strategic advantages that standard issue guns cannot. “If you don’t shoot to kill somebody then you are essentially looking to influence their behaviors. In all likelihood, you are looking to defuse escalation of force,” Fenton told Special Operations Technology.
“You have five senses on your body—your abilities to hear, see, touch, see and feel. Then you have your ability to think and your ability to motor. So you really have seven things that are targets to be able to influence motivational behavior. I can try to take you down by overwhelming any one or any combination of those senses. I want to take you from an offensive footing to a defensive posture,” he added.
Fenton, formerly chief of the DoD joint non-lethal weapons program, managed research and development of non-lethal capabilities for four years before his retirement. His time with that program and his conversations with fellow Marines have convinced him that, more than ever, U.S. military forces must equip their warfighters with non-lethal alternatives as standard issue items.
“In the prosecution of conventional war, the likelihood you would need less lethal capability is low. But in stability and support operations, it is important to have such capabilities,” Fenton declared.
Of course, Fenton prescribes the Taser for U.S. military use. Weighing in at seven ounces, the light stun gun would not weigh down troops, plus it can attach to an M16, providing an operator with lethal and less-than-lethal options on the spot.
“Putting a Taser on an M16 or M4 allows you to shoot first, not back, and remove that hesitation because it allows you to engage,” Fenton advised. “It’s preclusionary. You can exercise force and drop an individual and yet you don’t have the independent consequence of unnecessary loss of life if that person turns out to be innocent.”
A Taser induces neuromuscular incapacitation through its darts, Fenton described, leaving only two small bee-sting-like marks on a victim’s body as opposed to the bruises, rashes or broken bones of other less lethal weapons. Extremely determined insurgents or drugged insurgents also might fight through other options such as rubber bullets, chemical weapons and bean bags, as Fenton himself saw in Somalia, but the Taser would drop them instantly.
The device does have its drawbacks, the colonel admitted, such as an effective range of only 35 feet, which brings warfighters into close quarters with potential insurgents. It also has only one single shot with the capability of felling only one single person. In addition, warfighters must reload the device manually.
Still, Fenton contended, a survey of armed forces personnel by the company indicated that these shortcomings do not devalue the unique capabilities of the device. Moreover, Taser International is working on adapting its technology to solutions that would overcome these limitations. These future innovations include an extended range electronic projectile, basically a self-contained wireless electric bullet for shotguns. It would potentially have an effective range of up to 65 feet and could be ready in as little as two or three years.
Special Operations Command also is examining the use of current or future Taser devices, which would prove useful in operations that involve snatch and grab, hostage rescue, search and rescue, and others, Fenton added.
LAW ENFORCEMENT ACTIVITIES
U.S. military forces have been using less lethal weapons for a while— their use of tear gas dates back at least 100 years. DoD also has depended on contractors such as Defense Technology Corp. of Casper, Wyo., a division of BAE Systems, to provide traditional less lethal munitions such as rubber bullets, chemical sprays and bean bags.
“Since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military is more involved in what I would call traditional law enforcement and corrections— more peacekeeping. They are running detention facilities with a lot of inmates—just like a prison. As that role has expanded, their need for non-lethal options has increased,” Paul Ford, Defense Technology director of marketing, told SOTECH.
“Ninety percent of their application is for crowd management; 10 percent of it is for single-subject engagement where a military police officer or a peacekeeper faces one noncompliant individual,” Ford estimated.
To that end, Defense Technology manufactures a number of less lethal options, including three 12 gauge rounds, two 40 mm rounds, and a mechanical device for dispersing chemical irritants.
The three 12-guage rounds have various missions—one is a high-velocity rubber pellet used for crowd dispersal; the second is a low-velocity, low-energy projectile stabilized by fins that provides a point-of-impact round for more precise targeting; and the final one is an extended range beanbag, which also provides point control for point-of-impact targeting.
“If you take those three rounds as examples—a crowd dispersal round, a point control round, and an extended range point control round—that is kind of where the Army frames its categories of munitions,” Ford elaborated.
The two 40 mm rounds include a crowd dispersal round known as the M1029, which contains a bunch of high-velocity pellets, and an extended range model known as the XM1091. The M1029 provides a soldier with the means to stun two or three targets without breaking their skin, according to data from the U.S. Army Project Manager for Close Combat Systems. Soldiers could use the rounds to break contact, create buffer zones and clear crowds. Shooters should aim for the center mass of a human target at an effective range of 10 to 30 meters.
In addition, Defense Technology produces the M37 mid-sized riot control disperser, which acts much like a fire extinguisher that fires an irritant like pepper spray to disperse crowds. The disperser delivers 18 three-second bursts of pepper spray out to about 29 feet away. As such, the M37, which refills quickly and easily, is effective in clearing larger crowds more rapidly.
IMPACT TOOLS
FNH USA LLC of McLean, Va., produces a less lethal launcher that looks much like a standard rifle with its FN 303, a popular item among military and law enforcement agencies.
“We classify the FN 303 less lethal launcher as a long-range impact tool because it has the capability of shooting one of our projectiles about 50 meters. So no longer do law enforcement officers have to get up close to gain compliance. In our line of business, it is all about getting control quickly without injuring the suspects or the officers,” William Buie, FNH deputy director of law enforcement field activities, told SOTECH.
The FN 303 comes with a 15-round rotary magazine for loading four different projectiles. All of the projectiles are fin-stabilized, frangible and weigh in at 8.5 grams. Spherical projectiles like paintballs or pepper balls have a tendency to travel about 30 feet then change direction, Buie noted, but the fins on the FN 303 munitions keep a shot on track straight through up to 50 meters.
The four rounds for the launcher include a PAVA (pelargonic acid vanillyamide) irritant powder, a training round, and two marking projectiles. One marking projectile is pink and washes off while the other is permanent yellow paint.
The FN 303 is currently being used by Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan as a tool to assist them conduct security and support operations among local populations. “The Marines are using them in Iraq right now, and it’s working very well for them,” Buie commented. “One of the applications that the Marines use it for is to mark their targets with a permanent paint so that search teams can come back later and identify where the recon unit has been.”
“They also use the permanent marking projectile for other applications. Say you have an agitator in a crowd. Ground troops with a 303 can hit the agitator with the paint and a marksman can readily identify where the threat is. That is working very well for them,” he continued.
Soldiers and Marines also can use the FN 303 to target instigators who are simply throwing rocks or disobeying checkpoint regulations. Its long-range capabilities enable warfighters to incapacitate these targets without endangering themselves.
The FN 303 weighs five pounds by itself. An air bottle sits on the side of the gun, providing compressed air to fire the rounds. The bottles charge up to 3,000 pounds per square inch. A fully charged bottle yields about 100 shots before it must be refilled. The FN 303 can also be mounted to the M4 and M16 enabling the operator to easily transition from non-lethal to lethal fire from one weapon platform.
“It looks just like a rifle. If you didn’t know what it was, you would swear the Marine has a rifle pointed out you, which adds to the psychological intimidation factor,” Buie remarked.
FNH is expanding its less lethal offerings with a pistol that fires the same projectiles as the FN 303. The pistol will be capable of firing seven shots, Buie said, before it requires recharging. The pistol must use a CO2 cartridge to fire its rounds instead of the compressed air bottles because it is too small to facilitate use of the bottles. Powering the pistol with a CO2 cartridge, however, causes its rounds to lose accuracy after seven shots, Buie observed.
“It’s an impact tool,” he concluded. “We don’t get real close with the 303. The Taser is great, but the operator still has to get close to the subject. The same with OC spray.”
PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS
Combined Systems Inc. (CSI) of Jamestown, Pa., provides a full line of less lethal weapons to U.S. military clients.
“We don’t call them non-lethal because they can kill. They are not made to kill, but they can, if necessary or if by accident. But they are designed to be as less lethal as possible,” Don Pearce, CSI director of training, told SOTECH.
Some years ago, industry observers felt U.S. law enforcement agencies were adopting a military mentality, Pearce recalled. Police agencies wanted to wear military-style uniforms and to carry militarygrade weapons. But the situation has reversed in the past few years.
“Now the military is not in all-out combat so they are doing what law enforcement does,” Pearce commented. “They are patrolling streets, stopping people just to interview them, entering houses, and things like that. They are physically doing entries like a SWAT team would do on a drug raid. So they are using the same types of equipment.”
That involves using less lethal weapons to keep the peace, as warfighters seek to keep order rather than kill enemy targets. So CSI equips the military with beanbags and chemical munitions that can disarm or disperse targets. The company also does a lot of highly specialized work, building custom items to fulfill specific needs when an off-the-shelf item does not exist to fulfill them.
CSI’s custom work includes fragmentation grenade fuses and smoke grenade fuses as well as warning signals for perimeter guards overseas. Warfighters can fire the warning signals from 12 gauge or 40 mm guns above the heads of intruders to alert them that they are entering a restricted area. They then have the option of switching to other munitions as required.
Some of the off-the-shelf less lethal munitions from CSI include rubber bullets and rubber pellet rounds for 12 gauge shotguns. They also make 12 gauge beanbags and 37 mm beanbags.
“We make foam baton rounds, which are direct fire impacts,” Pearce described. “Those are the main less lethal munitions out there. They are designed to strike the body with 120 foot-pounds of energy. That’s like being hit with a baseball bat. They change their configuration, and they are not made to penetrate the body. It’s a pain-compliance munition.”
CSI expanded its manufacturing capabilities in June by announcing the acquisition of Penn Arms, a Pennsylvania-based producer of specialized firearms. Penn Arms specializes in making launchers especially for crowd control operations and riot suppression—missions suited for less lethal munitions.
“Even in law enforcement, less lethal force does not take the place of lethal force,” Pearce acknowledged. “It’s just an option that we use. Over there, it’s more politically correct in certain situations. If the military shoots someone with a rubber bullet, they will likely survive. That’s more of the military role as peacekeepers. Now they are doing what the police are doing except in a foreign country. Without any big major ground battles, they act much like street cops.” ♦
Clearly, the Marines in this scenario would benefit from incapacitating the teenager, but is it necessary to kill him? General David Petraeus, who directly oversaw U.S. forces in Iraq until his recent promotion to commander of Central Command, would remind his fellow soldiers that “people are the prize,” invoking a philosophy that victories in the nation require the support of its citizens.
And so the U.S. military has been using less lethal or non-lethal weaponry to subdue individual targets and crowds without lethal force, providing an opportunity to sort out a situation without raising ire among Iraqis or Afghanis over the loss of family members or friends. Such scenarios have become increasingly common as soldiers and Marines have assumed peacekeeper or law enforcement duties instead of traditional combat activities.
George Fenton, vice president of government and military programs at Taser International of Scottsdale, Ariz., hears such stories all the time. Fenton, a retired Marine Corps colonel, talks to active duty Marines regularly to listen to their stories of situations where less lethal weapons may provide strategic advantages that standard issue guns cannot. “If you don’t shoot to kill somebody then you are essentially looking to influence their behaviors. In all likelihood, you are looking to defuse escalation of force,” Fenton told Special Operations Technology.
“You have five senses on your body—your abilities to hear, see, touch, see and feel. Then you have your ability to think and your ability to motor. So you really have seven things that are targets to be able to influence motivational behavior. I can try to take you down by overwhelming any one or any combination of those senses. I want to take you from an offensive footing to a defensive posture,” he added.
Fenton, formerly chief of the DoD joint non-lethal weapons program, managed research and development of non-lethal capabilities for four years before his retirement. His time with that program and his conversations with fellow Marines have convinced him that, more than ever, U.S. military forces must equip their warfighters with non-lethal alternatives as standard issue items.
“In the prosecution of conventional war, the likelihood you would need less lethal capability is low. But in stability and support operations, it is important to have such capabilities,” Fenton declared.
Of course, Fenton prescribes the Taser for U.S. military use. Weighing in at seven ounces, the light stun gun would not weigh down troops, plus it can attach to an M16, providing an operator with lethal and less-than-lethal options on the spot.
“Putting a Taser on an M16 or M4 allows you to shoot first, not back, and remove that hesitation because it allows you to engage,” Fenton advised. “It’s preclusionary. You can exercise force and drop an individual and yet you don’t have the independent consequence of unnecessary loss of life if that person turns out to be innocent.”
A Taser induces neuromuscular incapacitation through its darts, Fenton described, leaving only two small bee-sting-like marks on a victim’s body as opposed to the bruises, rashes or broken bones of other less lethal weapons. Extremely determined insurgents or drugged insurgents also might fight through other options such as rubber bullets, chemical weapons and bean bags, as Fenton himself saw in Somalia, but the Taser would drop them instantly.
The device does have its drawbacks, the colonel admitted, such as an effective range of only 35 feet, which brings warfighters into close quarters with potential insurgents. It also has only one single shot with the capability of felling only one single person. In addition, warfighters must reload the device manually.
Still, Fenton contended, a survey of armed forces personnel by the company indicated that these shortcomings do not devalue the unique capabilities of the device. Moreover, Taser International is working on adapting its technology to solutions that would overcome these limitations. These future innovations include an extended range electronic projectile, basically a self-contained wireless electric bullet for shotguns. It would potentially have an effective range of up to 65 feet and could be ready in as little as two or three years.
Special Operations Command also is examining the use of current or future Taser devices, which would prove useful in operations that involve snatch and grab, hostage rescue, search and rescue, and others, Fenton added.
LAW ENFORCEMENT ACTIVITIES
U.S. military forces have been using less lethal weapons for a while— their use of tear gas dates back at least 100 years. DoD also has depended on contractors such as Defense Technology Corp. of Casper, Wyo., a division of BAE Systems, to provide traditional less lethal munitions such as rubber bullets, chemical sprays and bean bags.
“Since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military is more involved in what I would call traditional law enforcement and corrections— more peacekeeping. They are running detention facilities with a lot of inmates—just like a prison. As that role has expanded, their need for non-lethal options has increased,” Paul Ford, Defense Technology director of marketing, told SOTECH.
“Ninety percent of their application is for crowd management; 10 percent of it is for single-subject engagement where a military police officer or a peacekeeper faces one noncompliant individual,” Ford estimated.
To that end, Defense Technology manufactures a number of less lethal options, including three 12 gauge rounds, two 40 mm rounds, and a mechanical device for dispersing chemical irritants.
The three 12-guage rounds have various missions—one is a high-velocity rubber pellet used for crowd dispersal; the second is a low-velocity, low-energy projectile stabilized by fins that provides a point-of-impact round for more precise targeting; and the final one is an extended range beanbag, which also provides point control for point-of-impact targeting.
“If you take those three rounds as examples—a crowd dispersal round, a point control round, and an extended range point control round—that is kind of where the Army frames its categories of munitions,” Ford elaborated.
The two 40 mm rounds include a crowd dispersal round known as the M1029, which contains a bunch of high-velocity pellets, and an extended range model known as the XM1091. The M1029 provides a soldier with the means to stun two or three targets without breaking their skin, according to data from the U.S. Army Project Manager for Close Combat Systems. Soldiers could use the rounds to break contact, create buffer zones and clear crowds. Shooters should aim for the center mass of a human target at an effective range of 10 to 30 meters.
In addition, Defense Technology produces the M37 mid-sized riot control disperser, which acts much like a fire extinguisher that fires an irritant like pepper spray to disperse crowds. The disperser delivers 18 three-second bursts of pepper spray out to about 29 feet away. As such, the M37, which refills quickly and easily, is effective in clearing larger crowds more rapidly.
IMPACT TOOLS
FNH USA LLC of McLean, Va., produces a less lethal launcher that looks much like a standard rifle with its FN 303, a popular item among military and law enforcement agencies.
“We classify the FN 303 less lethal launcher as a long-range impact tool because it has the capability of shooting one of our projectiles about 50 meters. So no longer do law enforcement officers have to get up close to gain compliance. In our line of business, it is all about getting control quickly without injuring the suspects or the officers,” William Buie, FNH deputy director of law enforcement field activities, told SOTECH.
The FN 303 comes with a 15-round rotary magazine for loading four different projectiles. All of the projectiles are fin-stabilized, frangible and weigh in at 8.5 grams. Spherical projectiles like paintballs or pepper balls have a tendency to travel about 30 feet then change direction, Buie noted, but the fins on the FN 303 munitions keep a shot on track straight through up to 50 meters.
The four rounds for the launcher include a PAVA (pelargonic acid vanillyamide) irritant powder, a training round, and two marking projectiles. One marking projectile is pink and washes off while the other is permanent yellow paint.
The FN 303 is currently being used by Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan as a tool to assist them conduct security and support operations among local populations. “The Marines are using them in Iraq right now, and it’s working very well for them,” Buie commented. “One of the applications that the Marines use it for is to mark their targets with a permanent paint so that search teams can come back later and identify where the recon unit has been.”
“They also use the permanent marking projectile for other applications. Say you have an agitator in a crowd. Ground troops with a 303 can hit the agitator with the paint and a marksman can readily identify where the threat is. That is working very well for them,” he continued.
Soldiers and Marines also can use the FN 303 to target instigators who are simply throwing rocks or disobeying checkpoint regulations. Its long-range capabilities enable warfighters to incapacitate these targets without endangering themselves.
The FN 303 weighs five pounds by itself. An air bottle sits on the side of the gun, providing compressed air to fire the rounds. The bottles charge up to 3,000 pounds per square inch. A fully charged bottle yields about 100 shots before it must be refilled. The FN 303 can also be mounted to the M4 and M16 enabling the operator to easily transition from non-lethal to lethal fire from one weapon platform.
“It looks just like a rifle. If you didn’t know what it was, you would swear the Marine has a rifle pointed out you, which adds to the psychological intimidation factor,” Buie remarked.
FNH is expanding its less lethal offerings with a pistol that fires the same projectiles as the FN 303. The pistol will be capable of firing seven shots, Buie said, before it requires recharging. The pistol must use a CO2 cartridge to fire its rounds instead of the compressed air bottles because it is too small to facilitate use of the bottles. Powering the pistol with a CO2 cartridge, however, causes its rounds to lose accuracy after seven shots, Buie observed.
“It’s an impact tool,” he concluded. “We don’t get real close with the 303. The Taser is great, but the operator still has to get close to the subject. The same with OC spray.”
PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS
Combined Systems Inc. (CSI) of Jamestown, Pa., provides a full line of less lethal weapons to U.S. military clients.
“We don’t call them non-lethal because they can kill. They are not made to kill, but they can, if necessary or if by accident. But they are designed to be as less lethal as possible,” Don Pearce, CSI director of training, told SOTECH.
Some years ago, industry observers felt U.S. law enforcement agencies were adopting a military mentality, Pearce recalled. Police agencies wanted to wear military-style uniforms and to carry militarygrade weapons. But the situation has reversed in the past few years.
“Now the military is not in all-out combat so they are doing what law enforcement does,” Pearce commented. “They are patrolling streets, stopping people just to interview them, entering houses, and things like that. They are physically doing entries like a SWAT team would do on a drug raid. So they are using the same types of equipment.”
That involves using less lethal weapons to keep the peace, as warfighters seek to keep order rather than kill enemy targets. So CSI equips the military with beanbags and chemical munitions that can disarm or disperse targets. The company also does a lot of highly specialized work, building custom items to fulfill specific needs when an off-the-shelf item does not exist to fulfill them.
CSI’s custom work includes fragmentation grenade fuses and smoke grenade fuses as well as warning signals for perimeter guards overseas. Warfighters can fire the warning signals from 12 gauge or 40 mm guns above the heads of intruders to alert them that they are entering a restricted area. They then have the option of switching to other munitions as required.
Some of the off-the-shelf less lethal munitions from CSI include rubber bullets and rubber pellet rounds for 12 gauge shotguns. They also make 12 gauge beanbags and 37 mm beanbags.
“We make foam baton rounds, which are direct fire impacts,” Pearce described. “Those are the main less lethal munitions out there. They are designed to strike the body with 120 foot-pounds of energy. That’s like being hit with a baseball bat. They change their configuration, and they are not made to penetrate the body. It’s a pain-compliance munition.”
CSI expanded its manufacturing capabilities in June by announcing the acquisition of Penn Arms, a Pennsylvania-based producer of specialized firearms. Penn Arms specializes in making launchers especially for crowd control operations and riot suppression—missions suited for less lethal munitions.
“Even in law enforcement, less lethal force does not take the place of lethal force,” Pearce acknowledged. “It’s just an option that we use. Over there, it’s more politically correct in certain situations. If the military shoots someone with a rubber bullet, they will likely survive. That’s more of the military role as peacekeepers. Now they are doing what the police are doing except in a foreign country. Without any big major ground battles, they act much like street cops.” ♦