Weapons: Non-lethal weapons: Realistic concept or wistful chimera | ADM July 2012

Joint Project 3011, Joint Non-Lethal Capability, has a fairly significant provenance, including longstanding DSTO and service interest, a formal needs analysis, an RPDE study and finally inclusion in the 2009 Defence White Paper. But little seems to be happening…

Three years ago Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon announced that the 2009 White Paper had indicated that a range of nonlethal capabilities were required to provide deployed forces with greater options other than the use of lethal force.

“Graduated response options allow Defence personnel to use a range of techniques to respond to the different threat situations they are likely to face in operational environments,” Fitzgibbon said. “This is an important development, as it provides Australian Defence Force personnel with access to a greater variety of response options when operating in complex urban environments.

“Given the range of situations in which we may employ our soldiers, including alongside Australian Federal Police personnel, this capability enhancement will increase the effectiveness of our land force across a wide range of scenarios,” he said.

With these brave words JP 3011, Joint Non-Lethal Capability (JNLC), was raised and incorporated into the Defence Capability Plan, reasoning that ADF operations had demonstrated limitations in the use of options that only rely on lethal force, adding that a ‘robust’ JNLC could expand the spectrum of response options available to commanders and soldiers to provide a flexible capability to meet mission requirements.

According to the project’s preamble, JNLC can offer deployed ADF force elements with additional tools to permit a graduated response to a threat, where an instantaneous lethal response is not immediately appropriate. By developing enhanced and modernised JNLC options, the ADF will be able to achieve more precise and discriminate effects and employ a broader range of response options. But to what, is not explored.

The project’s first phase aims to update the current non-lethal capabilities of the ADF across all three Services and make them more relevant to the threats faced now and in the future. This phase will replace current non-lethal weapons and provide some enhanced non-lethal capabilities. What these non-lethal weapons are is not described however it does say that they are weapons-based, disparate in nature, and limited in the variety of effects and the distance over which these effects can be generated.

ADM understands that current nonlethal capabilities include rubber bullets (baton rounds), stun grenades/flashbangs, green laser dazzlers and tasers. CS gas (teargas) and OC (capsicum) sprays will also have found their way into the ADF inventory from the police services.

The M84 flashbang or stun grenade is the currently issued stun grenade for the ADF and police forces. Upon detonation, it emits an intensely loud “bang” and a blinding flash of more than one million candela and 170–180 decibels within five feet of initiation, sufficient to cause immediate (but temporary) flash blindness, deafness, tinnitus, and inner ear disturbance.

The Glare green lazer dazzler has been widely used in Afghanistan for such occasions as preventing potential hazard vehicles from getting close to military convoys and as no go warning at checkpoints and watchtowers. It provides soldiers with a non-lethal option before having to use lethal force to maintain convoy or route safety. It effectively replaces the ‘shout’ in the shout before shoot.

BAE Systems is developing a non-lethal laser for anti-piracy use. Both stun grenade and laser dazzle systems are under upgrade development in the US and may qualify for future inclusion in the ADF inventory.

As an example of shout’s role in JNLC, the watch tower at Bagram Airfield, which is manned 24/7, hosts a rotation of US airmen who patiently follow protocol in full expectation that a threat could present itself at any time. Reacting to anything which seems to threaten security they rely on a ‘shout, show, shove and shoot’ method. First they shout to warn off any suspicious person, then they indicate they are escalating force, next they shove, using non-lethal force such as specialised shotguns and sting grenades, and if the suspects don’t respond, the airmen are then authorised to shoot. No doubt graduated warnings along these lines are widely adopted elsewhere including by Australian forces manning roadblocks or gateways.

ADM understands the US military has adopted the commercial X26 Taser as the currently deployed Human Electro-Muscular Incapacitation (HE MI) device of choice and is type classified by the US Army. Taser technology is rapidly growing as an effective scalable force option for military interventions and application and multiple units in one commercial application, the Taser Shockwave, may well find favour in perimeter control, somewhat akin to the Claymore mine. However we doubt the ADF would sanction use of stackable tasers for detainee operations!

Assuming the ADF has ready access to most of the foregoing systems, these may be the type of non-lethal capabilities that Defence wishes to improve upon, or augment, through JP3011. A LEWG briefing previous to that in May 2012 described a broad catch-all group of the technical classes that were under consideration, including acoustic, chemical, electrical, electromagnetic, kinetic and mechanical, of which no doubt many have already been reviewed by DSTO, which has a small research effort applied to Non Lethal Weapons (NLW) and indeed has sought NLW proposals under its CTD program, but with little effect so far.

While JP 3011 appears to lean towards tactical land operations, through its ‘jointness’ it is also concerned with the varying needs of all three services, including the RAN, whose Future Maritime Operating Concept stresses the need for precision and assured success through the use of both lethal and nonlethal weapons.

An analysis1 of the viability of non-lethal weapons for use by the RAAF found that directed energy weapons, both anti-materiel and anti-personnel, held considerable promise, not least because of their capacity to be integrated into the air battle. They are seen as well suited to future conflict scenarios and satisfy the political–strategic limitations within which the ADF response must be conducted. Legal factors were not seen as an impediment to their development and incorporation into the RAAF weapons inventory.

The same report found that while chemical weapons provide a solution to the complexities of future conflict scenarios, strategic-political factors present considerable hurdles, particularly the emotive response that chemical weapons inevitably induce. Further, legal factors present a significant obstacle to the legitimate development and use of chemical weapons, notwithstanding their non-lethal nature.

Non lethal weapon developments

Following are some examples of the many NLW systems under development that may be applicable under the technical categories of interest to the ADF. The Improved Acoustic Hailing Device is a long range hailing and warning device capable of producing directional sound beams to project warning tones and intelligible voice commands with background noise present at the target’s location.

The device is capable of auditory impairment and/or intelligible audible tones at a hoped for maximum effective range of 1,000 metres. Mounted on a vehicle, vessel or ground, the device is designed to deny access into/out of an area to individuals, move individuals through an area, and suppress individuals.

According to the US Non Lethal Weapons Program (www.jnlwp.com/default.asp) this technology has the potential to support multiple missions including force protection, checkpoints, convoys and port operations to warn/hail individuals.

The Multi-Frequency Radio-Frequency Vehicle Stopper is designed to stop vehicles by using high power microwaves to disrupt vehicle engines, causing them to stall but allowing the maintenance of a safe non-lethal restriction zone. This technology is seen as having the potential to support multiple missions including: force protection, checkpoints, access control points, roadblocks and mounted patrols to stop vehicles.

Another future RF system is the Radio Frequency Vessel Stopper the current plan for which is to develop a stationary or mobile high power microwave payload providing a long range non-lethal capability for small vessel stopping, swarm defence and ship system disruption. The technology will stop the vessel’s propulsion by electrical system malfunction. It has the potential to support multiple missions including: force protection, port operations and vessel pursuit/stop/interdiction.

A kinetic example is DSTO’s 40mm Managed Lethality Grenade Launching System (MLGLS), a non-lethal 40mm weapon system that can automatically select the kinetic energy of its blunt impact rounds depending on the distance from the weapon to the target. Australian company Metal Storm recently entered into a collaborative agreement with DSTO and Airtronic USA to further develop and demonstrate the prototype MLGLS.

Conventional 40mm blunt impact rounds have a fixed kinetic energy, and can only be used safely in a very narrow range bracket – if a target is too close the rounds can be lethal, too far away and the ammunition has minimal effect. The MLGLS eliminates this issue by automatically sensing the range to target and selecting the muzzle velocity and kinetic energy of its projectiles at the moment of firing to provide an effective yet non-lethal impact from very short to longer ranges.

The MLGLS attaches to a conventional grenade launcher and can also fire conventional 40mm grenade ammunition. It can be used as a stand-alone weapon, or underslung onto conventional assault rifles. The MLGLS was presented by Metal Storm at the US Joint Armaments Conference last month.

An example of a mechanical NLW is the Small Vessel Stopping Entanglement, an improved propeller entangler with a more consistent capture rate of small waterborne propeller driven craft than other systems. It is currently launched from a compressed air gun. Capabilities such as this have many mission applications including harbour security, force protection and vessel pursuit/interdiction.

Looking ahead

And when are we likely to see new or upgraded non lethal systems introduced courtesy of JP3011? First pass was planned for somewhere between 2012 and 2013, however the one-year delay imposed under the 2012 Defence Budget suggests approval may be deferred up to 2014. From this, we may extrapolate the year of decision around 2015-16, and introduction of the Joint Non Lethal Capability about 2018.

Insofar as most NLWC development appears to be undertaken in the US and the project’s preferment for COTS/MOTS systems with US Foreign Military Sales is a likely acquisition route for some of the lesser systems, as distinct from airborne or shipborne systems, one might wonder why Defence has bothered to stand up JP 3011 when urgent requirement requests, or a series of minor projects, might suit joint or service needs as the occasions arise.

1SQLDR C.R.Coles: Air-delivered non-lethal weapons and the RAAF weapons inventory. Geddes Papers 2003.