The United States military has been working for quite some time on advanced non-lethal weapons to use in combat situations. Non-lethal weapons can be effectively used against insurgents or unruly crowds of people that could pose a threat to troops. In December, I reported on the USAF's Active Denial System (ADS) which shoots millimeter waves at human targets causing their skin to feel like it's on fire. The USAF likes to quip that the ADS has a "Goodbye effect" which causes its "victims" to instinctively run away from the source of the beam.

Now the US Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD) plans to demonstrate the use of a 7.5 million candlepower (7.3 million candela) strobe floodlight system mounted on board an unmanned air vehicle as a non-lethal crowd-control system. The AATD system, which can be mounted to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), is designed to induce temporary paralysis in its victims. AATD "can be pulsed with a unique modulation [strobe] effect that results in immobilization to those within the beam. This effort will transition the lamp from a handheld/vehicle mounted system to an airborne platform," according to US government acquisition records. The system is still in development and there are a lot of questions to be answered. Peak Systems is expected to be awarded a contract for the device next month, while the first demonstrations are scheduled to take place a year after.