Blackwater's New Weapon: Laser Dazzlers

[flashl]

The State Department has a high-tech solution to keeping its security contractors from killing any more Iraqi civilians unnecessarily: Give the mercs laser dazzlers and helmet cameras.

U.S. officials also tell ABC News that "the State Department plans to double the number of its diplomatic security agents to 90 so that one of its agents can accompany every convoy guarded by Blackwater and other private security contractors."

This isn't the first time the dazzlers -- which temporarily blind its targets, with pulses of green laser light -- have been pitched as life-savers for non-combatants in Iraq. (Better to fire light flahses than warning shots, the theory goes.) In May 2005, the Marines in Anbar province issued an "urgent" request for the dazzlers, which they said would cut down on civilian casualties. By February of this year, the Marines claimed that "close to 50 innocent Iraqis were killed and nearly 140 were wounded in Anbar between March and December by Marines who did not have the dazzlers as an alternative to lethal force."

Source

[BulletproofLandshark]

1. More toys to be field-tested for the upcoming war at home. n/t

[shadowknows69]

2. Umm....anyone else remember the incidents a while back

with the airline pilots getting dazzled by some mysterious laser light weapon fired from the ground? Military test runs?

[Desertrose]

4. Yeah..weren't they GREEN lasers??

Hmmm.....

[Alexander]

6. The laser dazzlers for sale can easily reach airplanes.

They have a range of 20 miles or something equally ridiculous.

I've used my friend's dazzler before, and if I wanted to, I could have easily used it on an airplane. If my hand was steady enough and I had good aim, the pilot might even see it, and in extreme cases can be blinded by it.

With the co-pilot and automatic systems, though, I find it hard to believe anyone could single-handedly take down commercial aircraft with this thing.

[alittlelark]

10. The Albuquerque airport had many such incidents

a few years ago

[Akoto]

3. So, um ...

Didn't the Iraqi government tell Blackwater to get out?

[Alexander]

5. My friend has one of those laser dazzlers.

Set him back about $400, but would blind the shit out of anyone unlucky enough to have the beam in their eyes.

Thankfully it's a temporary blindness and can't cause permanent damage as easily. If our soldiers had these dazzlers with them the whole time, who knows how many lives might have been saved?

[Earth_First]

7. The same green laser that were being utilized in 2005 towards aircraft?

The terror threat du jour in early 2005. Anyone recall this?

[Occulus]

8. You're the second on this thread to suggest it

and it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility.

[Alexander]

9. Yes, but they aren't much of a threat against airplanes...

You'd have to blind both the pilot and co-pilot (and probably anyone else in the cockpit, too) repeatedly while somehow ensuring that none of the plane's automatic systems could possibly function (like autopilot).

There's pretty much no way to single-handedly take down an aircraft with these, unless the pilots are totally incompetent in the first place. I'd rather the US Marines use these before they start shooting.