The personnel halting and stimulation response rifle (PHASR) is a prototype non-lethal laser dazzler developed by the US Department of Defense.
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 Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons, which the United States acceded to on 21 January 2009. The PHASR rifle, a low-intensity laser, is not prohibited under this regulation, as the blinding effect is intended to be temporary. It also uses a two-wavelength laser
I’m surprised this hasn’t seen use by riot police.
I think they prefer non lethal weapons that can kill you
“Less lethal” please
Why use a laser when they can just shoot bean bags at peoples faces and explode their eyeballs that way.
Its a lot cheaper, you can use any old shotgun
Hell if you can just convince a group of right-wingers that the protesters are communist crisis actors or whatever you don’t even need to bust out the riot gear, they’ll sort it out for you!
Why use laser gun when shot gun do trick
The National Institute of Justice recently awarded ScorpWorks $250,000 to make an advanced prototype that will add an eye-safe laser range finder into PHaSR. Systems such as PHaSR have historically been too powerful at close ranges and ineffective but eye-safe at long ranges. The next prototype is planned to include the addition of the eye-safe range finder and is planned for completion in March 2006.
Based on the article from Defense Review and the drop off of serious articles discussing it I’m guessing that the range difficulties made this unreasonable for police applications.
I’m glad they’re not effective for riot control. Using these types of weapons against civilians is dystopian.
Using these types of weapons against civilians is dystopian.
Tear gas, batons, fire hoses, pepper balls, and shotguns with bean bags are all still ok though, right?
That’s just horror, suspense, action, drama, etc, all fine as long as it isn’t too ‘future-y’!
I dunno, sounds a lot less harmful than what rubber bullets do to people
If we’re going high tech, LRAD works better on crowds.
I always wonder why this isn’t a thing, then remember batteries.
This was/is a thing, but it isn’t made to blind you permanently. It wouldn’t take too much power, really. 8 18650 batteries would probably let you just hold down the trigger for 4 hours non stop.
Its purpose is to temporarily disorient and blind a target.
I can do the same thing with a laser pointer toy bought for $0.99 at a 99 Cent Store. And it even fits in a pocket without looking like a plasma cannon from Halo.
I would imagine this one has a laser that spreads out into a cone so that the operator can point it at a larger area.
laser that spreads out into a cone
Seems to defeat the very definition of a laser?
at that point its more of a light beam than a laser
The newest “big thing” in the flashlight world is LEP, literally lasers used as flashlights. For IR, VCSEL is the current best, but only because that technology gets around FDA rules somehow.
No you can’t. Those dollar laser pointers will permanently blind someone.
It’d depend on the class of the laser pointer. Class 1 laser pointers would be safe to point at someone’s eyes but higher classes range from situationally harmful with prolonged exposure to instant damage.
I mean, yeah. But we’re talking about a dollar store here. They literally give no shits about any of that…
The plasma cannon look good be considered a feature, though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNDIIDbSc78
I guess this isnt a weapon but have there been any updates on this?
I way prefer the phaser rifle.
Why is it so… bulbous? Did someone look at the tactical tuna and think “Hell yeah, turn that up to 11!”?
