‘Non-lethal’ lasers not always as specified
27 Mar 2013
Growing use – by friend and foe – of lasers as weapons in civil unrest and war zones; many lasers labeled
“low power” present greater dangers, DES 2013 conference hears.
Many supposedly
low power laserbased tools,
including some laser
pointers, widely
available over the
Internet, are often
incorrectly or underspecified.
In conjunction with
widely varying
international export
and import
restrictions, this can
Eye-safe? Conference hears of incorrect specifications.
mean that that
potentially
dangerous laser systems can easily get into the wrong hands.
These were just some of the eye-catching observations of Massimo Annati, RAdm (ret), who is now director of the
European Working Group on Non-Lethal Weapons (EWG-NLW), in his presentation to the tenth annual Directed
Energy Systems conference, organized by Defence IQ and held in London earlier this month.
Annati’s talk was entitled “We Are Not Alone – Criminal and Malevolent use of Laser Dazzlers” and it described the
increasing variety of non-lethal applications of lasers, which are being deployed by friend and foe alike.
He told the conference, “I am talking about systems that are designed not to cause permanent damage, because
besides the ethical aspects, there is a convention – the 1995 Blinding Laser Weapons Convention – which prohibits
the development and operation of laser weapons that are specifically designed to cause permanent injuries and
blindness.”
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The Blinding Laser Weapons
Convention states that “laser
weapons specifically
designed to cause permanent
blindness to people are
prohibited. However “dazzling
lasers and anti-material
lasers” are excluded by the
scope of protocol, and
therefore are allowed.
He added that non-voluntary
blinding is acceptable under
the protocol, if resulting from
admissible activities – such
as during operations against
optical systems, when
subjects are close to a
material target, when using
laser designators, and in
Military lasers are permitted to "hail and warn" but not to blind.
certain other situations.
“My talk is called ‘we are not
alone’ and this means that other people – whether enemy, terrorist or criminal can use laser technologies against
friendly military or civilian targets. And non-friendly forces are now exploiting laser features against us, whether for
warning, distracting, interfering, impairing vision, and even blinding.”
Miltary laser incidents
Annati related some reported examples of relatively recent malicious use of laser systems against “friendly” forces
around the world.
In April 1997, Pudget Sound, Canada. The Kapitan Man, a Russian vessel dazzled a Canadian Sea King helicopter,
causing retinal damage to CDF pilot and US Navy intelligence officer. In 2010, during a counter-piracy operation in
the Horn of Africa, a Dutch Marine was accidently lased during a patrol, and suffered retinal damage. It is believed
that this was probably by some private maritime security operators onboard a protected MV. In this case, binoculars
focused the laser beam onto the victim’s retina.
In October 1998, a US UH-60 helicopter of SFOR was lased over Bosnia-Herzegovina. The pilots suffered
temporary injury. And in 1999, NATO warned of possible laser attacks against aircraft flying over Kosovo. In May
2003, two U.S. AH-64 Apache attack helicopters were targeted with laser flying South of the DMZ with North Korea.
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Civilian aviation incidents
However, besides the few publicly
available reports of military incidents,
there has been reported a large
number of U.S. aviation accidents or
incidents associated with lasers.
Annati told the conference: “The
number of laser-aircraft incidents in
the U.S. alone during the period
January through December 2012 was
3,482 – an average of 9.5 incidents
each night during that year.
Fortunately only a small number of
these (below 1%) resulted in serious
injury or permanent damage.”
U.S. airspace and areas of military
conflict in the world aside, there are
other theaters where laser pointers
and other portable laser devices are
increasing used for malicious
Anti-civilian aircraft laser incidents have rocketed.
purposes. Hotspots of civil unrest,
whether protests in Europe against
political or economic instability, or in North Africa and parts of the Middle East during the recent “Arab Spring” have
experienced greater misuse of lasers.
Annati said, “The use of lasers by protesters is becoming more and more common in all sorts of protest and even
sporting situations. Commercially available pointers are potential weapons: 1 W portable handheld lasers are freely
available on the market. In this case the laser is marked Class 3B, but when tested it is found to be a class 4 – 200
times more powerful than ordinary office pointers.”
"Such lasers can cost as little as $300, delivering green or blue light. The label says do not use the laser against an
aircraft but it also says this is a class 3B laser – but it’s not – it’s actually a class 4 laser. If we compare a nominal
pointer like this, the commercially available 800mW or 1W lasers, with the specification of one of the current
military-type dazzlers, you can see that the commercial laser is much more powerful and much more dangerous
than the military-grade dazzlers."
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Variable control
Annati also highlighted how
these high power or
incorrectly specified lasers
can get into the hands of
potentially malicious or illegal
users, citing a combination of
variable import and export
restrictions and differing legal
permissions and penalties for
possession or misuse of
lasers depending on the
country.
He commented, “Although
causing hazard and
harassment to aviation,
drivers and police, is a crime
in most countries, laser use
in public, unjustified
possession during marches,
Smugglers! Chatroom discussions on avoiding import restrictions.
protests, and football games,
etc, is only scarcely
regulated. Also the import, commerce and possession of lasers is regulated in some countries, totally free in others,
making it difficult to control Internet-based trade.”
The seventh NLW Symposium will be held June 3-5 2013, in Ettlingen, Germany – which Annati described as
“probably the world’s most important event in this specific area”.
Optics.org at DES 2013
Optics.org attended the two-day DES 2013 conference in early March 2013, and over the coming weeks will be
publishing further reports based on selected conference presentations and interviews.
About the Author
Matthew Peach is a contributing editor to optics.org
The above article, published on optics.org, was used with permission by Defence IQ.
Defence IQ’s Annual Directed Energy Systems takes place on 28th-30th
January 2014 in London.
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