DIODE-PUMPED SOLID-STATE LASERS: Laser dazzlers are deployed

摘要

Nonlethal laser weapons are going big time. After testing green laser "dazzlers" at checkpoints in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US Army in November 2011 ordered thousands more "Green Laser Interdiction Systems" for deployment, with plans to buy more in the next two years. The technology is likely to gain users in law enforcement, after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in August 2011 issued a waiver allowing sale of a civilian laser dazzler with a sophisticated safety system. Similar green solid-state CW lasers, emitting up to 1 W, are offered openly on the Internet, although some vendors claim to limit sales to law-enforcement agencies. Emitting at green wavelengths where the eye is most sensitive, dazzlers are intended for a range of military and law-enforcement uses, from nonverbal warnings to people approaching checkpoints to emitting blindingly intense glare to stop hostile forces from seeing the target they want to attack (see figure). Typical operating ranges are 300-500 m during the day, and up to a few kilometers at night. Class IIIB lasers are needed to reach those distances, but the power is limited to around 200 mW to limit the chance of permanent eye damage. (Deployment of lasers designed specifically to blind is banned by the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons, adopted by the United Nations in 1995.)