Laser crowd control weapon developed by USMC

Among the wide range of innovations worked on by the human brain, the U.S. Marine Corps is developing a crowd control device which can neutralise huge crowds from thousands of feet away and send them into a daze and even vaporise skin, as Sean Martin reports in The Express.

Laser weapon tested by the US Army. This picture is used only for an evocation of the subject but doesn't represent the actual device (Picture source: Youtube)

A laser weapon devised by the US Marines will allow the forces to send voice messages at long range which can be turned up to deafen, dazzle or even kill. The weapon will be known as the Scalable Compact Ultra-short Pulse Laser System (SCUPLS) and will be placed on trucks and tanks, according to official Government documents mentioned by Sean Martin.
The documents describe the project’s goal as to: “Develop a lightweight and energy efficient next-generation Ultra-Short Pulse Laser (USPL) system that can produce sustainable and controllable plasma at range capable of inducing a full spectrum of scalable non-lethal effects.” The laser creates a small ball of plasma fired from long-range which can be used to create “enhanced non-lethal effects such as flash bang effects, thermal ablation for pain, and delivery of intelligible voice commands at range”.

SCUPLS will initially be used for non-lethal purposes, but it may be developed in the future to kill, as the document says: “Advancement of possible full spectrum of effects capabilities from non-lethal to lethal, along with added Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance system capabilities.” On the lowest setting, the laser will produce a voice message which can be heard from up to a thousand metres away.

There are several other notches – one is the ‘flash bang effect’ which will send people into a daze. Another is the ‘flash blind effect’ which will temporarily take away sight. The most extreme setting is the 'Full scalable thermal ablative effects’ which can painfully burn the outer layer of skin.