Counter-personnel Effects on DoD Wish List

The PowerPoint slide at left clearly lists the "non-lethal counter-personnel capabilities" that the United States Department of Defense wants to acquire in the next 10 to 20 years.

This slide has been taken from a presentation given in November 2001 by the commander of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, entitled "To The Future: Non-Lethal Capabilities Technologies in the 21st Century." Excerpts of the presentation may be found at the website of the Sunshine Project, on their "Non-Lethal Weapons Online Document Clearinghouse" page:

http://www.sunshine-project.org/incapacitants/jnlwdntar.pdf

The outline indicates that the DoD foresees development of counter-personnel weapons that "will attack a target's senses or cognitive/motor capabilities," namely the person's ability to smell, taste, feel, hear and see. The check-box clearly includes "emotion" and "motor skills" on the shopping list.

Perhaps most interesting about this list is the prediction of "accurate, long-range payload delivery along with a non-lethal delivery means." The editors at the Sunshine Project assume this must be a reference to "non-lethal" chemical weapons, delivered as mortar rounds. But could this also be a reference to the use of space-based vehicles and directed energy weapons?

The research and development of space-based psychotronic weapons would fit this wish-list admirably.