Lasers seen as solution to checkpoint safety.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: UPFRONT

Not a week goes by when David Law, science and technology chief for the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, doesn't receive a call from Pentagon brass asking for devices to warn civilians to stop at vehicle checkpoints.

"The general leadership is wondering why we haven't gotten this out," Law said at an Institute for Defense and Government Advancement conference on directed energy weapons.

Soldiers currently manning checkpoints or riding in convoys have few options other than screaming and waving their arms at approaching cars. While this has been the method since the dawn of the automobile age, the Pentagon wants something more effective, a stop-gap measure between waving and shooting. The Marine Corps has issued an "urgent needs request" calling for the directorate to solve the problem. The other services are equally interested, Law said.

The need for such a weapon in the chaotic environment of Iraq is clear. Heartbreaking stories have been reported throughout the war of Iraqi families who did not slow down at military roadblocks, and found their cars riddled with bullets--resulting in injuries and sometimes deaths.

The most widely reported incident involved the death of Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calipari, who was killed at a U.S. military checkpoint last year after freeing journalist Giuliana Sgrena from kidnappers. Soldiers said the car approached at a high rate of speed. Sgrena said the soldiers fired without warning. While an investigation cleared the soldiers of wrongdoing, the shooting resulted in strained relations between the United States and Italy.

Meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi forces continue to face insurgents using bomb-laden vehicles in suicide missions.

At checkpoints, soldiers can only wave their arms and shout at approaching vehicles beyond 100 meters. If the car continues to approach, the soldiers must open fire, Law said. "We know we can do better," he added.

Law believes the solution is a laser dazzler, a beam of light designed to flash in a driver's eyes more than 100 meters away from a checkpoint or convoy without causing temporary or permanent blindness.

The laser dazzler's purpose is to "get the driver to do something. Pull off his foot or veer away ... so the driver realizes he's being warned," Law said.

The goal is not to take away the driver's vision, because that may result in an out-of-control vehicle barreling down on the soldiers' position, he added. "We're not trying to kill, maim and certainly not...