Nonlethal technologies become lighter, more potent.

• Author: Insinna, Valerie

The U.S. military is preparing to scale down operations in Afghanistan in 2016, but it will continue operating in areas filled with civil unrest where it may be difficult to tell friend from foe.

Analysts and industry officials say the services' need for nonlethal technologies will only continue to grow, with weapons becoming lighter and more portable, having greater range and the capability to send and receive information.

The worldwide nonlethal weapons market is expected to double by 2020, according to a 2014 report by Dan Inbar, chairman and chief technology officer of Homeland Security Research Corp. He predicts a compound annual growth rate of 11 percent from 2014 to 2020.

The U.S. market is expected to follow that trend, increasing from $500 million in 2013 to about $930 million in 2020, he said.

"When, by mistake, you fire on what you think is your enemy and you kill bystanders, you generate new enemies and you generate opposition from the media," Inbar told National Defense. That's a lesson the U.S. military had to learn the hard way in battles in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Defense Department spends about $140 million annually on research, development, procurement and maintenance of nonlethal weapons, according to the department's 2013 annual review of the program.

In the coming years, it will invest in area denial systems such as anti-vehicle nonlethal weapons that use electrical pulses to disable engines, he said. It will also focus on further developing standoff microwave systems and millimeter wave systems that can incapacitate enemies without causing permanent damage.

The military has spent millions of dollars to develop sophisticated, technologically advanced nonlethal equipment such as the active denial system, which repels targets by shooting millimeter frequency waves at them, causing pain but no lasting damage. However, it continues to reach out to industry and academic institutions asking them to propose their own solutions.

Special Operations Command noted in a 2014 broad area announcement that it is on the lookout for "technologies that can stop/disable individuals for an extended duration, remain less lethal and be useable on combatant and noncombatant individuals. The effect must immediately prohibit the individual's ability to perform a useful function at ranges greater than 6 feet."

It is also seeking "technologies that use less lethal payloads to prevent combatant and noncombatant individuals from entering a...