Soldiers need more non-lethal weapons, better knock down power.

• Author: Wagner, Breanne
• Position: MUNITIONS

TROOPS IN IRAQ and Afghanistan would like to see non-lethal alternatives to conventional ammunition, said Lt. Col. Al Kelly, commander of the 17th Infantry Brigade.

Non-lethal weapons are needed for crowd control and mob situations, he said. If a tank drives into a town and stops and crowds of children run up and start throwing rocks because they were told to, soldiers don't want to use live fire, Kelly told a National Defense Industrial Association conference.

"There are so many people out there [in Iraq] who go about their lives like business as usual" and speed down the road in their car, Kelly said. "When a speeding car is coming at U.S. soldiers, he has to make the decision 'do I shoot, do I not shoot'"?

In one incident in Iraq, a car started driving towards a Stryker armored vehicle and the soldiers inside fired warning shots, Kelly explained. "The car ran into the Stryker and once the vehicle stopped, the driver got out and ran towards it," Kelly said. "He was a suicide bomber, but fortunately his bomb didn't go off."

Less-than-lethal weapons could be used to directly fire at the vehicle and driver without killing anyone.

"They can be used in a riot scenario to back people off your equipment so that they can't throw a grenade in a tank, which has happened," Kelly said.

One effective weapon is the M203 that uses foam rounds or rubber pellets, "which will knock a guy down." Kelly said it is difficult to get because...