Chinese firm develops laser gun for police use
News & Trends •
he said it would need to be upgraded to a laser cannon with increased power to become lethal and confirmed his firm was working on such a weapon1 a chinese firm said it has developed a laser gun designed for police use that can set fire to protesters hair or banners from a range of almost one kilometre1 the weapon is designed to do things such as setting fire to illegal banners at a protest or setting fire to the hair or clothing of a protester he told afp1 it is not designed explicitly for killing like a gun that uses bullets and cannot cause the instant carbonisation of human skin and tissues he added1 the 15-mm calibre weapon weighs three kilogrammes 6.6 pounds has a range of 800 metres 2600 feet and can pass through glass and other transparent obstacles1 it can be mounted on cars boats and planes the firm said adding that it was seeking a partner that has a weapons production licence or a partner in the security or defence industry to start large-scale production1 it is mainly expected to be for chinese police use the manager told afp1 the general manager of the zkzm fibre laser company who asked to remain anonymous said the weapon would immediately produce a strong pain response in the target but stressed it was designed to be non-lethal1 but he noted there was an international agreement not to develop killer lasers and said any such weapons would be inhumane the pain would be unimaginable1 some experts were sceptical of the unveiling saying laser weaponry was still a matter of science fiction1 specialist website techcrunch noted that laser weaponry capable of real harm has eluded the eager boffins of the worlds militaries for several reasons1 the power required to set a person aflame instantly from half a mile away is truly huge the website stressed1 the idea of one that weighs a handful of pounds and fires hundreds of instantly skin-searing shots is just infeasible today1 development of such laser weapons is not limited to china with all the big defence players in the us working on prototypes for the pentagon1 last year lockheed martin announced a 60-kilowatt laser weapon that is invisible to the naked eye and will be deployed against mortars and small drones1