The Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response rifle (PHASR) is a prototype non-lethal laser dazzler developed by the U.S. Department of Defense. Its purpose is to temporarily disorient and blind a target. Blinding laser weapons have been tested in the past, but were banned under the 1995 UN Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons. The PHASR rifle, a low-intensity laser, can skirt this regulation, as the blinding effect is apparently temporary. It also uses a two-wavelength laser, which may be intended to defeat laser-filtering goggles. The PHASR was developed at Kirtland Air Force Base, part of the Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate in New Mexico.

Its name is a backronym inspired by the name of the phaser, a fictional Star Trek beam weapon.

See also

• Veiling-glare laser
• Directed-energy weapon
• Dazzler (weapon)

External links

• US military sets laser PHASRs to stun
• LE Systems, Inc., manufacturer of the Laser Dazzler
• Air Force News Release
• Text of the UN Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons
• List of countries participating in the UN Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons

Law enforcement techniques | Violence | Less-lethal weapons