page_title: Air Force Research Laboratory
section_title: Directed Energy Directorate
hierarchical_section_title: Air Force Research Laboratory / Organization / Directed Energy Directorate
caption_attribution_description: English: The personnel halting and stimulation response rifle (PHASR) is a prototype non-lethal laser dazzler developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate, U.S. Department of Defense.
context_page_description: The Air Force Research Laboratory is a scientific research organization operated by the United States Air Force Materiel Command dedicated to leading the discovery, development, and integration of aerospace warfighting technologies, planning and executing the Air Force science and technology program, and providing warfighting capabilities to United States air, space, and cyberspace forces. It controls the entire Air Force science and technology research budget which was $2.4 billion in 2006.
  The Laboratory was formed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio on 31 October 1997 as a consolidation of four Air Force laboratory facilities and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under a unified command. The Laboratory is composed of eight technical directorates, one wing, and the Office of Scientific Research. Each technical directorate emphasizes a particular area of research within the AFRL mission which it specializes in performing experiments in conjunction with universities and contractors.
context_section_description: In addition to serving as the Air Force's Center of Excellence for high power microwave technology, the Directed Energy Directorate is also the Department of Defense's Center of Expertise for laser development of all types. The current Director is Susan Thornton.
  The Starfire Optical Range at Kirtland AFB, North Oscura Peak on White Sands Missile Range, and the Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing observatory (AMOS) are also operated by divisions of the Directed Energy Directorate in addition to their facilities at the Directorate's headquarters at Kirtland AFB. The Starfire Optical Range is used to research various topics of advanced tracking using lasers as well as studies of atmospheric physics which examines atmospheric effects which can distort laser beams. North Oscura Peak is used to research the various technologies necessary to facilitate successful tracking and destruction of an incoming missile via a laser and is used frequently for laser-based missile defense tests. AMOS provides space observation capabilities and computational resources to AFRL, the Department of Defense and other agencies of the US Government.
  Directed Energy projects typically fall into two categories: laser and microwave. Laser projects range from completely non-lethal targeting lasers to dazzlers, such as the Saber 203 used by US forces during the Somali Civil War and the more recent PHaSR dazzler, to powerful missile defense lasers such as the chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) used in the YAL-1A project now led by the Missile Defense Agency. A continuation of the Airborne Laser experiment is also being conducted in the form of the Advanced Tactical Laser, which is a Special Forces demonstrator project to mount a COIL system in a tactical AC-130 gunship. Microwave technologies are being advanced for use against both electronics and personnel. One example of an anti-personnel microwave project is the "less-than-lethal" Active Denial System, which uses high-powered microwaves to penetrate less than a millimeter into the target's skin, where the nerve endings are located.
  Going back as far as 1995, there were arguments that laser dazzlers could potentially cause permanent blindness in targets, and these same concerns were revived with the announcement of the PHaSR project, which is claimed to be a non-blinding laser weapon. Due to concerns that even low-powered lasers could cause blindness, the Human Rights Watch proposed that all tactical laser weapons should be scrapped and research stopped by all interested governments. The Active Denial System has also been the target of Amnesty International as well as, less directly, a United Nations special rapporteur as being a potential weapon of torture.
caption: A US dazzler style weapon.
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