Dazzler ( weapon ) A dazzler is a directed - energy weapon intended to temporarily blind or disorient its target with intense directed radiation . Targets can include sensors or human vision . Dazzlers emit infrared or invisible light against various electronic sensors , and visible light against humans , when they are intended to cause no long - term damage to eyes . The emitters are usually lasers , making what is termed a " laser dazzler " . Most of the contemporary systems are man - portable , and operate in either the red ( a laser diode ) or green ( a diode - pumped solid - state laser , DPSS ) areas of the electromagnetic spectrum . Initially developed for military use , non - military products are becoming available for use in law enforcement and security . Weapons designed to cause permanent blindness are banned by the 1995 United Nations Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons . The dazzler is a non - lethal weapon intended to cause temporary blindness or disorientation and therefore falls outside this protocol . History . Origins . Some searchlights are bright enough to cause permanent or temporary blindness , and they were used to dazzle the crews of bombers during World War II . Whirling Spray was a system of search lights fitted with rotating mirrors which was used to dazzle and confuse pilots attacking the Suez canal . This was developed into the Canal Defence Light , a small mobile tank mounted system intended for use in the Rhine crossings . However , the system was mainly used as conventional searchlights . Handgun or rifle - mounted lights may also be used to temporarily blind an opponent and are sometimes marketed for that purpose . In both cases the primary purpose is to illuminate the target and their use to disorient is secondary . First use in Falklands . The first reported use of laser dazzlers in combat was possibly by the British , during the Falklands War of 1982 , when they were reputedly fitted to various Royal Navy warships to hinder low - level Argentinian air attacks . Use by United States forces in Iraq . At the end of Operation Desert Storm , F - 15E crews observing the Iraqi military ' s massacre of Kurdish civilians at Chamchamal were forbidden from firing on the attackers , but instead used their lasers as a dazzler weapon . This ultimately proved ineffective in crashing any attack helicopters . On 18 May 2006 , the U . S . military announced it was using lasers " dazzler " mounted on M - 4 rifles in troops in Iraq as a non - lethal way to stop drivers who fail to stop at checkpoints manned by American soldiers . Countermeasures . One defense against laser dazzlers are narrowband optical filter s tuned to the frequency of the laser . To counter such defense , dazzlers can employ emitters using more than one wavelength , or tunable laser s with wider range of output . Another defense is photochromic materials able to become opaque under high light energy densities . Non - linear optics techniques are being investigated : e . g . vanadium - doped zinc telluride ( ZnTe : V ) can be used to form electro - optic power limiters able to selectively block the intense dazzler beam without affecting weaker light from an observed scene .