Dazer Laser Debuts at Parade

Laser developer Laser Energetics Inc. announced today that it introduced its nausea-inducing Dazer Laser nonlethal laser weapon Monday during the Little Neck-Douglaston N.Y. Memorial Day Parade, the largest and longest-running Memorial Day parade in the US.

The Dazer Laser comes in two handheld models, the Defender and the Guardian, which can be mounted on a rifle or a shotgun, the company said. The Defender emits an eye-safe green beam with a diameter of 0.2 m to 2.5 m (about 1 to 8 ft) into what the company calls the Dazer Zone, the range of which can adjust from as close as 1 m to the target to up to 2400 m away, or nearly a mile and a half.

The beam, when shined in the face of a perceived aggressor, temporarily blinds him, impairs his balance and induces motion sickness that lasts for several hours, making it difficult to move, according to company publications. It can control people even when their eyes are closed.

The Guardian operates with a smaller-diameter beam and a shorter range of up to 100 m, or about 328 ft. Potential applications for the lasers include homeland security, prison security and crowd control in riots, the company said. Both models can operate also in nondaze mode as searchlights.

Laser Energetics said its Dazer Laser Light Fighting Technologies, which it called “a new tool to fight our enemies and threats,” was well-received during the parade, which included all branches of the military as well as police and firemen. A speech by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg closed the event.

"This was the most appropriate place to begin our role out of the 'ultimate nonlethal weapon'," said Laser Energetics founder and CEO Robert D. Battis. "This weapon is humanitarian and will save the lives of both the enforcer and the threat at longer ranges. No longer will the enforcer have to risk their lives to bring the threat in closer to them in order to engage them, which puts the enforcers life at risk."

The Dazer Laser can be fired continuously, giving the user the ability to aim the beam at the threat and fire until they hit it, unlike other nonlethal weapons that have to be reloaded and only work at close range, Battis said. The weapons can be used during the day or at night, in light rain snow or fog.

The company said it has completed engineering on both units and is now fabricating parts. It anticipates having working units of the prototypes by the end of the summer, with designing and engineering of the production line to manufacture the units taking place now.

"We anticipate proposals of over $200 million before the end of the summer 2009," wrote Battis Wednesday on the company's Web site. "Our first round of presentations over the last month have gone better than we could have imagined."

The company's recently completed expansion almost doubled its floor space in anticipation of starting a Dazer Laser pilot production line.

For more information, visit: www.laserenergetics.com