DoD: Spend More on Non-Lethal Weapons

By Jason Sherman, InsideDefense.com NewsStand, 23 May 2006

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has directed the Defense Department to prepare a new investment plan that significantly increases spending on non-lethal weapons, laying the groundwork for their wider use, according to military sources.

Rumsfeld called for the revised investment plan in classified strategic planning guidance issued earlier this year, noting that the military will increasingly require non-lethal technologies for counterterrorism operations and homeland defense, according to sources familiar with the document.

The Joint Program Office for Nonlethal Weapons in Quantico, VA, is spearheading the new investment effort. The Marine Corps is the Defense Department's executive agent for non-lethal technologies.

The joint program office includes representatives from each of the services, the Coast Guard, U.S. Special Operations Command and the Office of the Secretary of Defense's acquisition, technology and logistics directorate and its policy shop. Representatives from other federal departments—including Energy, Homeland Security, Justice, and State—also work at the office but do not influence Pentagon budget decisions.

“The JNLWD is working with all of the services and the combatant commanders to develop a comprehensive investment strategy for the research and development of non-lethal weapons as tasked by the secretary of defense,” said Maj. Sarah Fullwod, a spokeswoman for the Marine Corps. “It is our intent to ensure that this plan is aligned to meet the future needs of our warfighters with respect to nonlethal capabilities.”

Sources said the resulting investment plan, which covers fiscal years 2008 to 2013, could double spending on nonlethal technologies. Those increases would be reflected in changes to the service spending proposals for that time period, which are under development.

“The plan must still be reviewed by senior leadership at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and therefore the specific content is predecisional and can’t be discussed at this time,” said Fullwood.

Last summer, the Defense Department issued its first Strategy for Homeland Defense and Civil Support and directed U.S. forces to draw up plans to use non-lethal technologies in domestic missions, including those involving the protection of nuclear power plants and stopping suspicious ships in American waterways.

U.S. Northern Command, which oversees homeland defense in the continental United States and Alaska, and U.S. Pacific Command, which is responsible for the defense of Hawaii and U.S. protectorates in the Western Pacific, have incorporated non-lethal weapons into their operational planning documents and concepts of operation.

The move to support wider use of non-lethal weapons echoes recommendations made two years ago by a panel of distinguished retired generals and others at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“Wider integration of [non-lethal] weapons into the U.S. Army and Marine Corps could have reduced damage, saved lives and helped to limit the widespread looting and sabotage that occurred after the cessation of major conflict in Iraq,” the CFR-sponsored “Independent Task Force on Nonlethal Weapons and Capabilities” wrote in its February 2004 report.

“Incorporating [non-lethal] weapon capabilities into the equipment, training and doctrine of the armed services could substantially improve U.S. effectiveness in conflict, post conflict and homeland defense,” stated the task force, headed by Graham Allison of Harvard University and retired Gen. P.X. Kelley, a former Marine Corps commandant.