The US Marine Corps wants a new laser weapon system that is not only non-lethal, but can yell at people. In a recently closed call for applications, the Marines outlined the requirements for the new vehicle-mobile Scalable Compact Ultra-short Pulse Laser System (SCUPLS) that can disorient and cause pain without injury, yet can also send clear, audible warnings as far as 1,000 m (3,300 ft).

Laser weapons have garnered a lot of interest in recent years as the technology has caught up with the promise of directed energy weapons. While some lasers are designed to take out ICBMs at long distance, others have a more tactical application.

Case in point is the planned SCUPLS for the US Marine Corps. Described as a lightweight and energy efficient next-generation laser, its purpose isn’t to destroy the enemy, but to deal with crowds, civil unrest, and other situations where lethal force isn’t necessary or desirable. Instead, its function is to use a laser to create sustainable and controllable plasmas that produce a variety of non-lethal effects to warn and deter.

According to the request for applications from businesses to develop the system, SCUPLS builds on previous Marine programs that studied scalable laser induced plasma effects (LIPE), which showed promise, but produced systems that were cumbersome and impractical to install in a vehicle. However, the data from the tests proved valuable in developing more advanced and more compact non-lethal lasers.

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