Non-Lethal Landmine Zaps Intruders With 50,000 Volts

Security experts met up in California in March to discuss the use of a non-lethal landmine that shocks intruders with 50,000 volts. Even though the Taser Area Denial Device (TADD) does not violate the 1997 Ottawa Convention, which bans landmines, some experts expressed concern that it could violate international humanitarian laws.

The device shoots a pair of darts at intruders from a distance of about seven meters, and a high-voltage electrical pulse is delivered through lightweight cables to the darts.

The electric shock overpowers the intruder’s neuromuscular control, and he or she is then incapacitated. Each battery-powered TADD has up to 12 pairs of darts which can be fired independently at different targets, and can deliver a maximum of 200 three-second shocks.

Though the devices have not been deployed yet, they could soon end up as part of security systems at U.S. nuclear facilities, or replace conventional landmines for military use. Prisons could also use TADD to secure the exterior perimeter and for controlling inmates.

However, Richard Lloyd of London-based Landmine Action is worried that the technology could be easily developed into something more threatening. “Inevitably this stuff leaks out to a much wider use,” he says. “I think it would be foolish to rely upon marketing of limited use.”
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the New Scientist (04/23/03); Graham-Rowe, Duncan.