
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, October 13, 1995                   TAG: 9510130057
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

ARMY HALTS WORK ON LASERS THAT BLIND

Under orders from the Pentagon's civilian leaders, the Army has reluctantly abandoned its effort to produce a new laser weapon to disable optics such as gun sights but also capable of blinding humans.

The Pentagon disclosed Thursday that Deputy Defense Secretary John White on Oct. 5 ordered the Army to halt its Laser Countermeasures System program.

In a letter to Army Secretary Togo West, White cited ``a variety of reasons'' for ordering the program halted, but he did not explain in detail.

Kenneth Bacon, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said the proposed Army weapon did not fit in the category of permissible arms programs after Defense Secretary William Perry formally declared on Sept. 1 that the U.S. government no longer would use lasers that are ``specifically designed'' to cause permanent blindness. Perry said lasers for other military purposes, such as designating targets in battle, were not only permissible but vitally important.

Just one day before Perry declared the ban, the Army awarded a contract for the production of 20 of the laser weapons at a cost of $12 million. None has been built.

Even after Perry's announcement, the Army said it intended to go ahead with its Laser Countermeasures System, on grounds that it was not designed specifically to blind and therefore was allowable. The weapon, as it appeared on the drawing board, would be a shoulder-fired device mounted on an M-16 rifle.

However, in a written reply to White on Oct. 5, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald H. Griffith said the project would be dropped even though he thought it did not violate Perry's prohibition.

``We want to emphatically convey that this program is fully consistent with past and present Department of Defense policy and the law of war,'' Griffith wrote. He said the Army had worked for months with legal officials to ensure policy compliance.

By contrast, the U.S. military command in charge of unconventional warfare disclosed shortly after Perry's announcement that it would shelve a laser gun known as the Dazer that is capable of blinding humans. There are only two Dazers in existence.

An international conference in Vienna, Austria, that opened last month has begun negotiations on banning the use of laser weapons. Before Perry's policy statement Sept. 1, the Clinton administration had balked at talks on banning them.

Bacon said Perry decided the time was right to take a lead role in addressing the problem.

by CNB