LOOKING TOWARDS THE FUTURE OF WEAPONRY
APRIL 25, 2014
THE LITTLE THINGS IN LIFE HURT THE MOST
Kill Switches & Safety Catches New technologies make it easier to track small arms and stop them working under certain circumstances. To what extent can they prevent the unintended or undesirable use of weapons?
To Help push Soviet forces out of Afghanistan in the 1980s, America’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) gave Afghan fighters shoulder-launched Stinger anti-aircraft missiles (pictured). Accurate and easy-to-use, the Stingers caused grievous losses. But after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, the CIA wanted to discourage the use of the leftover missiles. It got hold of some of those circulating on the black market and booby-trapped them, so that anyone who tried to fire one would have his head blown off. The aim, according to a former CIA official, was to deter both the sale and use of the remaining missiles. Taking this sort of unconventional approach to arms control is dangerous and expensive, and can never be entirely effective. Recovering every weapon is rarely feasible. Some of the Stinger missiles from Afghanistan “percolated” to the separatist Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, who used them to shoot down government aircraft, says Jayantha Dhanapala, a former adviser to two Sri Lankan presidents.
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Compared with fighter jets, tanks or war-
might otherwise cut deals with gunrunners. But a
ships, small arms and light weapons (defined as
problem, he notes, is that cyber-savvy rebels might
those that can be easily transported and operated
work out how to use the technology to track gov-
by one or two people, respectively) are cheap and easy to conceal. Russia’s foreign ministry estimates the black-market cost of some shoulder-launched missiles at less than $3,000. Handguns are available in American shops for a few hundred dollars. In Africa, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and other light weapons are commonly smuggled great distances in coffee sacks, notes Marco Kalbusch,
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TOP
COST EFFICIENT HANDGUNS IN THE UNITED STATES
head of the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs in Lomé, Togo. But technological tweaks may be able to help limit the spread and use of small arms, making possible weapons that stop working after a certain period of time, or can only be used by specific people or in particular places. Proponents of such technologies believe they have
ernment troops. More than 80,000 people were killed in Sri Lanka’s 27-year conflict with the Tamil Tigers, according to a UN estimate. Sri Lanka’s navy benefited from intelligence collected by India, an ally, to identify and intercept or destroy boats smuggling light weapons to the Tigers’ bastion in the country’s north-east. But more weapons would have been stopped had a satellite-tracking system been in
THE MAKAROV ENFIELD NO.2 BERSA THUNDER CZ82 STAR 9MM
place, says Mr Dhanapala, who also served as the Sri Lankan government’s peace-process co-ordinator in 2004 and 2005. As head of disarmament affairs at the UN from 1998 to 2003, he proposed that such a system be established. Tracking weapons can be done without sat-
the potential to succeed where political and legis-
ellites, however. Some armies have started using
lative attempts at arms control have failed.
tiny radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips,
Perhaps the simplest approach is the use
like those found in contactless credit cards and
of technological tricks that shorten weapons’ lifes-
public-transport tickets, which do not require bat-
pans. “Self-deactivating” landmines, for example,
teries to operate. Instead, when they are passed
will not detonate after their battery runs down. They
later diverted, often with help from corrupt officials
close to a reader (when passing through a door, for
have been adopted by America and some of its
and forged documents. Discreet monitoring and
example), the chips absorb enough radio energy
allies, but constitute only a tiny fraction of mines
tracking of shipping containers carrying weapons
to power up and transmit a short burst of identi-
deployed around the world. In a similar vein, one
makes it harder to steal or reroute them. Jim Gier-
fication data. Weapons passing in and out of an
proposal is that launchers for shoulder-fired mis-
manski, a former US Air Force colonel, says Ameri-
armoury can thus be tracked. SkyRFID, a compa-
siles should only work with a uniquely configured,
ca’s Defence Department recently began shipping
ny based in Ontario, notes that its weaponry tags
non-rechargeable battery manufactured in a sin-
to Afghanistan, on commercial vessels, containers
are not damaged by vibration, grime or cleaning
gle, tightly controlled plant. This would, in theory,
capable of reporting an opened door, vibrations
solvents. Replacing manual logging makes it hard-
limit the lifespan of the weapons for anyone without
from a break-in attempt and their location, derived
er for armoury staff to pretend munitions sold on
access to new batteries. But there would be work-
from global positioning system (GPS) satellites. A
the sly are still in stock. (A UN report on improving
arounds. This year rebels in Syria posted video
container can, in essence, “report its own hijack-
marking and tracing technologies is due to be pub-
online of a portable missile-launcher rigged to an
ing”, says Dr Giermanski, now boss of Powers
lished in April 2014.)
external power supply for target acquisition. It fired
International, a company based in North Carolina
a missile that shot down a helicopter near the Abu
that helps shippers adopt the tracking technology.
Service Unavaliable
ad-Duhur military airbase, south of Aleppo. Similar-
It is just now becoming practical and inexpensive
Another alternative to GPS transmitters would be
ly rigged missiles have been fired by Hamas mili-
enough for wide use, he says.
to track weapons by outfitting them with the in-
tants at Israeli aircraft.
In some cases it is even possible to track in-
expensive SIM cards that allow mobile-phone
dividual weapons by building in a transmitter that
networks to identify subscribers. A weapon
Perishable Weapons
regularly signals their precise co-ordinates. This
would
Shoulder-fired missiles, RPGs, mortars, and guid-
is already done for larger weapons deemed “ex-
work towers to indicate its position within a rough
ed anti-tank missiles could also be made to stop
pensive enough and consequential enough”, says
area, says Mr Kalbusch. And a system of this sort
working after a while by engineering their chem-
Lincoln Bloomfield, a former State Department of-
could, in theory, form the basis of a “remote con-
ical propellants to become inert after a predeter-
ficial for military and political affairs who served as
trol” feature, allowing weapons to be disabled from
mined period, says Patrick McCarthy, head of
a special envoy under George Bush junior. Doing
a distance.
a UN project called the International Small Arms
the same for small arms would be expensive, but
“Kill switches” or “backdoors”, as these fea-
Control Standards. It is hardly likely that govern-
the transmitter could be cleverly attached so that
tures are sometimes known, have so far been
ments would buy perishable weapons of the sort
removing it disables the weapon.
associated
communicate
with
with
expensive
nearby
mobile-net
weapon
systems
for their own use, but rebel groups might accept
In RPGs, a GPS transmitter could be con-
that must send and receive data to operate. Da-
them from a sympathetic country, at least if nothing
cealed in a grip assembly, says Jean-Marc Anzian
vid Kay, America’s most senior arms inspector in
better were on offer. This might also allay fears in
Kouadja, executive secretary of the National Com-
post-Saddam Iraq, has noted that one of the rea-
the donor country that the weapons might end up
mission of Small Arms and Light Weapons at Côte
sons why Russia’s best air-defence systems have
in undesirable hands many years later.
d’Ivoire’s interior ministry. Wrench it out, he says,
not been installed in Iran is probably because the
A second approach to arms control is to track
and you break the trigger mechanism. Govern-
Iranians fear that Russia might be capable of coun-
weapons electronically. Almost all illicit small arms
ments might be willing to foot the bill to secure their
termanding missile launches against certain coun-
were legally manufactured or imported and were
stockpiles from insurgent raids or managers who
tries’ aircraft. Now similar “override” systems are
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U.S. − WORLDWIDE SMALL ARMS EXPORT 1998 - 2010
$100 million + $10 million + $100 thousand +
$3,318,871,950 IN SMALL ARMS COMBINED
Fingerprint Scanner
Intelligun 1911 Pistol
RFID Sensor
Armatix IP1 Pistol
OLD TECHNOLOGY USED IN NEW WAYS:
Accordingly, new “personalised” firearms
and other experts at SmartCon, an arms-control conference held
could be neutered by an adversary, or, more straightforwardly, by the country that supplied the arms. Attempts to mandate use of the technology seem unlikely to succeed, because small arms are made in many countries. And sometimes foreign powers want
craft, satellite, mobile-network tower or radio station.
Weighing less than 30 grams (including a standard
AAA battery), the mechanism allows an “offend-
ing weapon” to be remotely disabled, says Patrick
O’Shaughnessy, TriggerSmart’s head of research
and development. It costs about $150 to retrofit an
existing rifle or build the technology into a new one.
The biggest buyers, Mr O’Shaughnessy reck-
its magnetic trigger is pulled past a sensor in the trigger guard, a chip is switched on to crunch data handgrip. Only if they match the owner’s bone geometry and “grip dynamics” does the trigger unlock.
pistol called iP1, made by Armatix, a German firm. It only fires if the shooter is wearing a special wristwatch containing an RFID chip, which is detected by the gun. If the gun is more than 40 centimetres from the RFID chip, its trigger locks. Attempting to disable the trigger lock destroys the iP1 “irrevocably”, according to Maximilian Hefner, the firm’s boss. The
trol technologies are being developed to prevent the unintended or unauthorised use of weapons belonging to civilians or police officers. In the decade to 2010, 1,217 American minors were killed in accidental shootings, according to the most recent data from the Centres for Disease Control. And it is not uncommon for a police officer to be shot with a service weapon that has been wrested away.
by a partner in the country’s security forces. Trig-
gerSmart’s technology could allow any member of
a unit to block the use of firearms by partner forc-
es. But being expected to use weapons that can
be remotely disabled hardly seems likely to engen-
der trust. And it would be impractical to introduce
light-weaponry override systems in their current form
for large numbers of soldiers or police, says Richard
Away from the battlefield, other arms-con-
year in Afghanistan was slain in an “insider attack”
list price is $1,699.
tion and development. One example is a .22-calibre
foolproof: on average, around 1% of people with the
to pull the trigger all the way back. The system is not
All this happens within the tenth of a second it takes
from pressure-sensing piezoelectric sensors in the
has devised a personalised Beretta pistol. When
fingerprint. The New Jersey Institute of Technology
Libya’s Qaddafi regime did in 2011.
interest. One in six of the Western troops killed last
sion, a non-profit group that promotes demilitarisa-
them against it, as Western-supported opponents of
security forces. American officials have expressed
ric characteristics of their owner’s body, such as a
A wristwatch or a ring could be stolen,
rebels to steal a government’s weapons and use
ons, will be armies that work with foreign
office and the Bonn International Centre for Conver-
It costs about $200 to add to a firearm.
years, and it sounds a warning alarm after six years.
powers the RFID reader lasts for more than eight
involved,” he says. The battery inside the gun that
the gun, pull the trigger, it goes boom—no thought
Jonathan Mossberg, the firm’s founder. “You pick up
however, so other smart guns rely instead on biomet-
cussed by diplomats, gunmakers
Such “smart guns” were dis-
ride features on military weapons.
to be accepted than remote-over-
note, the technology is more likely
in Berlin in June, organised by the German foreign
“Personalised firearms will fire only when held by the owner or another authorised person.”
weapon. Because the verification takes place with-
says. Governments would worry that their arsenals
itself, but rather by a command sent from an air-
owner’s hand.) The system is seamless, according to
solenoid switch instantly unlocks the trigger. (Alternatively, the chip could be surgically implanted in the
family or co-workers) from being killed with his own
armies will be eager to adopt such kit, Mr Kalbusch
rifle. It is controlled not by a switch on the weapon
in the weapon itself, its backers
embedded in a ring is brought near the shotgun, a
Corporation, based in Florida. When an RFID chip
M-2000, has been developed by iGun Technology
A similar system for shotguns, called
specific aim of preventing a gun owner (and his
the owner or another authorised person, with the
(RADIO-FREQUENCY INDENTIFICATION)
RFID
are being developed which fire only when held by
ALLOWING ACCESS
COLLECTING PAYMENTS
TRACKING OF OBJECTS PEOPLE AND ANIMALS
Even with further technological advances, few
rity recruits.
the instruction and equipping of 550,000 Iraqi secu-
Rowe, a retired US Army major-general who oversaw
INHERITED DISEASE CHECKS
PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION
USES FOR AN RFID CHIP:
that can block or unblock the trigger of an assault
Ireland, has developed a motorised mechanism
TriggerSmart, a company based in Limerick,
being applied to small arms, too.
PATERNITY TESTING
USES FOR A FINGER PRINT:
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the iGun M-2000 failed to sell at all. Maxim Popenker, an author of firearm reference books based in St Petersburg, Russia, observes that sooner or later a bad guy will shoot a good guy because the latter’s personalised gun refuses to fire due to “gloves, dirt, sweat, blood or stress”. Gun enthusiasts have raised similar objections: personalised smart guns are simply less effective for self-defence, they argue, because of the risk that the safety technology will fail to work properly. Triggers could be unlocked by voice, but this risks betraying the position of someone hiding.
Echoing an attitude shared by many gun
enthusiasts, David Codrea, an editor at Guns magazine, cautions that “stupid electronic doodads” could render a firearm useless, would be ignored by criminals and would raise the price of firearms for everyone else. Lawrence Keane of the National Shooting Sports Foundation in Connecticut notes that owners of “authorised-user-only” firearms might be lulled into letting others handle them carelessly. He rejects the term “smart guns” because “it’s people who are dumb or smart”. Some gun owners are also predictably suspicious of technologies like TriggerSmart’s “wide-area control” system that could use an encrypted wireless signal to disable smart guns in schools, airports and other areas. An editorial on BearingArms.com, a progun website, in August called smart guns “a dumb idea” and said the ability to disable them was a “technology for tyrants” that would give governments a monopoly on the use of force.
Such concerns present a big obstacle to
the adoption of smart firearms. Indeed, “immense pressure” and boycotts from pro-gun groups persame hand size will be able to fire a gun person-
suaded many firms to abandon development
alised for a particular user. But a gun set up for an
of smart weapons, says Wolfgang Bindseil, an
adult cannot be fired by a child. The US Army is
arms-control official at the German foreign office.
testing the system at an armaments laboratory in
Gunmakers that gave up include Metal Storm in
Picatinny, New Jersey.
Australia, FN Herstal in Belgium, and Colt, Smith &
Wesson and Taurus International Manufacturing in
Firearms that are unlocked with a fin-
gerprint reader developed by Kodiak Industries,
America.
based in Utah, and Safe Gun Technology, based in
Georgia. Biomac Systems, a firm based in Los An-
er attitudes will change as fingerprint readers in
geles, California and Ferlach, Austria, is designing
smartphones (including the latest iPhone) and wire-
a biometric kit to retrofit pistols. Barack Obama has
less key fobs for cars become more widespread
encouraged the development of such technologies
and are shown to be reliable. Whether that is just
and has directed America’s attorney general to re-
wishful thinking may soon become apparent. De-
view them. Smart-gun technology also received a
spite protests from gun-rights groups, New Jersey
boost last year when it won the fictional endorse-
passed a law in 2002 that requires all non-antique
ment of James Bond in “Skyfall”. Issued a gun
guns sold in the state to be smart, starting about
coded to his palmprint that only he can fire, Bond
three years after the attorney-general determines
is told that it is “less of a random killing machine,
that the technology is up to snuff and for sale. That
more of a personal statement”.
countdown could begin soon: smart pistols made
Mr Mossberg of iGun wonders wheth-
by Armatix arrived in American gun shops in NoTechnology for Tyrants?
vember 2013. Arms-control technologies face for-
And yet demand looks weak, especially in Ameri-
midable opposition to adoption on the battlefield,
ca, by far the biggest market for civilian firearms:
but will now have a chance to prove themselves in