Projectile Design

Several attachment designs were tested before settling on the two design concepts tested in Phase One: one involves a tenacious glue material, similar in effect to Sandia National Laboratory's "sticky foam" material, the other uses a robust, short barb attachment scheme. Both concepts are simple, low-cost, and reliable. In Phase One testing, both target attachment concepts were deemed successful.

The short barbs are designed to partially penetrate thick clothing or leather to achieve sufficiently close contact with the skin. The initial voltage applied is large enough to allow a considerable gap distance between electrode and skin while still being effective.

Launcher Configurations

A compressed gas-charged launch system was fabricated for use in testing. The current projectile design is compatible with conventional lethal weapon launchers, such as the M203 and M79 grenade launchers, and 37-mm nonlethal launchers, such as the SL-6 and other gas guns used by SWAT Teams. Ballistic tests to date have demonstrated that the projectile is accurate out to approximately 10 m. Weight reduction and higher speed could increase the effective range accordingly.