FORT SURASEE, Thailand — Soldiers are trained and ready to handle anything they encounter either domestically or overseas, however not all situations call for Soldiers to use lethal force. The Non-Lethal Weapons training during Cobra Gold 2010 gave American and Thai Soldiers a chance to familiarize themselves with the various types of non-lethal weapons and when to use them.
Cobra Gold is an annual joint-training exercise between the United States, Thai, Japanese, Singaporean, Indonesian and Republic of Korea forces, as an opportunity to cross-train and share lessons learned. The 4th Battalion, 118th Infantry Regiment, S.C. National Guard participated with U.S. Marines during the operation held Feb 1 — 10.
"A non-lethal weapon is specifically designed to use non-fatal ammunition," said Larry Brown, the Pacific Command Non-Lethal Weapons senior analyst. "This class is for familiarization training and to make them aware of what is out there."
The Soldiers trained on the taser gun, the compressed air gun, a 12-gauge shot gun with point and area rubber ammunition and a rubber grenade M-203 round. For many of the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade Soldiers this class is a refresher, but for the Thai soldiers, the information is new and very important.
"In early January the Thai Army announced that they have invested over 12 million Baht, about 384 million dollars, in non-lethal crowd control systems," said Brown.
Non-lethal force is becoming more popular and very effective. There are more types of non-lethal weapons now and Soldiers are finding new ways to use them. The compressed air gun can be mounted underneath the M-16 rifle. The air gun has a 15-round magazine which shoots a round filled with paint designed to break and splatter on impact. The weapon was originally designed for crowd control.
"Soldiers have started using them at control points and on convoys," Brown said. "It can be used on vehicles or people and the paint can last for about a week. When they see it, people know they are being marked for something."
Everyone was able to practice on the various weapons systems but some of the 218th Soldiers were also instructing the Thai soldiers.
"By teaching, the guys are able to get a more in depth knowledge of the weapon," said 1st Sgt. Don Evans from E Company, 1-118th Infantry.
According to Evans, the situations for using non-lethal force varies greatly from subduing an unarmed assailant or a suspect to civilian crowd control to protecting or recovering sensitive equipment.
"This training is important because it teaches how to know when to use less than lethal force or not," said Evans. "Less than lethal does not mean you can't kill someone with these weapons."
If used inappropriately, these non-lethal weapons can be fatal. Soldiers are instructed to never take a head shot with any of these weapons.
"Any type of head shot is fatal, even with a rubber bullet," said Brown.
Less than lethal force has become a vital part of combat operations. American Soldiers overseas and Thai soldiers battling insurgency in Southern Thailand are using these tactics to minimize collateral damage and to be able to apprehend suspects quickly.
"This is excellent training for both the Thai and our units because they are able to get hands-on with weapons they don't get to work with often," said 1st Lt. Jeff Blankenship, Executive Officer, C Company 1-118th.