QUANTICO, Va. — The DoD Non-Lethal Weapons Program has launched a new, non-lethal weapons online course for U.S. operating forces, Aug. 24. Located on the U.S. Navy's eLearning site, the course provides instruction on non-lethal weapons characteristics, employment, policy and applicability across the range of military operations.
The U.S. Department of Defense Non-Lethal Weapons Program provides our operating forces escalation-of-force options, minimizing casualties and collateral damage.
"This course provides world-wide access to required non-lethal weapons training for Sailors and other service members," said LCDR Shawn Kelley, U.S. Navy, Capability & Requirements Office, Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, Quantico, Va.
The course takes approximately four hours to complete and contains nine modules and an exam. The non-lethal weapons modules include: history; weapons; strategic impacts; tactical employment; escalation-of-force; counter-personnel and counter-materiel; characteristics/usage; future non-lethal weapons; munitions and devices, fielded non-lethal weapons capability sets; and operational vignettes.
"Our goal is for the course to be located on all of the Services Learning Management Systems (LMS) in the near future," said LCDR Chris White, U.S. Coast Guard and Education Officer, Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate. White led the effort of developing the course along with other members of the Directorate's training and education staff.
"We felt it was necessary to stream-line the course and make it more readily available for deploying forces," White added.
Another recent Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate initiative includes a non-lethal weapons elective developed by Pennsylvania State University. This semester long elective is readily available for students attending Senior Service Schools, such as the Army War College, Air War College, etc.
The DoD Non-Lethal Weapons Program's Non-Lethal Weapons Course requires access via a Common Access Card (CAC) for U.S. Navy (Active and Reserve), U.S. Marine Corps (Active and Reserve), U.S. Coast Guard (Active and Reserve), Department of the Navy (DON) civilians, and DON contractors. U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force personnel can also access the site, however, they must request a Navy eLearning (NeL) account or a site sponsor.
Additional instructions and information on non-lethal weapons are located at: http://jnlwp.defense.gov