It is the new USMC Ocular Interruption System, and a Redmond, Washington-based company just secured a $49 million contract to supply it.
B.E. Meyers & Co., Inc., announced earlier this month that the Marines have adopted the company’s Glare Recoil weapon-mounted hail and warning laser system as part of the OIS program. The 17-ounce Recoil, classified as the LA-22/U by the military, is a 250mW maximum output green laser dazzler that also doubles as a laser rangefinder.
According to Meyers, the device is used to project a “veiling glare” out to several kilometers. Considered eye safe and unable to blind–which is against the Geneva Convention– it is designed to disorient the target and obscure their vision.