Military Forensic Medicine

In 2010 NATO decided to form a Team of Experts to look into non-lethal weapons, and a subgroup og this was non-lethal kinetic energy weapons. The group was called the Non-Lethal Kinetic Energy Team of Experts (NLKE ToE) under the aegis of the NATO Army Armaments Group Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Capability Group (NAAG JNLW CG). The object of the group was to define common test procedures for the various participating laboratories in the domain of blunt trauma effects. A general Standardization Recommendation (STANREC) called “Risk assessment of non-lethal kinetic energy projectiles” (STANREC 4744) was developed. The defined deliverable for the ToE were Allied Engineering Papers (AEP) in the shape of propositions of standardization in the following areas: Skin Penetration AEP-94 was called “Skin Penetration Assessment of Non-Lethal Projectiles”; Accuracy AEP-98 “Precision assessment of non-lethal kinetic energy weapons and ammunition”; Chest impact AEP 99 “Thorax injury risk assessment of non-lethal projectiles” and Head impact AEP-103 “Head injuries assessment of non-lethal projectiles”. Abdominal impact and Effectiveness are currently both being produced. Members of the ToE are technical experts in different fields and currently one forensic pathologist. The ToE meets biannually in the participating nations, and the nations are Belgium (Chair and secretariat at the Royal Military Academy, Brussels), Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA.