Defense Department's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program, or JNLWD, is pushing ahead with a new direct energy weapon that uses high-powered microwaves to stop cars in their tracks without damaging the vehicle, its driver, or anyone else.

The jammer works by targeting the car's engine control unit causing it to reboot over and over, stalling the engine. Like an invisible hand, the microwaves hold the car in place. "Anything that has electronics on it, these high-powered microwaves will affect," David Law, who leads JNLWD's technology division, said in March. "As long as the [radio] is on, it holds the vehicle stopped."

The Radio-Frequency Vehicle Stopper is designed to stop vehicles. This technology has the potential to support multiple missions including:

Force protection
Checkpoints
Access control points
Roadblocks
Mounted patrols to stop vehicles
The portable Radio-Frequency Vehicle Stopper system would allow for the maintenance of a safe, non-lethal keep-out zone by using high power microwaves to disrupt vehicle engines. The system disrupts the vehicle's electrical components to cause the engine to stall. The system is currently planned to be self-contained and self-transportable.