The personnel halting and stimulation response rifle (PHASR) is a prototype non-lethal laser dazzler developed by the US Department of Defense.
Its purpose is to temporarily disorient and blind a target.
Blinding laser weapons have been tested in the past, but were banned under the 1995 UN Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons, which the United States acceded to on 21 January 2009. The PHASR rifle, a low-intensity laser, is not prohibited under this regulation, as the blinding effect is intended to be temporary. It also uses a two-wavelength laser
I would imagine this one has a laser that spreads out into a cone so that the operator can point it at a larger area.
Seems to defeat the very definition of a laser?
at that point its more of a light beam than a laser
The newest “big thing” in the flashlight world is LEP, literally lasers used as flashlights. For IR, VCSEL is the current best, but only because that technology gets around FDA rules somehow.