Genasys and the LRAD: the Long Range Acoustic Device
Genasys and the LRAD: the Long Range Acoustic DeviceOrigins, how the sound device works, who uses it, and the lawsuits. A full research file.
This company is tied to two places that matter. It was registered in Utah in 1980, the home state of the Mormon church. It has been in San Diego since 1986, a major US military hub and the city where the Mormon Battalion arrived in January 1847, in the first years of American rule after Spain and Mexico. From San Diego it built the LRAD, a long-range sound device, and Genasys itself, in its own blog, calls the LRAD "the de facto standard" for long-range hailing devices. The military was its first customer, but police buy it too, and not only in the US: the company says it is used in more than 100 countries. Its founder, Woody Norris, invented many other things. Just a handful of them, put together, could make one mobile unit that can reach, read and restrain a single person. He was building the first of those parts as far back as 1967.The paper trail adds more. The company changes its words with the audience. In 2001 it announced acoustic non-lethal weapon technology. Today it says the LRAD is not a weapon, yet it also sells it to disperse crowds without physical contact, and its painful alert tone has been used on a crowd. The origin story is one Navy need after the USS Cole attack, but Norris was working on directed sound decades earlier, and police were named as customers from the start. Much of the money and the product list is out of public view: the company names only its biggest customers, sells through middlemen, and has built at least one version for an unnamed US agency. It later renamed itself Genasys, bought software firms, and now sells the software and the LRAD to police together.
Top 8 takeaways1. A super-loud aimed megaphoneThe LRAD sends a clear voice or warning tone in one direction, up to about 3 miles. The same device can also play a painful alert tone.
2. The company's words, then and nowIn Oct 2001 it announced "acoustic non-lethal weapon technology for military and law enforcement". Its 2026 guide says LRADs are not "non-lethal weapons", yet its defense page offers them to "disperse crowds without physical contact". A federal judge (2017) and the 2nd Circuit (2018) said a painful sound can be force.
3. The painful tone is realA San Jose police memo says the tone was used to disperse a crowd in 2020. Genasys's own guide has a "Hazard Area" for it. Pittsburgh paid a professor for permanent hearing loss, and the NYPD agreed to stop using the alert tone.
4. The origin story has a gapThe company says the Navy needed it after the USS Cole attack in 2000. But Norris had worked on directed sound since the late 1970s, and law enforcement was named as a target from the start.
5. One inventor, many toolsNorris built beamed sound, a bone-conduction headset, an ultrasound body-listening tool, LRAD and the BolaWrap restraint. Together they point at reaching, reading and stopping one person.
6. Born in the Pentagon's non-lethal programLRAD came out of the Pentagon's non-lethal weapons program. The Navy has used it fleet-wide since 2007, the Army has a program worth up to $110M, and Genasys says its helicopter unit meets JIFCO (the non-lethal weapons office) requirements. No spy-agency link found.
7. The real money and catalog are not publicThe only US police number given is about $1.0M in FY2019, but only customers over 10% of sales are named. Some versions are not in the catalog, like a 2014 vehicle system an unnamed US agency paid extra to adapt.
8. A new name and a softer product lineLRAD Corp became Genasys in 2019, after years of protest criticism and court rulings, and added evacuation and messaging software. The company says it is one hardware-and-software platform, and its 2026 police brochure sells the software and LRAD as one bundle. Whether that opens doors for the sound device is the author's read.
Part AThe BasicsWhat the LRAD is, what the company was called, how it started and who runs it.
1.Identity and names
Genasys has had three names and no parent company.
| Name | Period | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| American Technology Corporation (ATC) | 1980 to March 2010 | Utah registration. SEC records list a filer name change to "American Technology Corp /DE/" on June 2, 1994 (may only reflect when the Delaware filer's record was created). Ticker ATCO. |
| LRAD Corporation | March 26, 2010 to Oct 2019 | Named after its main product. Shareholders voted on the change in March 2010. Ticker LRAD. |
| Genasys Inc. | Oct 23, 2019 to today | Ticker GNSS (Nasdaq Capital Market). Name borrowed from Genasys Holding S.L., the Madrid software firm bought in January 2018. The Oct 2019 8-K says the name changed "effective immediately" on Oct 23, 2019, with stockholder approval of the charter amendment planned for the early-2020 annual meeting. Danforth said it was "timely for us to rebrand the Company based on our unified, integrated hardware and software platform" and noted LRAD's "exceptional reputation" over its "27-year history" (Critical Communications Review, Oct 2019). |
Headquarters:San Diego (Rancho Bernardo). Size: about 187 employees (Sept 2025).
2.Origins
Genasys began as a marketing vehicle for one inventor's ideas, did not turn a profit until FY2010, and found its business when the Navy needed a way to hail boats after the USS Cole attack.
What MIT's own website says about Norris
Source: MIT. The text and screenshots below come from the Lemelson-MIT Program's page on Norris, hosted on MIT's own web address (lemelson.mit.edu). It is the profile for his 2005 Lemelson-MIT Prize. Open the page. It is a prize profile, not an investigation, so it tells his story the way the prize program tells it.
Watch: "Elwood G. Norris, 2005 Lemelson-MIT Prize Winner", the video shown at the top of the MIT page (posted on YouTube by The Lemelson Foundation). Open on YouTube
Top of the MIT page: his 2005 Lemelson-MIT Prize, and how HyperSonic Sound works. Screenshot of lemelson.mit.edu. Tap or click the image to enlarge.
Lower on the MIT page: the 1967 Doppler tool, the NASA headset, Flashback, Parametric Sound, LRAD, BolaWrap and his patent count. Screenshot of lemelson.mit.edu. Tap or click the image to enlarge.| Invention or role | What the MIT page says |
|---|---|
| HyperSonic Sound (HSS) | Sound aimed "like a laser beam" from an emitter as thin as one-sixteenth of an inch. Aimed at one listener it sounds "like a voice inside one's head." It sends high-frequency sound through the air that turns into ultrasonic waves, and it can bounce off walls. Used for targeted messaging and getting attention. |
| Transcutaneous Doppler (1967) | Inspired by Doppler radar. A sonar tool that sends ultrasound through the skin to isolate and listen to movements inside the body. Called a precursor to the sonogram. |
| Ear-mounted speaker and microphone (mid-1980s) | Works because sound travels through the bones of the head. Designed at NASA's request to replace the microphone in astronaut helmets. His patents were sold to Jabra, which made a cell phone headset. |
| Flashback | The first handheld recorder and player with no audio tape. Flash memory, no moving parts. |
| AirScooter | A personal flying vehicle of just over 250 pounds with two counter-rotating blades and two pontoons. Mostly computer operated with handlebars; GPS planned. Police showed interest. |
| Parametric Sound | He founded it and was director and president. It is now Turtle Beach, where he was also chief scientist. |
| LRAD Corporation | He founded it and chaired its board until he retired in 2010. |
| BolaWrap | A handheld, non-lethal restraint that works like a lasso. Used by hundreds of law enforcement agencies. |
| Now | Over 100 US patents in electrical and acoustic engineering. Chief Technology Officer of Wrap Technologies. He grew up in Cumberland, Maryland. |
What the MIT page does not say: it does not mention American Technology Corporation (the 1980 company), the Navy, the USS Cole, or any Genasys product. Its LRAD line says only that he founded the company and chaired it until 2010.
What these pieces could merge into (my synthesis, not from MIT)
Nearly every item above is a way to reach one person, or read one person, with sound. MIT does not say he planned a combined system. This is my own read of how the pieces line up.
Reach:HSS and LRAD put a voice at one chosen person, and the people around them do not hear it.
Delivery:The bone-conduction headset puts sound inside the listener's head with no speaker.
Sensing:The Doppler principle reads signals from inside the body.
Record:Flashback logs what happened.
Mobility:The AirScooter carries the unit to the person.
Control:BolaWrap restrains someone from a distance.
The merge:One mobile, single-target sound platform that can talk to a person, listen to them and stop them.
The founder: Elwood "Woody" Norris
Background:Son of a coal miner (father with a third-grade education, mother an eighth-grade one); the family's only luxury was a radio, which he took apart at age eight. No college. He learned electronics by tinkering and in the US Air Force (TweakTown: he joined after a hi-fi store was slow to answer his job application, scored well on an aptitude test, and was posted to a secret base). Lemelson-MIT: he left as an Airman Second Class and fixed electronic equipment at the University of Washington.
First big break:A company approached him to build a "sonar version of radar" that could listen inside the body. Lemelson says the tool was licensed to Medical Development Corporation (later acquired by American Hospitals) and he took stock in it, which funded his own company. CNN says he sold the audio technology behind the sonogram for $5M to a San Diego firm that later became Jabra, and that royalties bought a 20,000 sq ft mansion on 44 acres outside San Diego. He also sold a phonograph tone arm. MIT's page puts the Jabra sale on his mid-1980s bone-conduction headset patents instead, and says nothing about Medical Development Corporation.
HSS idea:Norris says he first thought of directional sound in the late 1970s, after raising money by selling stock in an earlier startup. He told Technology Review he was "ignorant and naive" enough to think he was first.
Honors and ventures:2005 Lemelson-MIT Prize ($500,000) for HyperSonic Sound and the AirScooter (an ultralight helicopter in development since 2000; planned price $47,000); TED speaker; Forbes (via IP Closeup) credits $300M in gross licensing fees over a 45-year career.
Critics:CNN (2009) quoted a former Harman International executive, Floyd Toole, saying Norris is given to elaborate exaggerations. The San Diego Reader (2006) quoted analyst Bud Leedom saying Norris's companies show a lot of hype and little substance, and noted ATC had lost money every year since 1996, Norris owned about 16% of the stock, and he had been an officer or director at e.Digital and Patriot Scientific and was involved in AirScooter (Las Vegas).
1980-1996: the shell years
Norris formed ATC in 1980 as a vehicle to market his inventions. He was a director from August 1980 and president from August 1980 to February 1994.
ATC has been in San Diego since 1986 (SDBJ). Wikipedia says the company was inactive from 1988 to early 1992, then recapitalized as a Delaware corporation in 1992.
SEC filings list a royalty agreement between ATC and Norris (Sept 3, 1985), an assignment of his technology to ATC (March 2, 1992), and a Form 10-SB that went effective Aug 1, 1994. Wikipedia says the first directed-sound technology launched in 1996.
HyperSonic Sound (HSS): the first product line
HSS uses ultrasonic frequencies to create audible sound in the air along a narrow beam, aimed at ads, kiosks, museums and vending machines. Norris filed the first patent in 1996 (granted 1999); the first commercial version shipped in 2002. By 2004 he claimed $40M had gone into it and cited about 20 issued and 20 pending patents.
Competitor: Holosonic Research Labs (F. Joseph Pompei, Audio Spotlight). Sony integrated a few hundred HSS systems with plasma screens for specialty uses.
ATC's other early products: NeoPlanar, SoundSaber, SoundVector, Purebass. At the 2004 Republican convention a TIME magazine display used HSS to beam past presidents' speeches.
Commercial success was limited. HSS was spun off in 2010 as Parametric Sound (Norris led it), which became part of Turtle Beach.
The pivot to LRAD
After the Oct 2000 USS Cole attack, the Navy needed a way to make an approaching boat hear a warning at distance. ATC built the Long Range Acoustic Device. Norris and his engineers delivered a prototype to the Navy within months (CNN). On Oct 30, 2001 ATC announced "acoustic non-lethal weapon technology for military and law enforcement"; on Oct 21, 2003 it announced a key military contract for modified LRADs. The Navy bought LRAD in 2003.
Timing:ABC (2004) says the Department of Defense funded Norris's team after 9/11; the company and Wikipedia tie LRAD to the Cole attack in Oct 2000; ATC's FY2005 10-K dates the Cole bombing to 2002 (an apparent typo); its FY2006 10-K says LRAD was developed in 2002 and deployed since spring 2003. Safest reading: concept 2000-2002, first sales 2003.
ATC described LRAD as a "supercharged megaphone": a 15-30 degree beam reaching 500 m or more.
Seabourn Spirit, Nov 5, 2005:The cruise ship repelled an attack with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns off Somalia (about 100 miles per press reports, 115 km per Wikipedia). ATC said earsplitting "bangs" were directed at the pirates; the cruise line would not confirm an LRAD was on board, and its effect is unclear. About 25 commercial ships carried LRADs by late 2005.
Units cost $20,000 (18-inch) to $30,000 (40-inch) in 2009; by 2011 SDBJ reported $5,000-$150,000 each. A 2009 profile said LRAD was 80% of ATC's revenue.
Early funding link: General Dynamics funded Norris's "directed stick radiator" pulse device (about 2001) and helped brief the Army and Pentagon (see section 8).
The Utah question
Documented:Wikipedia says the company was founded in Utah in 1980; its source is the Utah state business registry. That is a registration record, not a history of operations.
Suggestive, unconfirmed:A Salt Lake City company is said to have approached Norris for the body-sonar contract (TweakTown); no source places Medical Development Corporation in Utah. My inference: the IRS number prefix 87 may be a Utah mark (unverified).
Not found:What ATC did in Utah from 1980 to 1988, who else was involved, why it went dormant, whether Utah was only a shell.
Primary sources that would settle it:The Utah Division of Corporations record and the 1994 Form 10-SB (it should carry a company history).
3.People
The company runs on a founder-inventor era (to 2016) and a defense-contractor CEO era (since 2016).
Founder era (ATC / LRAD Corp)
| Person | Role and years | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Woody Norris | Founder; director from Aug 1980; president Aug 1980-Feb 1994; CTO to Dec 2000; CEO Oct 2000-Feb 2003; chairman until 2010 | Full profile in section 2. |
| Carl Gruenler | ATC VP of military and government operations (2004-05 coverage) | Iraq-era spokesman; described LRAD as "the sound of force protection". |
| Tom Brown | President and CEO of ATC, then LRAD Corp, for almost 10 years until 2016 | Joined the board Mar 24, 2006; President and CEO from Aug 2006 (CEO from Sept 5) and interim CFO; earlier an executive at Sony Electronics (1988-2004), a CPA, and a Mad Catz director. SDBJ reported his departure in spring 2016. The CEO between Feb 2003 and Brown's start (about 2006) is not identified in my sources. |
| Robert Putnam | ATC / LRAD spokesman (2005-2011 quotes) | |
| Scott Stuckey | ATC VP of business development (2009) | |
| Gen. John G. Coburn (Ret.) | LRAD Corp board chairman in 2016 | Announced Danforth's hiring. |
Current management
| Person | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Richard S. Danforth | CEO and director since Aug 2016 | Raytheon from 1982 (manufacturing, quality and program roles to 1996; VP Operations of Raytheon Aircraft 1996-2000; SVP of its commercial aircraft business from 2000). DRS Technologies 2002-2014: EVP Electronics Systems Group (2002-04), President Navy Electronics and Intelligence Systems (2004-05), President Command, Control and Communication (2005-08), CEO of DRS Defense Solutions (2008-12), Group President Integrated Defense Systems and Service (2013-14). Chairman of Advanced Acoustic Concepts (2007-2013), a DRS-Thales submarine and mine-warfare software joint venture. Formed consulting firm RsD Aero in 2014. DRS was sold to Leonardo-Finmeccanica for $5.2B. Degrees: BS Industrial Technology (UMass Lowell), MS Engineering Management (Western New England). |
| Bill Dodd | Chairman since Mar 23, 2026 (board since May 2024) | Former California state senator and assemblyman; Napa County supervisor 2000-2014; owned a water company. Succeeded Richard Osgood, who retired as chairman. |
| David Schnell | VP, global hardware sales | |
| Peter Ayre | VP, EMEA business development |
Pattern: the board is mostly investors, ex-government officials and a defense-industry CEO. Only Danforth has direct defense-contractor experience.
Part BThe DeviceThe LRAD models, how loud they are, and how the sound behaves.
4.The LRAD device
The LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device) is a very loud speaker that aims sound in a narrow beam. The company calls it an acoustic hailing device. It also has a painful alert-tone mode, which is why critics call it a sound cannon.
LRAD hardware
| Model | What it is / where used | Specs reported |
|---|---|---|
| LRAD 100X | Hand-held; the model most police use. Used in Ferguson and New York incidents | Genasys datasheet (Rev K, 2024): 137 dB continuous (A-weighted) and 140 dB peak (C-weighted) at 1 m; ranges up to 600 m in ideal conditions; beam about 15 degrees either side; 22 lb. |
| LRAD 300X | Police and Colombian forces | |
| LRAD 360X / 360XT | First omnidirectional model (2012); mobile version | 360-degree coverage |
| LRAD 450XL / 450XL-RT | Light vehicle and tripod model; Army-qualified; the RT version fits CROWS (qualified 2024) | 150 dB peak, 145 continuous; 1,700 m (2025 product guide) |
| LRAD 500X (RT, MMT, RE) | Navy and Army small-vessel and vehicle device (selected May 2007); Army program of record | 154 dB peak, 149 continuous; 2,000 m for intelligible voice |
| LRAD 950NXT | Ships and remote-operated sites: HD camera, searchlight, pan-and-tilt; German F-126 frigates, Singapore unmanned boats, utility substations | 3,000 m |
| LRAD 1000X / 1000Xi RT | Large vessels (Navy fleet-wide, Japan Coast Guard); Marine Corps vehicles | |
| LRAD 1950XL RT, LRAD 2000X | Largest and loudest; 2000X launched FY2012 | 2025 product guide: 1950XL 160 dB peak, 5,000 m; 2000X 168 dB peak, 5,500 m. Older sources gave 3,500 m. |
| LRAD-R, LRAD-RX | Remote, IP-addressable models (LRAD-R introduced 2007); RX used on oil platforms (2011) | |
| LRAD 3300 | Model NYPD bought in 2004 |
Who makes it:I found no company other than Genasys selling LRAD-branded devices; LRAD is its product name. The one licensed maker was Beijing Paier in China, from April 2013 (section 6). A few others sell similar long-range hailing devices under their own names. HyperSpike was invented by Curt Graber of Wattre Corporation (Wikipedia, undated and unsourced); Wattre and Ultra Electronics USSI signed a teaming agreement in 2008, and it is now an Ultra brand. Ultra claims a Guinness record of 182.2 dB for it, and users include the US Navy, Army and Coast Guard, the French and Malaysian navies and Indonesia's police. Genasys's 10-Ks (FY2016-FY2024) name HyperSpike and IML's Sound Commander as its main competitors, and the Marine Corps has funded Great Lakes Sound and Vibration to build another. A 2009 CNN profile says the Navy tested LRAD against two unnamed rivals in 2007, so rivals existed then. I found no documented Chinese or Russian maker of a similar device; I did not search exhaustively. Genasys calls the LRAD "the de facto standard" on its own blog; no source gives market shares.
Output and claims:Wikipedia says LRADs can reach 160 dB at 1 m. Genasys's own 2025 product guide lists peak output from 140 dB (100X) up to 168 dB (2000X), and a datasheet review found claims that every LRAD produces 162 dB unsupported. Output varies by model.
How the sound behaves:Genasys quotes a 30-degree beam (early units 15-30 degrees). Level falls 6 dB per doubling of distance. The near field is about 8 m. Alert-tone mode sits at 2,000-4,000 Hz, where hearing is most sensitive. OSHA requires hearing protection above 90 dB; pain starts around 120-130 dB. LRAD is not the Active Denial System (that uses millimeter waves).
Awards the company lists (its own blog, Apr 2024):The ASTORS Homeland Security Award, Frost & Sullivan's Product Innovation Award, and the Marine Corps Expeditionary Warfare School's Innovation Award. The page gives no dates and does not say who issues ASTORS. It is not a Department of Homeland Security award as far as the page shows. The same blog calls LRAD the "undisputed industry leader" (promotional language, not independent data).
Mounting and aiming (company sheet, 2024):Units can be mounted on unmanned ground and air vehicles and run remotely from a command center. The LRAD MMT bolts into the cabin floor of "a wide range of helicopters". The sheet also says units "can receive coordinates from sensor networks that detect and track threats, then aim the directed audio at them". It lists a range up to 2,000 m, 4-6+ hours on the power pack, and escalation-of-force and checkpoint missions. The 2025 overview says the 100X is 20-30 dB louder than legacy bullhorns and lists a Mobile Sound Shield with 100 m of 360-degree coverage (see the next bullet).
Mobile Sound Barrier (LRAD Corp release, May 14, 2014):A vehicle-mounted system for armored, VIP and government vehicles, with a 360-degree radius of about 65 m, controlled from inside the vehicle. The release says that if a threat persists, "deterrent tones can be activated to form an acoustic barrier" (maximum deterrent-tone volume 125 dB), a "virtual barrier of sound that deters any advance or escalation". The first orders were $210,000 from an unnamed US government agency, which paid added development costs to adapt it for permanent mounting on certain government vehicles.
Company claims:Passed about 40 US government tests including MILSPEC heat, humidity and shock; "most thoroughly tested" AHD. Early marketing: "The Sound of Force Protection".
Part CWho Uses ItThe military, defense partners, police, spy agencies and other countries.
5.US military ties
The US military is the company's founding customer. Foreign militaries are in section 9 and defense-industry partners in section 6.
How it started (2001-2004)
LRAD came out of the Pentagon's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD) program in Quantico, Virginia. Navy testers capped it at 120 dB at 1 m (the OSHA hearing-loss threshold) for ship-deck tests.
Sen. Olympia Snowe championed it and got it into the $87B Iraq supplemental (Al Jazeera, March 2004). A retired Marine colonel said it would likely be used for crowd control, area denial at checkpoints and clearing buildings.
First sales were to the Navy in 2003, then Marines and Army units in Iraq: the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (Al Anbar), Fallujah and Baghdad; the Army also sent units to test on vehicles.
A March 2009 JNLWD demonstration showed the Navy and Marine Corps had bought hailing devices for ships, checkpoints and vehicle roofs.
Timeline of deals
| Date | Customer | Deal |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 2004 | Marine Corps (1st MEF) | $1.09M, deployed to Iraq |
| May 2004 | Army | $485K, Iraq |
| Dec 2004 | Army | $4.9M, Iraq |
| 2006 | Army (plus an Australian service) | About $2.0M batch |
| May 2007 | Navy and Army | Won the joint small-vessel and vehicle hailing device (LRAD 500X) |
| Oct 2007 | Navy (NSWC Crane) | Shipboard Protection System, Block 0: LRAD 1000X for the 270 ships of the large-vessel fleet; $500K-plus opening order; deliveries from Jan 2008; fifth delivery (about $400K) by Jan 2009 |
| Jan 2009 | Navy; Army | $2.7M of Navy orders ($2.3M for 500X and enhanced LRAD 500 force-protection units, $0.4M for 1000X); about $500K of 500X for the Army |
| 2010 | Navy | Won Block 2 in a competitive bid; indefinite-delivery contract worth up to $12.2M over five years (three bidders); LRADs also sent to Haiti's earthquake response |
| Aug 2011 | Navy | About $1.5M (1000X and support gear) |
| June and Sept 2014 | Army (Rapid Equipping Force) | About $300K and $610K for Afghanistan |
| FY2016 | Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Marines | First major Army program-of-record order ($915K); Navy $7.4M five-year deal for situational-awareness systems on Military Sealift Command ships |
| Sept 2017 | Army | $6.0M program-of-record order |
| Nov 2017 | Marines, Army | $870K, including training Allied forces in the Middle East |
| Mar 2018 | Military and State Department | Over $1.0M; State chose vehicle-mounted units for overseas embassy security; the release describes "broadcasting deterrent tones and voice messages out to 3 km" |
| Aug 2018 | Army | $11.0M (500X) for active, reserve and National Guard units; 1,500+ units shipped to the Army in total, nearly 700 of them 500X |
| 2019 | Army | $14.8M (450XL), the fourth order from the Army's $110M hailing-device program; another $1.0M of defense orders (500X, 1950XL) deployed overseas |
| Apr 2025 | Army, Navy, Air Force | $2.5M new and follow-on orders |
| Aug 2025 | National Guard, Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard | $1.1M (100X and 450XL); $6.2M of follow-on military orders in FY2025 by then; plus a $2.0M Navy maritime-communications order earlier in 2025 |
| Sept 29, 2025 | Army (CROWS II) | $9.0M, first production hailing-device order for CROWS |
Program notes
Army:The LRAD 450XL and 500X were the only hailing devices the Army had qualified (2019). Missions named: transportation security and military law enforcement.
Navy:Every US Navy surface combatant carries LRADs (company claim), plus 31 international navies and coast guards.
Psychological operations and training (Genasys defense page):The page says Army PSYOPS "reportedly" switched to LRAD after problems with legacy loudspeakers, and lists simulating munitions and battle sounds for training and field operations, boardings and interdictions at sea, and dispersing large groups. It says LRAD can scale escalation of force "to avoid lethal confrontations".
JIFCO:Genasys's vehicle and airborne sheet says the LRAD MMT meets US Navy, Army and JIFCO requirements (a marketing claim). JIFCO is the Pentagon's non-lethal weapons office, and its own requirements page does not mention LRAD.
CROWS:The stabilized weapon station is built by Kongsberg and used by all DoD services and the Department of Energy. LRAD 450XL-RT passed design, test and qualification in 2024; a "CROWS 16" program was established (May 2024). Production of the initial $9M order was delayed by a supply constraint (resolved) and is due within FY2026.
6.Defense-industry partners and channels
Genasys sells through integrators, shipbuilders and resellers, and its CEO comes from the defense contractor world; I found no teaming deal with a US prime contractor.
| Company | Role | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Kongsberg (Norway) | Makes CROWS remote weapon stations | LRAD 450XL-RT added to Army CROWS II units; first production order $9.0M (Sept 2025). Kongsberg also partners with Raytheon on the NASAMS air-defense system (context only; no Genasys-Raytheon deal found). |
| Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding (Netherlands) | Builds the German Navy's F-126 frigates | June 26, 2024: LRAD 950NXT systems for four frigates, option for two more; first shipment Sept 2024, more in FY2025-26. Option exercised Sept 25, 2024. The release called F-126 the largest shipbuilding project in German Navy history and said the 950NXT is used by six international navies and several superyacht installations. |
| Thales (France) | Combat management system | The 950NXTs integrate with it to give 3,000 m communication and trigger escalation-of-force protocols. Danforth earlier chaired a DRS-Thales joint venture (section 3); noted, not evidence of a link. |
| L-3 Communications | Early integrator | First LRAD-R (remote) order, 2007. |
| ST Engineering (Singapore) | Channel to the Singapore Navy | Fiscal Q2 2007 sale. |
| ADS Inc. | Reseller to military end users and DHS | One of three customers over 10% of FY2013 revenue. |
| Optimum Vehicle Logistics | International reseller for vehicle installs | Also AM General's exclusive Humvee aftermarket parts distributor in the Middle East, Africa, Taiwan and Chile. Date not found. |
| Beijing Paier Technologies (China) | Reseller and manufacturing license | Announced April 23, 2013. Initial term five years. Paier got exclusive rights to manufacture LRAD systems for the Chinese market and to resell to China's government organizations, and non-exclusive rights to sell to other customers in China, plus a Beijing exhibition center. LRAD supplied components and subassemblies and trained Paier in quality control so it could do final assembly. CEO Tom Brown called Paier "a highly regarded manufacturing partner with strong ties to the Chinese government". No financial terms were given. I found no later report on renewal or results. |
Raytheon and Leonardo DRS:Danforth's former employers (section 3); I found no Genasys contract with either.
Export:LRAD is not categorized as a defense item and needs no export license (RFE/RL explainer cited by Wikipedia). Some sales go through foreign military sales (FMS), the government-to-government channel; one Middle Eastern navy FMS deal was worth over $2M (date not found).
7.Police and law enforcement
Police are a small part of the business but the main source of the LRAD controversies. Foreign police are in section 9.
Scale and sales approach
US police sales are small: a record of about $1.0M in FY2019, about 3% of that year's revenue. The CEO credited a free federal-grant preparation service for departments and pitched the roughly $2B a year in federal law-enforcement and public-safety grants.
LRAD executives said grant money flows to police after protests and brings inquiries (The Intercept, 2015). In 2011 the Boston Globe tied sales growth to Occupy and G-20 deployments.
Genasys markets LRAD to police as an alternative to megaphones, for traffic control, crowd communication, SWAT, active-shooter and hostage-negotiation work. In 2020 it claimed use in 100+ countries and 500 US cities; by Dec 2024 it said 550+ US cities.
How the company pitches it (its own materials):A "Genasys for Civil Unrest" brochure (2024) quotes San Diego police Lt. Christian Sharp saying LRAD was used for "clear and audible announcements on an unlawful assembly, orders of dispersal, and direction of travel", and claims it helps de-escalate and mitigates property damage. An undated blog proposes mounting LRADs on police helicopters to broadcast dispersal orders. A June 2026 brochure sells Evertel (secure messaging) and LRAD to police as one system, with quotes from Greensboro and Albuquerque officers. It also describes Pittsburgh Police playing a barricaded man's mother's recorded message over an LRAD until he surrendered.
Grants:Genasys's LRAD page says FEMA grants can fund LRAD purchases because the products are commercial off-the-shelf and FEMA excludes devices "with no commercial application". Its vehicle and airborne sheet lists the purchase channels as DLA, GSA Advantage, the FEMA approved equipment list, and grants.
AFSC public-records requests found five California agencies spent only $78,264 combined on LRADs and accessories.
US timeline of purchases and uses
| Date | Agency | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | NYPD | Buys two LRAD 3300 units (about $35,000 each) before the Republican National Convention; first known public US appearance. The Daily Beast says NYPD first got them through the 1033 military-surplus program. |
| Sept 2009 | Pittsburgh | G-20 summit: LRAD used on a street; the ACLU calls it the first use against US civilians. |
| Oct-Nov 2011 | Oakland; NYPD | Occupy Oakland (Oct 25) and Occupy Wall Street clearance (Nov 15): LRAD present or used. |
| 2012 | NYPD; Chicago | NYPD captain requests a truck-mounted 500X ($23,000) and two 100X ($7,680 each); LRAD at the May 20 NATO march in Chicago. |
| Aug-Dec 2014 | St. Louis County; NYPD | Ferguson: LRAD-100X fired on protesters (The Intercept). Dec 4-5: NYPD fires a 100X at Eric Garner protesters (basis of Edrei). |
| Jan 2015 | Columbus | After Ohio State's title celebration, police used tear gas and pepper spray when the crowd did not hear bullhorn orders. They then bought an LRAD 450XL with a Homeland Security grant (Genasys case study). |
| 2015 | Baltimore; Myrtle Beach; Greensboro | Unit on site in Baltimore on loan from Montgomery County, MD, but not used on demonstrators (NYPD used one the same week in Union Square). Myrtle Beach buys two with a federal grant. Greensboro buys a 300X. |
| May 2016 | San Diego | Police used an LRAD at protests around a Trump rally for unlawful-assembly and dispersal orders. Genasys's case study claims "far fewer incidents, arrests, and property damage" than other California cities, with no figures. |
| 2016-17 | North Dakota; Columbus; D.C. | Standing Rock: two LRADs used by state, Guard and county forces. Columbus demonstrates one. D.C. police used one at the Women's March (records). |
| 2018 | Phoenix | Council approves two LRAD 500X systems (about $95K). |
| 2020 | Portland, Phoenix, others | After George Floyd protests Genasys listed Portland, San Jose, Colorado Springs, Phoenix, Columbus, Charleston and Fort Lauderdale as users. Portland police used one June 4-5; the mayor then limited it to information only. Seattle buys one (a demonstrator alleged ear damage; an internal review did not sustain it). Kenosha (Aug 24): units broadcast voice and sirens. Federal officials explored LRAD and the Active Denial System for White House protesters but the National Guard had neither. |
| 2020 | San José | A city police memo (Aug 30, 2022) says police used the deterrent tone intermittently to disperse a crowd on the first night of the 2020 protests, and have not since. Police hold a 100X and a 500X; the emergency office's units have the tone disabled. The city treats any sonic-weapon use as a use of force. Manufacturer guidance quoted: the 100X not at maximum within 10 m of a person, the 500X within 75 m. |
| 2021 | Boulder; Brooklyn Center; Massachusetts State Police; Oklahoma County | Boulder: warble tone on up to 800 students (Mar 6). Brooklyn Center: curfew orders (Apr 12). Massachusetts: sonic blast used to secure 11 armed suspects (July 3). Oklahoma: raid support (Nov 22). |
| Spring 2024 | CCNY, NYU, Columbia, UC San Diego, University of Arizona, UC Irvine | Genasys's June 2026 police brochure says police used LRAD to direct crowds at these campus protests. Company claim; I did not check independent reports. |
| Undated | Vandenberg Air Force Base | Base security forces use an LRAD 100X to broadcast the rules for peaceful protest at the annual gate protests (Genasys case study). |
| Jan 26, 2026 | Minnesota State Patrol | Used an LRAD at an anti-ICE protest in Maple Grove for dispersal announcements (it has owned one since 2013). Maple Grove police said ICE and DHS did not operate it. Wikipedia notes a livestream the same day captured a directional LRAD used on Minneapolis demonstrators; the operator is not identified. |
What city equipment reports show
California agencies publish yearly military-equipment reports under AB 481, and LRADs are listed in them.
Orange County Sheriff (2025):Two LRAD-100X units. The report defines the category as "long-range acoustic devices, acoustic hailing devices, and sound cannons" and records one use in April 2024 to March 2025, with no complaints.
Berkeley (2024 report):An LRAD 450XL and a 100X bought in 2018 for $49,999 with battery packs and accessories. Three uses in 2024, all voice commands on a suicide threat, a barricaded suspect and a warrant service with gunshots; all three subjects complied. No tone use and no complaints.
San José (2022 memo):Tone use on a crowd in 2020, in the timeline above.
What this shows:Documented uses split. Many are voice-only on single subjects, and the tone has been used on crowds.
Litigation
Pittsburgh:Karen Piper, a visiting Carnegie Mellon professor, got $72,000 for permanent hearing loss (she said police fired an LRAD at close range for three minutes from an armored car; the Tribune-Review puts her about 100 feet from the device). Pittsburgh paid $215,000 to settle two G-20 suits in Nov 2012 (WESA); the Tribune-Review put total G-20 payouts at $560,500. The city adopted LRAD guidelines.
Edrei v. City of New York:Five plaintiffs (Anika Edrei, James Craven, Michael Nusbaum, Shay Horse, Alexander Appel) sued in March 2016 over a 100X fired from under 10 feet at the Dec 2014 Garner protests; injuries included migraines, sinus pain, dizziness, tinnitus and nerve-damage hearing loss. Judge Sweet ruled in 2017 that sound can be force; the 2nd Circuit agreed in 2018 and denied immunity at that stage; the city sought Supreme Court review (No. 18-810). The NYPD had its own report acknowledging pain and hearing-damage risk above 120 dB, and a 2010 NYPD briefing called Pittsburgh's use "successful".
Settlement (April 19, 2021):$748,000 ($98,000 to the five, $650,000 legal fees); the NYPD stops using the alert tone, writes a policy and training; voice announcements still allowed from a reasonable safe distance. Genasys was not a defendant.
Norris link
Norris is CTO of Wrap Technologies (BolaWrap restraint device), per the MIT prize page (current status unverified); AFSC groups BolaWrap and LRAD as law-enforcement products from the same inventor.
8.Intelligence agencies
I found no documented tie to the CIA, NSA, DIA or In-Q-Tel: no contracts, investments, former intelligence staff, or classified-contract disclosures. Everything documented is Pentagon, military or police.
Closest documented items (none is an intelligence-agency tie)
Pentagon funding and weapons-adjacent work:The Department of Defense funded the LRAD effort and General Dynamics backed Norris's "directed stick radiator", a pulse device the Pentagon asked about for use on aircraft hijackers (sections 2 and 5).
Psychological-operations framing:An AFCEA article on directed acoustics describes work on nonlethal weapons, psychological warfare and secure communications and mentions ATC's devices (range over 100 yards). It is undated and describes the technology generally, not a specific agency contract.
FBI award:A third-party federal-awards site lists a $55K FBI award to Genasys Inc dated Sept 25, 2025. It does not say what was bought (the company also sells software). The FBI is part of the US intelligence community, so this is the closest federal law-enforcement tie I found, and it is not shown to be an LRAD purchase.
Trade shows:ATC exhibited LRAD-X at the GovSec 2008 homeland-security show.
Federal marketing today:Genasys's federal brochure pitches protection against "national security threats" and information flow between federal agencies and military forces. The Sept 2026 release lists "federal" customers without names.
Leadership:Danforth's background is defense contracting (Raytheon, DRS Technologies), not intelligence.
Not established
DARPA Sonic Projector:DARPA's program aimed at covert audio communication for special forces at over 1 km using ultrasonic nonlinear effects. Blogs link it to ATC's HyperSonic Sound; I found no sourced link.
Any named intelligence-agency customer, In-Q-Tel investment, or former intelligence officer on the board or in management.
9.Countries involved
Genasys says LRADs are in service in 100+ countries (72 countries in 2018-19, 70+ in 2014). The list below mixes confirmed purchases (from Genasys releases) and press reports; reported-only entries come from Wikipedia's country list.
Structural ties
| Role | Countries |
|---|---|
| Industry partners | Norway (Kongsberg), Netherlands (Damen Schelde), France (Thales), Singapore (ST Engineering), China (Beijing Paier license); details in section 6 |
| Unnamed buyers | A Middle Eastern navy (FMS deal over $2M); Middle East defense orders ($900K, June 2024); Middle East and Africa ($1.0M, July 2025); a West African police force (Sept 2024); a Southeast Asian coast guard ($490K for 1000Xi, a repeat customer, 2016) and Southeast Asian homeland security and defense orders ($1.7M, Sept 2025); an unnamed Asian customer ($1.2M, Sept 2015, vehicles for military and police) |
Country detail
| Country | What is documented |
|---|---|
| India | Navy: LRADs deployed on its fleet in 2012; in-country maintenance centers; agreements of $5.5M (seven years, expired early 2019), $4.75M (five years, May 14, 2019) and $3.35M (three years, Dec 9, 2024), $13.8M since 2010 by the company's count. Delhi Police bought five for crowd control. |
| Singapore | Navy via ST Engineering (2007); Armed Forces user; Changi Airport wildlife control (order July 2024); $2.0M order (Feb 12, 2026) for remotely operated 950NXTs on new unmanned surface vessels, more expected. |
| Japan | Coast Guard 1000Xi (2019 competitive tender); tsunami warning and maritime systems; Coast Guard used LRADs to expel a North Korean fishing flotilla (Sept 2017); order in Aug 2026. Japan's whaling fleet used LRADs against Sea Shepherd in Feb 2009 (a user, not a government military buyer). |
| Australia | A military service (2006, shown at Pacific 2006 in Sydney); most police forces by 2016 (Queensland since 2009); NSW police first crowd-control use June 2020; Canberra protests Feb 2022 used voice only (ABC fact check); order Aug 2026. |
| Germany | F-126 frigates via Damen and Thales (section 6); Bad Homburg fire and police used a 100X more than 60 times for COVID messages in 2020. |
| Norway, Sweden, Turkey, South Africa | Norwegian Navy (Fridtjof Nansen-class frigates), Swedish Navy, Turkish naval forces, South African Navy and police (legality confirmed 2016). |
| United Kingdom | Ministry of Defence; an LRAD on a landing craft on the Thames for the 2012 Olympics (confirmed May 11, 2012). |
| Israel | Ministry of Defense order (June 2011); Israel Police; an agency noted in 2011; Israel was accused of supplying LRADs elsewhere. |
| Colombia | Navy (Feb 2013: $323K 300X follow-on), Air Force, Army and National Police; helicopter-mounted units broadcast demobilization messages to guerrillas. |
| Thailand, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, Lithuania, Latvia | Orders in the Aug 18, 2026 $1.4M release (with Australia and Japan). Thailand's disaster-response agency bought earlier (2011); Vietnam's Coast Guard uses LRADs on DN-2000 ships. |
| Philippines | National Police and Coast Guard (reported). |
| Poland | Police acquired LRADs Dec 2010; prosecutors investigated the purchase on corruption suspicion (Jan 2013) because law barred protest use; cities used them for COVID messages. |
| Czech Republic, Romania | Czech police possible use June 26, 2015 (Brno), first confirmed March 18, 2017, Prague uses 2020-2023; Romania's gendarmerie first used June 7, 2015. |
| Spain | Catalan police (reported); Leganés police COVID alerts (2020). |
| Greece | Two systems for the Evros border (tested 2020; shown to press May 2021 against migrants). An EU Commission spokesperson said border measures must respect fundamental rights. |
| Serbia | Interior Ministry reportedly acquired LRADs (N1, Dec 2022); Italian outlet says Serbia admitted owning one. March 15, 2025 Belgrade protest: see section 10. |
| Algeria, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Hong Kong, Honduras, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand | Algeria first used April 2019; Azerbaijan 2013 (The Atlantic); Hong Kong Police: four LRADs (two on armored vehicles in 2009, two portable for negotiators in 2010); in Nov 2012 the government told its legislature they are "a broadcasting system, not a weapon" and had not been used (supplier not named); Montreal police 2014; Vancouver police marine unit (company case study); New Zealand police deployed two at the March 2, 2022 Parliament protest (official-information records). |
| China | Beijing Paier license: April 23, 2013, exclusive rights to manufacture LRADs for China and to sell to Chinese government organizations (section 6). Wikipedia lists the China Coast Guard as a user. The Philippines says Chinese vessels attacked its vessels with what it understood to be LRADs (late 2023) and that a China Coast Guard ship used one on BRP Cabra on Jan 25, 2025. No source says those devices were Genasys-made or Chinese-made copies, and a news piece notes LRADs are "not exclusive to China". Genasys has not confirmed a sale to the Chinese government. |
| Russia | The Interior Ministry planned to buy a psychoacoustic system described as an LRAD for dispersing demonstrations, about 5.1 million rubles (about $77,000), per the Moscow Times, April 25, 2016. The article names no maker. |
Part DThe FightInjury lawsuits, protest uses, the weapon-or-loudspeaker debate, the red flags, and the author's read.
10.Backlash and legal trouble over the sound device
This covers the sound-weapon controversy: injury suits, protest uses, the Serbia allegation, and the weapon-versus-loudspeaker debate.
Serbia (March 15, 2025)
At a Belgrade protest marking the Novi Sad station-roof collapse (15 dead), thousands heard a loud sound and the crowd parted; witnesses described a rumble and a whoosh. Opposition groups alleged a sonic weapon; President Vucic called it a "wicked lie".
Genasys said audio and video evidence "does not support the use of an LRAD" and cited Earshot (via CRTA), which concluded from four recordings that the sound came from a vortex ring gun. The Omega Foundation called the evidence inconclusive but said an LRAD could have been used; the Guardian reported purchase records suggesting LRADs were on police vehicles present.
Import claim:On Serbian TV a lawyer and former police commissioner, Bozo Prelevic, said a Genasys sound cannon was imported by Jugoimport in 2022 through Israel and used on March 15 (The New Arab, March 20, 2025). The government denies any sonic weapon was used.
The "weapon or loudspeaker" debate
Genasys's position:LRADs are "voice communication systems, not weapons"; warnings let police de-escalate before tear gas or rubber bullets; at recommended distances the 100X and 450XL output is similar to sirens at close range (June 2020).
Critics:The ACLU urged suspending protest use; the Academy of Doctors of Audiology and others warn of permanent hearing damage; the 2nd Circuit held a device with painful, incapacitating effects is an instrument of force (section 7); Wikipedia lists pain, disorientation, nausea, migraines and hearing loss at the 137-154 dB output of police models. Reported protective measures: earplugs and earmuffs help; noise-cancelling headphones do not.
Origins of the label:Lemelson-MIT says the "sonic bullet" work with ATC produced beams giving targets painful migraines; MIT's 2005 release called LRAD a warning device and a nonlethal weapon system. Norris told CNN LRAD would not permanently damage eardrums.
What Genasys's own safety documents say
Then and now:Its 2026 safe-use guide says "LRADs are not 'sonic weapons,' 'non-lethal weapons,' or 'compliance devices.'" The company's Oct 2001 announcement called the technology "acoustic non-lethal weapon technology".
Alert-tone rules (2026 guide):Use only in 2-5 second bursts, always followed by voice instructions, and "Do not use Alert tone if individuals are within the Hazard Area." The guide defines excessive volume that overwhelms people as misuse.
Close-range rules (2026 guide):Reduce volume under about 50 m; avoid fixing the beam on one person; avoid maximum output at a single person up close.
Distances (Safety Statement, undated):The 100X drops below 115 dB at about 10 m and the 450XL at about 28 m; manuals say targets of the larger systems should be about 75 m away. Operators behind the unit are told to wear hearing protection, and the statement says covering the ears cuts the level by about 25 dB. It compares LRAD to flash-bang grenades, which it puts at up to about 175 dB.
Crowd dispersal (defense page):The page says forces can "deliver focused communications at a range to disperse crowds without physical contact", and presents this as a humane way to handle civil unrest. It also says to "hail, warn, and determine intent from a safe distance".
Force wording (2025 overview):The 500X-RT is described as enabling "non-kinetic escalation of force" and the 1000Xi as "safe, scalable EOF". The overview never calls LRAD a weapon and does not say how it is classified.
Behavior-changing wording (100X datasheet, 2021):It calls the warning tone "a safer alternative to non-lethal and kinetic measures for changing behavior" and says the unit can "create instant acoustic standoff perimeter". It claims to be up to 30 dB louder than bullhorns and "four to six times louder than other acoustic hailers of comparable size and weight". The datasheet carries no hazard or hearing warning.
Deterrent tone:The 2014 Mobile Sound Barrier release describes tones that form "an acoustic barrier" to deter an advance. A San José police memo shows a deterrent tone was used to disperse a crowd in 2020 (section 7).
Pentagon link (vehicle and airborne sheet):It calls the LRAD MMT "the only acoustic hailing device to meet stringent US Navy / US Army / JIFCO requirements" (a marketing claim). JIFCO is the Joint Intermediate Force Capabilities Office, the Pentagon office for non-lethal weapons. JIFCO's own requirements page does not mention LRAD; it shows one photo captioned "U.S. Soldier using an Acoustic Hailing Device".
Limits of the claims:The statement says LRAD helped at protests with minimal property damage and fewer arrests; these are the company's claims, not independent results. Genasys's main LRAD page has no hearing-safety statement.
Rights-group and medical criticism (adds to the debate above)
Amnesty International (Oct 2014):Its Ferguson report said these devices target people relatively indiscriminately, with effects that vary by person and setting (quoted in the Edrei complaint and by Common Dreams).
Physicians for Human Rights and INCLO ("Lethal in Disguise"; 2026 factsheet) and the ACLU:Describe LRAD as up to 162 dB at 1 m with 8,900 m intelligible range (higher than Genasys product sheets), pain at about 20 m and permanent hearing loss at 5 m or less; say there is little medical literature (case reports of hearing loss and ear pain from 1990 to 2015); call acoustic weapons indiscriminate; and urge suspending protest use until research exists.
Company counter:Spokesman Robert Putnam told RFE/RL (2013) that even with the largest device a person facing it with hands over ears would suffer no injury; Genasys has said broadcast levels are kept below the threshold for permanent damage from instantaneous exposure.
Pushback on that claim:The Massachusetts State Police require medical care for officers exposed to an LRAD (MuckRock 2018; Arizona Mirror 2018); Standing Rock protesters described lasting damage (not medically verified). Phoenix's 2018 purchase drew local criticism asking whether it was a speaker or a "sound cannon".
Abroad:Australian health and civil-liberties voices called for guidelines and public debate over secret police purchases (Sydney Criminal Lawyers); civil liberties unions in Canada and the US raised concerns (RFE/RL); a 2014 Gotham Gazette column cited a Canadian ministerial report raising health concerns.
The company's own warning:Its FY2006 10-K said perceptions that LRADs are unsafe or weapon-like could cut sales, and that injured people might sue.
Not found
No securities class action, SEC enforcement action or government suspension or debarment turned up in news searches. I found no personal-injury judgment against Genasys itself; the injury suits were against cities.
11.Red flags: what does not add up
How to read this section. Every item is a fact from the sources, listed because it does not line up or leaves a question. Items marked "my read" are the author's interpretation, not something a source says. Details and sources are in the sections named.
Saying one thing, selling another
Weapon, then not a weapon:The company's Oct 2001 announcement said "acoustic non-lethal weapon technology for military and law enforcement". Its 2026 guide says LRADs are not "sonic weapons," "non-lethal weapons," or "compliance devices" (sections 2 and 10).
Crowd dispersal:Its defense page offers LRAD to "disperse crowds without physical contact". Dispersing a crowd is compliance (section 10).
Behavior change:The 100X datasheet calls the tone "a safer alternative to non-lethal and kinetic measures for changing behavior" (section 10).
Deterrent tone:The 2014 Mobile Sound Barrier release says deterrent tones form "an acoustic barrier" that "deters any advance or escalation", and the 2018 State Department release describes deterrent tones out to 3 km. The 2026 guide only talks about an "alert tone" (sections 4 and 5).
Hazard:The same 2026 guide has a "Hazard Area" for the alert tone and calls excessive volume that overwhelms people misuse. The datasheet and the main LRAD page carry no hearing warning (section 10).
Danger distances:The older Safety Statement puts the 100X below 115 dB at about 10 m, says larger units need targets about 75 m away, and compares LRAD to flash-bang grenades (section 10).
The origin story
Cole only:Current company pages say the LRAD was "innovated by Genasys in response to" the USS Cole attack, and the 2025 overview gives no other history. It names neither Norris nor ATC (section 2).
Older roots:Norris had worked on directed sound since the late 1970s, patented it in 1996, and the Oct 2001 announcement already named law enforcement (section 2).
Other funding story:ABC (2004) says the Department of Defense funded Norris's team after 9/11 (section 8).
Pentagon program:LRAD came out of the Pentagon's non-lethal weapons program, and Genasys says its helicopter unit meets JIFCO (the non-lethal weapons office) requirements. JIFCO's own requirements page does not mention LRAD (section 5).
Never a product:General Dynamics funded Norris's pulse device that the Pentagon asked about for aircraft hijackers, and Lemelson-MIT says the "sonic bullet" work gave painful migraines. Neither appears in any catalog (sections 2 and 10).
Hidden or special versions
Modified versions:A 2003 military contract for "modified LRADs" and 2009 orders for "enhanced LRAD 500 force-protection units" (sections 2 and 5).
Customer-funded version:The 2014 Mobile Sound Barrier went to an unnamed US government agency that paid extra to adapt it for permanent mounting on certain government vehicles (section 4).
Unnamed federal buyers:Federal customers are listed without names (section 8).
Two framings (my read):LRAD is "not categorized as a defense item" for exports, sold under Pentagon requirements to the military, and sold to US police as commercial off-the-shelf so FEMA grants can pay for it. Which label applies depends on the buyer (sections 6 and 7).
Money and customers
Police numbers:The only US police figure given is about $1.0M in FY2019, while the company claims LRADs in 500+ US cities. Only customers over 10% of sales are named (section 7).
Federal records:A third-party site lists only $13.8M in 65 federal contracts under Genasys Inc since FY2015, far below the Army orders the company announced. Tentative, but most military sales do not appear under the company's name (section 12).
Middlemen:Resellers such as ADS and Optimum Vehicle Logistics hide the end user (section 6).
Unnamed buyers:A West African police force (2024), Middle East orders and Southeast Asian orders (section 9).
Unrest sells:The CEO and the VP of EMEA say civil unrest, border incursions and armed conflict are "creating strong demand" (2022, 2024), and police demand "remains high" (2026) (section 12).
The name and the software (my read: door-opener)
Name changes:ATC became LRAD Corp, named for its product, then Genasys on Oct 23, 2019, after the 2014-2018 wave of criticism and court rulings, "effective immediately". The name came from a Madrid software firm bought in 2018. The rebrand quote itself praised LRAD's "exceptional reputation" (section 1).
Bundle:Three more software purchases followed (2020, 2021, 2023), and the June 2026 police brochure sells Evertel and LRAD to police as one system (sections 7 and 12).
China and abroad
China license:In 2013 the company gave Beijing Paier exclusive rights to make LRADs for China and to sell to Chinese government organizations. Its CEO said Paier had "strong ties to the Chinese government". No terms or results were disclosed (section 6).
Coast guard:The Philippines alleges China Coast Guard LRAD use (2023 and 2025). Genasys has not confirmed any sale (section 9).
Serbia:Genasys says the evidence "does not support the use of an LRAD", but purchase records reported by the Guardian suggest LRADs were on police vehicles there, and a Serbian lawyer says one was imported in 2022 through Israel. The government denies any use (section 10).
Poland:Prosecutors investigated the police purchase on corruption suspicion in 2013, because law barred protest use (section 9).
Claims without evidence
Protest results:"fewer arrests, minimal property damage" in the San Diego case study and the Safety Statement, with no figures (sections 7 and 10).
Seabourn Spirit:The company site says LRAD helped stop the pirates boarding, but the cruise line would not confirm an LRAD was aboard (section 4).
Self-description:"undisputed industry leader" and "de facto standard" are the company's own words, and the "Homeland Security Award" it lists is the ASTORS award, not shown to be a DHS award (section 4).
Shifting numbers:The company's pages say it protects "70 million," "100 million" and "155 million" people, and its 2018 10-K says 72 countries while its site says 100+ (sections 4 and 9).
Courts and cities
Known risk:The NYPD's own report acknowledged pain and hearing-damage risk above 120 dB before it fired an LRAD at the Garner protesters, and a 2010 NYPD briefing called Pittsburgh's use "successful" (section 7).
First on civilians:Pittsburgh's 2009 G-20 use was the first reported use on US civilians (ACLU), and a San José memo says the tone was used to disperse a crowd in 2020 (section 7).
Norris
Track record:Critics say ATC lost money every year from 1996 to 2009 and that Norris is given to "elaborate exaggerations". His own story shifts between sources (section 2).
Same inventor, police tools:The man who founded the LRAD company also leads technology at Wrap Technologies, maker of the BolaWrap restraint sold to police (sections 2 and 7).
12.The author's read: what the public record cannot show
This section is interpretation. The facts come from the sections above. The conclusions are the author's reading of them, offered for readers to weigh.
1. The real money is not public
Genasys only has to name a customer that is more than 10% of sales. Below that line, buyers are not named.
Much of the hardware moves through resellers and integrators, so the end user is hidden. ADS Inc., a reseller to military end users and DHS, was one of three customers over 10% of FY2013 revenue, next to the Navy and an unnamed foreign government. Optimum Vehicle Logistics and Beijing Paier also resell abroad (section 6).
A third-party site lists only $13.8M in 65 federal contracts under Genasys Inc since FY2015, with no state, local or DHS awards. That is far below the Army orders alone that the company announced ($6.0M, $11.0M, $14.8M, $9.0M), so most military sales do not appear under that name (tentative: one registration ID, not checked on USAspending itself). It also lists a $55K FBI award in Sept 2025, product not shown (section 8).
LRAD needs no export license, so there are no export records to follow (section 6).
The only police figure the company has given is a record of about $1.0M in US police sales in FY2019.
In Sept 2024 the company's VP of EMEA business development said "Escalating regional tensions and ongoing civil unrest are increasing demand" for LRADs, and the CEO said international LRAD business "continues to rebound".
In May 2022 the CEO said, on $1.5M of foreign military sales to armies and navies in Europe, the Middle East and South America, that "Escalating regional tension, border incursions, and armed conflict are creating strong demand". On Sept 9, 2026 he said "Military and law enforcement demand for LRAD systems remains high", driven by defense departments and police agencies amid geopolitical unrest.
In April 2013 LRAD Corp gave a Chinese partner exclusive rights to build LRADs for China and to sell them to Chinese government organizations, supplying components and training it. Its CEO said the partner had "strong ties to the Chinese government". No terms or results were disclosed (section 6).
Many buyers are unnamed: a West African police force (Sept 2024), Middle East orders, and Southeast Asian homeland-security orders (section 9).
Reading:Police could be a much larger customer than the public numbers show. The record neither proves nor rules this out.
2. The military event may have been the story, not the cause
Norris says he first thought of directional sound in the late 1970s, and filed his first HyperSonic Sound patent in 1996.
General Dynamics funded his pulse-device work and helped brief the Army and Pentagon (about 2001, my estimate).
On Oct 30, 2001 the company announced "acoustic non-lethal weapon technology for military and law enforcement". Law enforcement was named from the start.
Genasys's 2025 overview tells the origin as "Innovated by Genasys in response to the deadly October 2000 terrorist attack on the USS Cole" and gives no other company history.
The USS Cole attack is the company's origin story, but the sources conflict on who funded LRAD and when (section 2).
Reading:The Cole attack gave Norris a customer and a story. The technology, and the plan to sell it to police, were already moving.
3. The names and the added products
The product-named LRAD Corporation became Genasys Inc. on Oct 23, 2019, a name borrowed from the Madrid software company bought in Jan 2018 (section 1).
It then bought three more software companies: Amika Mobile (2020), Zonehaven (2021) and Evertel Technologies (2023). Evertel is public-safety secure messaging.
The stated reason for the rename was a "unified, integrated hardware and software platform" (section 1).
Genasys's own June 2026 brochure sells Evertel and LRAD to police as one system: Evertel for coordination, LRAD for the field.
Timing:The rename came after a wave of public criticism: the Pittsburgh G-20 hearing-loss case (2009), Amnesty's Ferguson report (Oct 2014), the NYPD's use on the Garner protesters (Dec 2014), Standing Rock (2016), the Edrei lawsuit (2016), and the 2017 and 2018 rulings that sound can be force. The rename followed in Oct 2019. ATC's FY2006 10-K had already warned that a weapon-like or unsafe image could cut sales.
After the rename:The 2020 protests, Serbia (2025) and Minnesota (2026) brought new coverage, now under the Genasys name.
Reading:The rename looks like a company moving its brand away from the controversy as public awareness grew, and the added software gives it a helpful face. Both can open doors and build trust with city and police buyers, who can later buy the sound hardware too. The record shows the timing, not the motive.
4. What the record shows about the order of events
Foreign police were buying the LRAD before the software push: Queensland police since 2009, Polish police in 2010, and Czech and Romanian police in 2015. Delhi Police and the Colombian National Police are also listed buyers, with no dates given (section 9). The software purchases began in 2018.
In those countries the hardware came first and the software is the newer layer.
I found no country where police bought the software first and the LRAD afterward.
5. The public shelf and the shelf behind it
The product pages, datasheets and brochures show what the company sells openly. They show nothing about work that is not public.
The record already has versions the catalog does not describe: a key military contract for "modified LRADs" (Oct 2003) and "enhanced LRAD 500 force-protection units" (Jan 2009).
Norris's earlier pulse device, the "directed stick radiator" that General Dynamics funded and briefed to the Army and Pentagon, never appears as a product. Lemelson-MIT says the "sonic bullet" work with ATC produced beams giving targets painful migraines.
The 2014 Mobile Sound Barrier went to an unnamed US government agency that paid extra development costs to adapt it for permanent mounting on certain government vehicles (section 4).
Federal customers are listed without names, and LRAD needs no export license, so there is no public trail for special orders.
I found no document showing a non-public Genasys product.
Reading:A company with this history, selling to the same Pentagon office that runs the non-lethal weapons program, is likely to hold more than its public catalog. The record neither proves nor rules this out.
6. What would settle it
USAspending.gov and SAM.gov for federal sales; patent filings by Genasys, ATC and Norris; city military-equipment use policies and reports (San José published one in 2022); records requests to JIFCO and Navy NSWC Crane; police budgets and public-records requests for local purchases; the DLA, GSA Advantage and FEMA equipment-list catalogs the company says governments buy through; reseller lists (ADS and others) to find end users; foreign procurement portals; and the Genasys quarterly filings for any new customer disclosures.
Part EWorking NotesIdeas for articles and every source used.
13.Article angles and open questions
Angles that the research supports
Weapon or loudspeaker:One device, two names. The company's own 2001 "non-lethal weapon" announcement, the Pentagon program it came from and the 2nd Circuit ruling sit against its "not a weapon" position (section 10).
The company's words, then and now:"non-lethal weapon technology" in 2001, "not a non-lethal weapon" in 2026, with a Hazard Area for the alert tone in its own guide, while its defense page sells crowd dispersal "without physical contact" (section 10).
Norris's pieces merge:Beamed sound, bone-conduction audio, ultrasound sensing, a personal flying vehicle and the BolaWrap restraint all point at reaching one person with sound (section 2).
Inventor to contractor:An independent inventor's directed-sound research became a company run by a defense-contractor CEO (Norris to Danforth).
Notoriety vs. sales:Police use drives the headlines, but US police sales are a small part of the business (a record of about $1.0M in FY2019).
The warning device story:The Seabourn Spirit pirate attack (2005) put LRAD in public view as a ship-defense tool, though the effect there is unclear.
The China license:LRAD Corp licensed a Chinese partner to build LRADs and sell to the Chinese government in 2013; China's coast guard is now alleged to use LRADs (sections 6 and 9).
Attribution gaps:Serbia and the China Coast Guard, where an LRAD is alleged but Genasys has not confirmed its own device.
Shell to LRAD:A Utah registration in 1980, a dormant stretch 1988-92, 30 years without a profit, then a Navy requirement after the Cole attack.
Health claims:Rights-group output figures are higher than Genasys datasheets (sections 4 and 10).
Open questions
Origins:What ATC did in Utah (1980-88) and why it went dormant; the 1994 Form 10-SB history; who was CEO between Feb 2003 and Brown's start; exact LRAD development dates with the Navy.
Military, police, intelligence:Any teaming deal with a US prime contractor; lobbying beyond Snowe's 2004 push; per-department police purchase totals; whether Genasys trains buyers or issues use-of-force guidance; 1033 transfers; any intelligence-agency contract; the Supreme Court outcome of Edrei (No. 18-810).
Controversies:Any Genasys statement on the China Coast Guard; whether Serbia's LRADs were used on March 15, 2025.
Norris:His current role at Wrap Technologies.
Next steps (tools)
Utah Division of Corporations record; SEC filings for 1994-2008 (10-SB and 10-Ks); USAspending.gov and SAM.gov; records requests to DARPA, Navy NSWC Crane and SOCOM.
14.Sources
Each link appears once, grouped by topic. All were opened or returned by search during this research (as of Oct 11, 2026).
Company, filings and structure
10-Ks and results: FY2025, FY2024, FY2023 data, FY2022, FY2021, FY2020, FY2019, FY2017, FY2016, FY2014, FY2013, FY2012, FY2011 10-K and release, FY2010 10-K and release, ATC FY2003, ATC FY2005, ATC 8-K Jan 2006, 2007 earnings release
Origins and people
Military and defense industry
Early: Al Jazeera, 2004, Military Aerospace on JNLWD, ATC Dec 2004 Army order, DefenceTalk, 2006, JNLWD demo, 2009
Navy: 2007 contract, Navy orders, 2009, NSWC Crane deliveries, $12.2M contract (SDBJ), $12.2M contract (Naval Technology), $1.5M, 2011, $7.4M Military Sealift Command
Army and Marines: Afghanistan $300K, $610K, $6.0M, $870K, State Dept and Army, Mar 2018, Army Technology, $11.0M, $14.8M, $1.0M, Aug 2019, $2.5M, 2025, $1.1M, 2025, CROWS $9M
Competition and partners: Navy SBIR N202-089, Navy STP, GLSV, Damen/F-126, Damen option, OVL reseller, Beijing Paier license, SDBJ on China customers, Kongsberg and Raytheon, General Dynamics (EurekAlert)
Intelligence-related checks
Police and litigation
Countries and controversies
Foreign orders: Aug 2026 $1.4M release, Defense Post, Indian Navy $3.35M, Indian Navy $4.75M, Japan Coast Guard, 2019, Middle East FMS, Colombia order, SDBJ on a $1.2M Asian order
Serbia: N1, Reuters via Stockopedia
Backlash and health criticism
Rights groups and health: PHR resource, PHR factsheet, 2026, ACLU factsheet, INCLO case study, INCLO on acoustic weapons, Common Dreams, Edrei complaint, RFE/RL explainer, MuckRock, 2018, Arizona Mirror, 2018, Sydney Criminal Lawyers, Gotham Gazette, 2014
Serbia import claim: The New Arab
Genasys site pages (added Oct 11, 2026)
LRAD page, Evertel + LRAD law enforcement brochure (June 2026), Safe and Effective Use of LRAD Systems (2026), LRAD Safety Statement, Genasys for Civil Unrest brochure, International LRAD orders release, Sept 25, 2024, Helicopter-mounted LRADs blog
Second pass: Conflict and Defense page, Vehicle and Airborne Mounted Solutions, LRAD ACOUSTICS Overview 2025, Maritime Safety page, $1.5M foreign military sales release, May 19, 2022, $3.0M orders release, Sept 9, 2026, JIFCO (DoD)
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