Several other methods for controlling the weapons themselves have been proposed, although remain mostly theoretical. The earliest concepts centered on a desire to disable guided weapons remotely; essentially to install a remote “kill switch.” This was later refined to a “controllable enabling” model, which goes a step further by ensuring that a weapon cannot be armed until outside authority is given. Collectively, these measures are referred to as “technical-use controls.”

Several technical-use controls have been suggested, with some of the major concepts including:

•        Timer-based disabling (disable a weapon after a set time period has elapsed, either irrespective of outside input, or unless returned to an authorised location or user);

•         Remote kill switches (remotely disable a weapon, permanently, semi-permanently, or temporarily);

•        Geographic lock-out systems (automatically disable a weapon if it leaves certain geographic bounds, determined by GPS or otherwise);