Australian police say they may soon follow the United States' lead and issue air marshals with electric stun guns after a trial of the weapons by an elite security unit. The Taser X26 stun gun is to be tried out by the Specialist Response and Security unit in a six-month pilot scheme around Canberra, Detective Superintentant Rob Gilliland of the Australian Federal Police said. The weapon can incapacitate a person by temporarily collapsing their muscles with a powerful bolt of electricity delivered through charged probes. "It impacts immediately upon the central nervous system," Gilliland said. "It incapacitates the individual and it allows police to move forward and restrain them in a safe and effective way. The effects last for a short period of time and then there are no long-lasting effects on the subject. It would be used in controlling a potentially violent, aggressive combatant, an individual who is suffering the effects of liquor and violence, drugs and violence or mental dysfunction and violence." Gilliland said the stun guns could eventually be used more widely, including by air marshals and Australian police posted overseas. Asked if arming air marshals with stun guns would eventually be an option, he said: "Yes, it certainly is." Australia is in the process of deploying about 200 police in neighbouring Papua New Guinea under a controversial plan to restore law and order there.