Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Pirate Hunting Drone Boats Unleashed
DefenseTech ^ | December 27, 2007 07:43 AM

Posted on 12/30/2007 4:26:47 PM PST by Calpernia

The U.S. Navy and Coast Guard have expressed interest in the 30-ft.-long Protector, which comes mounted with a machine gun and could be retrofitted for commercial use.

Robots versus pirates -- it's not as stupid, or unlikely, as it sounds. Piracy has exploded in the waters near Somalia, where this past week United States warships have fired on two pirate skiffs, and are currently in pursuit of a hijacked Japanese-owned vessel. At least four other ships in the region remain under pirate control, and the problem appears to be going global: The International Maritime Bureau is tracking a 14-percent increase in worldwide pirate attacks this year.

And although modern-day pirates enjoy collecting their fare share of booty -- they have a soft spot for communications gear -- they're just as likely to ransom an entire ship. In one particularly sobering case, hijackers killed one crew member of a Taiwan-owned vessel each month until their demands were met.

For years now, law enforcement agencies across the high seas have proposed robotic boats, or unmanned surface vessels (USVs), as a way to help deal with 21st-Century techno Black Beards. The Navy has tested at least two small, armed USV demonstrators designed to patrol harbors and defend vessels. And both the Navy and the Coast Guard have expressed interest in the Protector, a 30-ft.-long USV built by BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and Israeli defense firm RAFAEL.

The Protector, which comes mounted with a 7.62mm machine gun, wasn't originally intended for anti-piracy operations. But according to BAE Systems spokesperson Stephanie Moncada, the robot could easily fill that role. "Down the line, it could potentially be modified for commercial use as well," she says. Instead of being deployed by a warship to intercept and possibly fire on an incoming vessel, a non-lethal variant of the Protector could be used to simply investigate a potential threat.

A favorite tactic of modern-day pirates is to put out a distress call, then ambush any ships that respond. The unmanned Protector could be remote-operated from around 10 miles away, with enough on-board sensors, speakers and microphones to make contact with a vessel before it's too late. "Even without the machine gun, it could alert the crew, give them some time to escape," Moncada says.

The 55-mph Interceptor could become the long-range patrol boat of the future, while the jetski-size Sentry (inset) could help prevent a terrorist plot such as Al Qaeda's attack on the USS Cole in December 2000.

More:

http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,158732,00.html?ESRC=dod-bz.nl


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: coastguard; imb; interceptor; navy; pirates; rafael; tacticaldevelopment; usv

1 posted on 12/30/2007 4:26:50 PM PST by Calpernia
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SandRat

ping


2 posted on 12/30/2007 4:28:16 PM PST by Calpernia (Hunters Rangers - Raising the Bar of Integrity http://www.barofintegrity.us)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Calpernia
It would sure be fun playing with the console of that plane when attacking pirates.

It would be a real-life video game!

3 posted on 12/30/2007 4:31:04 PM PST by ConservativeMind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ConservativeMind

4 posted on 12/30/2007 4:33:40 PM PST by Calpernia (Hunters Rangers - Raising the Bar of Integrity http://www.barofintegrity.us)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Calpernia

Looks good. We should be mass-producing these.


5 posted on 12/30/2007 4:35:15 PM PST by samtheman (Fred Thompson '08)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Calpernia

Rise of the machines.


6 posted on 12/30/2007 4:46:33 PM PST by magellan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: magellan


"Excellent"


7 posted on 12/30/2007 5:03:16 PM PST by Rb ver. 2.0 (Global warming is the new Marxism.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Calpernia


The US Navy is Hunting You!

8 posted on 12/30/2007 5:13:23 PM PST by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country. What else needs to be said?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Calpernia


Arrrr - I'm sooo confused...
9 posted on 12/30/2007 5:18:26 PM PST by Hegemony Cricket (Although most dead people vote democrat, aborted babies, if given the choice, would vote Republican.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Calpernia
Piracy has exploded...

With a large increase in piracy, we can expect a surge in Global Warming to follow!

10 posted on 12/30/2007 5:19:48 PM PST by C210N
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C210N

Yes, and Global Warming will cause the oceans to flood the continents, so we will soon have pirates even in Kansas.


11 posted on 12/30/2007 5:23:42 PM PST by hellbender
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Calpernia
Here is my choice. No props, jets. Check out the seamanship here, I especially like the last sequence, where the PBR knocks the Greenpeacers out of their inflatable.

The detailed thread is here, I don't feel like explaining the details. I've watched these videos dozens of times. They cheer me up.

12 posted on 12/30/2007 5:58:49 PM PST by 1rudeboy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Hegemony Cricket

13 posted on 12/30/2007 6:10:16 PM PST by MrEdd (Heck is the place where people who don't believe in Gosh think they aren't going.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Calpernia

A light machine gun like the 7.62 is tactically insufficient.


14 posted on 12/30/2007 6:16:36 PM PST by 2harddrive (...House a TOTAL Loss.....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Calpernia

Why not just conduct some torpedo practice on these ships?


15 posted on 12/30/2007 6:35:09 PM PST by CASchack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson