Posted on 05/29/2019 2:38:47 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Australian military helicopters were targeted with lasers during operations in the South China Sea this month.
"Some helicopter pilots had lasers pointed at them from passing fishing vessels," Euan Graham of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute wrote on The Strategist blog, who was aboard the warship from which the aircraft were operating.
At sea, fishermen are known to use lasers to warn off other vessels that may be getting too close to them. "That makes sense for collision of vessels, but obviously there is no direct threat from aircraft to vessels in the South China Sea," Graham said. "The maritime militia is, I think, not beyond argument as a tactic which is employed deliberately."
Graham said that the Canberra and other Australian ships operating with it were shadowed almost continuously by Chinese warships while in the South China Sea, even though they did not approach any of the islands and reefs occupied by the Chinese military.
Radio communications between the Australian and Chinese forces were courteous, Graham said.
Graham told CNN he did not witness the incidents, but Australian pilots told him they were targeted multiple times by commercial lasers during South China Sea missions. Graham was aboard HMAS Canberra, a helicopter landing dock and flagship of the Royal Australian Navy, as it operated in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean on a three-month mission that ended this week.
Australian forces across the region have noticed the increased use of lasers, an Australian Defense Department spokesperson said in a statement.
"The reason for vessels using the lasers is unknown, but it may be to draw attention to their presence in congested waterways," the statement said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Do the guys on “Deadliest Catch” keep lasers on their fishing boats?
Around 20 years ago I purchased a surplus Steiner 7x50 binocular. I did a little research and discovered that it had a laser shield built in.
Also learned that it slightly harmed resolution. I have no idea how it worked or if it would work with those lasers.
Well Hell, Mates, shoot back with something a little more ‘interesting’
Chinese fishing vessels are all part of the PLA-N (Peoples Liberation Army - Navy), and are crewed by former navy personnel. They are the outward spying and occupation front of the Chinese Army.
All vessels are well armed.
The Aussie Navy needs to publish a policy that lasers fired at their vessels or aircraft will receive live fire in response.
And then kill a few fishing boats to get the point across. It’s the only thing the Chinese will understand.
Those are great binoculars. Did yours have an integrated compass?
No mine did not but I have seen those which did. I sold them at a gun show to the captain of a boat which had tied up near the center.
I had earlier phoned Pioneer optics and a girl there told me they would remove the filter for free. I never did send it in tho.
Perfect tracking tool for a laser guided missile.....
It’s interesting what you said about the filter blocking light transmission. Mine capture so much light, at dusk, it’s like turning the lights on. See right into the deep shade.
It is probably not enough to notice. The reason I know is when I phoned Pioneer Optics, she actually told me that the filter did degrade performance a tiny bit.
I later bought another Army Surplus binocular from the same guy. It was a Kama Tech although the binocular was actually made by Fuji. It also had a laser filter.
There is a wonderful video advertising Steiner Marine binoculars. There is a beautiful shot of an eagle at time 1:45. You can skip through the boring parts before that.
Sink a few of them and DON’T rescue the crews...and the problem will resolve itself rather quickly.
Those Steiners were really good, as good as some selling for a lot more. I still have a Nikon 7x50 which was Australian Military from around 1960.
They are about as good as any. The covering is pretty worn but the optics are still perfect. IF and a range finding reticle. Pretty amazing considering they are nearly 60 years old.
Aussies aren’t going to go too out of their way to piss the Chinese off. Most of their commodity based economy is dependent on exports to China and Chinese investment... Pluse the ChiComs are using their money to buy politicians in that part of the world.
Never a good idea to look at a laser, and binoculars only amplify the laser energy, same as they amplify the light between the binocular aperture and your eye.
Filters can be used to remove the laser energy from the rest of the visible energy to protect your eye, but you have to have a filter that matches the frequency of the laser, and that can be hard to predict since there are many laser sources to choose from these days and each produces its own frequency of laser beam.
That is why the easy access to lasers today is such a threat to aviation, whether its military or commercial. There are laws prohibiting shining lasers at aircraft, but our adversaries have been known to point beams at our aircraft and pilot blindness can be the result. I believe its considered an attack and would warrant response, but its also hard to prove in many cases. Detection requires good sensors tuned to the exact frequency of the source again. That’s not always practical.
China is starting their imperial phase and it’s better to kill a few fishing boats to get them to stop and think than it is to wait for their forces to follow the same roads and paths that Japan went down in the 1940’s.
Even if it wasn’t for the importance of Chinese money in the Oz economy, they aren’t going to want to take on the Chinese military leviathan, and I’m not sure they can trust America to have her back if the Aussies start using Chinese fishing boats for target practice.
Fake news from CNN.
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