New Robots Hunt Pirates by Sea

mattnyc99 writes "PopularMechanics.com takes a peek into the growing world of high-tech piracy on the open seas, which the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard are looking to cut off by investing in a new fleet of superfast, gun-mounted unmanned surface vessels (USVs). From the article: "The Interceptor is available now. But the USV market is just getting started: Two months ago, British defense firm Qinetiq debuted its own robotic vessel, the jetski-size Sentry. Among its potential duties is intruder investigation, which could include scouting out unidentified boats, along the lines of the raft that detonated alongside the USS Cole in Yemen, as well as offering a first look at a possible pirate-controlled vessel.""

Comments

Autonomous boats sounds like a bad idea

[Cthefuture]

I noticed they were talking some about possibly making them autonomous. That just seems like a really bad idea. What you would have is a weapon system disconnected from command. The enemy could set up a trap for these machines, capture them and then have some high-tech stuff at their disposal. Unlike a UAV, it seems like it would be pretty easy to catch one of these surface machines using any number of methods even if they normally can protect themselves with weapon systems. If they can't protect themselves then it would be even easier to capture them.

Re:Not piracy

[Hijacked Public]

Yes to the first, no to the second.

Essentially the crimes are not authorized unless you fill out the authorization forms first.

And by authorization forms I mean the documents needed to start a corporation.

Or win an election.

Thats how you get authorized.