Air Cannon Ties Pirates In Knots

Hugh Pickens writes "Numerous high-tech devices have been proposed to help ships cope with piracy on the high seas. Now a company has developed a ship-borne launching device that fires a net or coiled rope into the path of pirate vessels using compressed air with a range of up to a range of 400m. The payload net or rope, which has a parachute attached to the end, will unravel and lay out across the surface of the water so that as the pirate boat travels through the water its propeller shaft will pick up the line and become entangled. 'With the trials and testing we've done, it has taken us some 45 minutes to cut and disentangle the line from the propeller itself,' says Jonathan Delf. 'Within that time of course, the target ship is on its way and hopefully help has arrived in the form of naval forces or helicopter support.' The system can be fired up to five times off just a cylinder of air like a simple scuba tank." The video mentions that the device can also fire a payload of golf balls. The systems have recently been sold to "several large shipping companies that travel near the oil-rich Nigerian Delta, which, like the Somalian coast, is rife with piracy."

Comments

Golf balls? Ropes? Parachutes?!

[Anonymous Coward]

Just shoot the fuckers already. Pretty soon there won't be any more of them.

Pro-tip: Shoot them dead.

[Braintrust]

Are we really that politically correct now that even killing a pirate is wrong?

Pirates. Not a down-trodden minority.

Kill them. All of them.

It's the right thing to do.

Re:What is to keep the pirates from using this?

[cynic7702]

What is going to keep the pirates from using something like this to their advantage?

The same thing that keeps car thieves from slashing the tires of cars they plan to steal.

Re:Why not real guns?

[Logic Worshipper]

And if you shot fishermen or other innocent people by accident?

Re:Pro-tip: Shoot them dead.

[wizardforce]

Self defense its self is politically incorrect these days...

Re:Pro-tip: Shoot them dead.

[Braintrust]

No.

There's no trick to it.

If you're approaching a large commercial ship of any kind, plying its trade in the waters off the coast of East Africa, and you continue to ignore the many and varied warnings to do otherwise, you deserve to get shot. The innocent people you're concocting out of thin air for the sake of juvenile, devil's advocate, argumentation... is breathtakingly naive.

I have a feeling you're a part of the Confetti Generation.

Re:Why not real guns?

[vvaduva]

I'd say that if the people in a small boat are shooting Kalashnikovs at you, it would be safe to assume they are not innocent people.

A few items to consider first

[sjbe]

Are we really that politically correct now that even killing a pirate is wrong?

Oh you can kill them but there are a few things to consider first:

• Most merchant ships cannot carry deadly weapons legally into most ports in the world. Certainly not any of the big ports. Jail time or worse can result from violating these laws.
• Most merchant sailors are not trained in combat
• Most merchant ships have a small crew and when pirates attack they normally significantly outnumber the crew.
• The small crew of a merchant ship even armed with deadly weapons would be hard pressed to stop a determined pirate attack
• Most pirates (with some notable exceptions) don't kill the crew - hard to ransom the crew if they are dead (in 2006, there were 239 attacks, 77 crew members were kidnapped and 188 taken hostage but only 15 of the pirate attacks resulted in murder.)
• Killing pirates likely will just piss off the aforementioned larger and better armed group of pirates.
• Having a properly trained security force on or traveling with a merchant ship is VERY expensive
• The odds of a pirate attack are extremely low even in high piracy areas
• If you are in the territorial waters of a foreign country you are subject to their laws and some places take a fairly dim view of killing another person even in self defense. Especially if you are not a citizen of that country and the (alleged) pirate is a citizen.
• There are very few modern laws against piracy.
• You had better be DAMN SURE they actually are pirates before you kill them

That said if you can shoot them dead, I'm pretty sure no one will mind. Provided you are in international waters AND you can prove your case that you didn't just murder someone AND you can explain why your ship is armed AND you can somehow figure out a way to kill a group of pirates that out numbers yours and is probably better armed.

Re:A few items to consider first

[sjbe]

This would only really be a probelm with permanent mounts, such as the aforementioned deck guns, while the heavy machine guns could easily be offloaded...

Easily? You're going to offload heavy weaponry while in international waters? Yes you can do it but easy isn't the word I'd use. Never mind that many incidents of piracy do not occur in international waters.

This way, a crew of military contractors could be transferred from ship to ship, along with their armament, to escort them through the dangerous area without ever nearing an unfriendly port themselves.

They already do this. Guess what? There still are problems. In places like the Strait of Malacca there are narrow areas where there are effectively no international waters. 50,000 vessels a year go through. Those contractors are subject to the local laws if they chase a pirate.

There are ways to work out the logistics if the laws cannot be changed.

Perhaps but not the economics. Armed escorts are very, very expensive. Arming ships is very very expensive. Shipping companies are frequently unprofitable and might not be able to pass on the costs to their customers. Until piracy becomes a MUCH bigger problem, the economics of the problem will be the strongest argument against arming merchant ships.

You have a very simplistic view of this problem. Seriously, if it was simply as easy as arming a merchant ship, don't you think they would have done it already?

Re:Pro-tip: Shoot them dead.

[Shakrai]

I don't understand why everybody is hung up on this fear of 'making mistakes'. Why is it every time that somebody suggests arming potential victims somebody else comes along and starts worrying about friendly fire? It rarely works out that way in the real world. It's even less likely in a maritime setting.

Just stop and think about it for a moment. Small craft do not follow merchant ships around for no reason. They have a pretty good incentive to steer clear of them. When approached, the merchant ship will respond with a hailing device. If it's some innocent situation then this fact will be discovered fairly quickly. If the small craft is filled with guys armed with AK-47s whom match every change in course then it's a fairly safe assumption that they have nefarious intent.

Putting arms in the hands of the good guys does not turn them into trigger happy nutjobs that kill random innocent people at the slightest provocation. The three concepts that I outlined above are standard operating procedure for police departments and armed civilians around the world. This isn't rocket science.

Re:Golf balls? Ropes? Parachutes?!

[bcmm]

Just shoot the fuckers already. Pretty soon there won't be any more of them.

From now on, whenever you think "lethal weapons on civilian ships would stop piracy", I want you to consider that this is the same as "lots of armed Chinese marines in Los Angeles Harbor would stop piracy". Then put yourself in the shoes of a President trying to push some kind of international convention permitting that.

Thank you.