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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."
Mount deck guns on merchies traveling through that part of the world. Sink pirate boats when they approach. If you need something more close-in, perhaps surplus 20mm Oerlikon or 40mm Bofors guns from that same period would do.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
Seriously, why on earth would you want to defend yourself or a cargo ship worth millions of dollars with a compressed air "rope" thingy that can also shoot golf balls? Install 50 cal machine guns, a few rocket launchers, and teach the crew how to use them.
Find a pirate vessel, sink it. Don't look for survivors. Soon there will be no more pirates.
1) Pretty sure intentional blinding is frowned upon, especially that under the Geneva Convention IV convention pirates (as well as insurgents) have been argued by some to be civilians. 2) Most nations have laws preventing their civilian shipping from being armed. Which is ridiculous, because you know what has more range, accuracy, and effect than a net launcher? A rifle.