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UK Plans Space Based Radar System
First time accepted submitter peepster84 writes "The UK government is to kick-start an innovative project to fly radar satellites around the Earth, with an initial investment of £21m. NovaSar-S would have a number of viewing modes that could enable it to perform a wide range of roles, from flood monitoring and land cover management to disaster mapping and maritime enforcement — notably ship tracking and oil spill detection."
The US has SAR in orbit for military and intelligence reconnaissance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quill_(satellite)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacrosse_(satellite)
So does Germany
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAR_Lupe
The US, Japan, Canada, EU, Germany and Russia all have or had satellite based radar systems some with very high resolution.
There are quite a few space-borne radars. For example, TerraSAR-X, Radarsat-2.
Canada's got two of them, with really imaginative names. :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radarsat-1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radarsat-2
Considering that it's illegal to have weapons on a civilian vessel, yes it does actually. That's why when they inspect a vessel and find weapons, they usually confiscate weapons, rather then wait for an attack.
That depends on the nation under which the ship is flagged (and possibly the crew's nationalit[y|ies]). The UK was recently considering whether we should allow specific vessels flagged as British, to carry small arms when travelling through Somali waters specifically to defend against pirates, but I don't think a decision has happened yet (or it's been quietly dropped).