Air Cannon Ties Pirates In Knots 770
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."
How about a 5" deck gun (Score:1, Informative)
Why all this squeamishness to try to find a "non lethal" way to disable pirate boats?
They're bloody pirates.
A nice 5" deck gun firing relatively low velocity HE rounds is easy to train on, quite lethal, and remarkably easy to mount on the deck of a merchant ship of any appreciable size.
Re:What is to keep the pirates from using this? (Score:5, Informative)
Queue the 1/2" kevlar rope! A quarter mile of the stuff ought to do the trick. The worst part about lines jamming the propeller is that the line gets coiled up in the space between where the propeller and the hull meet, and the motion causes the prop to pull the propshaft out of the boat (with the engine attached). This causes what's called a "through hull hole", aka an "oh shit!" circumstance, wherein the boat sinks as the engine room fills with water. The rope doesn't even have to be particularly strong to do this. This isn't as big of a problem for outboard motors (what the pirates use) but it does cause problems for them with fouled props, etc.
Re:No prop? (Score:1, Informative)
Hm..oh yes it will. I wasted a whole afternoon fixing a jet boat after it sucked up the water ski rope.
Re:Pro-tip: Shoot them dead. (Score:1, Informative)
It's not a matter of political correctness to say that it's wrong to kill people and best to accomplish your goals without killing people. That is a matter of simple morality.
It's also not a matter of political correctness to know that your "tip" is just a plain-bad idea. More often than not, people who say "just shoot them" are people you've never been in small arms fire exchanges. I know you're a slashdotter and all, but fire fights are slightly more complicated and difficult than the point and click interfaces to which are you are accustomed.
Firing a weapon from a moving boat to another moving boat, trying to hit people on said boat or even hit the moving boat so as to disable it before said boat rams you is no easy task. Firing at them once they're actually on your boat is not such a hot idea either since you risk hitting your own crew or damaging and disabling your own vessel.
And then there is the inherent safety hazard of simply having weapons on the boat. The increased risk of accidental injury and the increased risk of purposeful injury (ie, crew members lose their tempers and decide to settle an argument once and for all). I will admit that the latter scenerio is unlikely but still something to be considered when injecting firearms into any situations.
The best defensive measure against pirates are ones that keep them off your boat with as little danger to all involved as possible. So I say congrats to the people who developed this and I hope it works for those in harm's way. And I hope I never embark on a three hour tour with Braintrust here...
Re:Why not real guns? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Pro-tip: Shoot them dead. (Score:1, Informative)
Hmm, the last time I remember an American crew being taken hostage by pirates, the pirates got their heads shot off by Navy marksmen. It doesn't seem to have affected their behavior much; the same American ship was attacked a second time [google.com] a year later. Except this time they drove off the pirates "with gunfire and a high-decibel noise device."
Re:Browning M2 - Accept No Substitutes (Score:3, Informative)
The MV Sirius Star had a crew of just 25. The Knock Nevis, the longest ship ever constructed, had a crew of 40.
Re:And what happens.. (Score:4, Informative)
Pirates are not covered by the Geneva convention.
Re:Pro-tip: Shoot them dead. (Score:3, Informative)
BECAUSE THEY HAD SECURITY AND FOUGHT BACK.
And your point was?
Re:Why not real guns? (Score:2, Informative)
You must be American.
The answer to your question in the civilized world is: "Because only army and police carry guns".
Imagine what happens if the pirates capture a large vessel that actually DOES have that 35mm AP thing mounted.
the major benefit of having an air cannon with nets is that it will stop a small fishing boat, but will never hurt a 200 m tanker.
But 35mm shells WILL hurt that tanker.
Re:Why not real guns? (Score:1, Informative)
And you must be the typical extremist ignoring the obvious.
The answer to your question in the civilized world is: "Because only army and police carry guns".
I'm going to say something that will disturb your quaint Garden Of Eden mentality.
The pirates also have guns.
So that means in your paradigm we are not in the civilised world, where piracy abounds, and under your claim of civility we need constant police/military escort to sail these waters. I'm assuming there's not money nor manpower for this task, so we resort to the obvious and level the playing field.
That said, I think the technology presented here is a great option.
Re:Browning M2 - Accept No Substitutes (Score:5, Informative)
I served in the Navy on a supply ship at the end of the Gulf War. Non-rated seaman, oh joy.
Since we were a non-combatant ship, we only had a few GMs on board. As a result, the gun mount crews were mostly manned by us deck apes.
I was on a .50 mount as assistant loader. Every time we went to General Quarters we had to fully assemble the guns, which were kept in airtight lockers near the actual mount. Open the locker, remove the weapon, set it in place, slide in a half-dozen keyed pins, load and lock and you're ready to rock. Takes all of 60 seconds.
No salt-water corrosion problems at all, and our training was minimal.
Re:armed commercial fishing vessels (Score:3, Informative)