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Piracy Sparks High-Tech Defenses |
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Saturday, 19 April 2008 |
 The most recent high-profile incidence of piracy off the lawless coast of Somalia appears to have ended well for everyone but the pirates. After holding the French luxury yacht Ponant for a week and allegedly securing a $2 million ransom from its owner, a band of Somali marauders headed for shore on April 11 with its booty. That's when French navy commandos
pounced to free the 30-man crew and, in a dramatic helicopter raid, hunt down the six pirates. They now await charges in Paris.
So all's well that ends well? In fact it was a world of trouble. And as
the frequency of piracy on the high seas grows, many ship owners and
insurers aren't willing to wait for the navy to help them out. They are
turning instead to an array of high-tech defenses to keep freebooters
at bay. Among the offerings are night-vision equipment, high-powered
water guns, ear-splitting claxons, and a lubricant foam that make it
difficult for pirates to get their footing. For commercial shipping
vessels and yachts operating in high-risk areas of Southeast Asia, the
Red Sea and the Horn of Africa, such products can mean the difference
between smooth sailing and high-seas distress.
Last year pirates attacked 269 ships, took nearly 300 hostages and
killed five people. That represents a 10% increase over the previous
year, and it's probably only the half of it, given International
Maritime Bureau estimates that an equal number of attacks go
unreported. Shipping companies often prefer to swallow their losses
than to risk losing customers or insurance rate hikes.
"There's no law in place, no government, no one to police the seas,"
said Paul Butler, operations director for EDS, a private maritime
security firm based in France. International regulations make it
difficult for law-abiding freight ships and yachts to carry weapons,
often leaving them sitting ducks. It's a big lure for pirates, as 80%
of the world's cargo is carried by sea.
That's an opportunity for Netherlands-based company Secure-Marine,
which markets "Secure-Ship," a high-voltage fencing product similar to
those used to enclose military bases. Wires strung from poles on deck
emit 9000 volts, a non-lethal charge, but enough to deter intruders.
Or perhaps a virtual fence underwater? British defence firm QinetiQ has
adapted its military underwater sonar system, Cerberus, into the
private yacht market. It creates an underwater acoustic perimeter
around a vessel that triggers an alert when broken. It "would identify
an underwater swimmer, scuba diver or vehicle coming in under the
water," said a company spokesman.
The best way to avoid pirates is to elude them. "The idea is to see
them coming while you still have time to escape," says Munich Re Group
maritime risk consultant Tillmann Kratz. Frequently pirates armed with
street-market AK-47s approach ships posing as fishermen, coastguard
officials or harbor police. To ferret out the fakers, ships could send
robot snoops like the Sentry, a jet ski-sized remote-controlled scout
also developed by QinetiQ. For those who want to send out a stronger
deterrent message, there's the "Protector," a 30-foot unmanned surface
vessel developed by BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and an Israeli defence
firm. In its military configuration, the Protector is equipped with a
7.62mm remote-controlled machine gun, enough to give most pirates
pause. It could be used for commercial protection to investigate and
intercept boats up to 10 miles away.
Other military equipment may also prove useful in fighting piracy. The
U.S. Marine Corps has tested a non-lethal weapon called the Mobility
Denial System, a fancy name for a slippery chemical spray that coats
surfaces and greatly reduces traction. Pirates' sea legs would be no
help if they couldn't get their footing, so the spray would make
boarding and hijacking vessels difficult. Another option is the
long-range acoustic device or LRAD, originally developed by the U.S.
military and manufactured by American Technology Corporation. This
33-inch dish emits a sound blast of up to 150 decibels, deafening and
driving away would-be attackers. It proved remarkably effective in
foiling a pirate attack on a British cruise ship off the Horn of Africa
in 2005. But it's hardly foolproof, says Butler: "Eventually [pirates]
get used to it and wear ear-muffs." Still, even imperfect security
measures can help deter pirates. "The risk is unknown, so all you can
do is take precautions," said Butler. "If they see the boats are
protected, they'll find another target."
But unless a ship has navy support lurking just beyond the horizon, a
traditional swashbuckling firefight is a bad idea. "Today I wouldn't
dare recommend to anyone to arm themselves to fight pirates," said
Edwin Mast, a former captain and current nautical technical consultant.
"In the old days when they had knives and sticks, yes. But today they
have machine guns."
Mast says that as the number of yachts and people who can afford them
increases, so will investment in high-tech maritime security. "We feel
that this is a boom market," says Mast, "and that they will sooner or
later become targets."
After its naval success against the Somali pirates, the French
government called for the United Nations to create an international
force to fight maritime piracy. French Prime Minister François Fillon
said "France would naturally be ready to participate" in an UN-mandated
force to "work to secure the waterways of this region."
It's a first step, but the world's oceans and shipping routes are vast,
and governance over them remains uncharted territory. "It would help to
have an international task force and legitimate power to apprehend and
prosecute, but who's going to pay for that?" asked Kratz.
"Realistically this will be a short term measure or something that
won't happen for a long time." Until then, technology will attempt to
fill the gap.
Source: Time
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