Fight against pirates goes high tech

AFP:

Gone are the swashbuckling days of repelling pirates with cutlasses -- a British firm is spearheading use of a high-tech "sonic laser" to beat bandits on the high seas.

The piracy problems of shipping firms running through the Gulf of Aden and down Africa's east coast have been thrown into the spotlight this week by the seizure of the Saudi Arabian super-tanker Sirius Star.

But help could be at hand in the form of a long range acoustic device (LRAD) -- hooked up to a humble MP3 player.

About the size of a domestic satellite dish, LRADs blast the target with a precise beam of sound -- warning messages, noises, sirens -- which can be turned up to excruciatingly painful levels should an attacker get too close.

British private firm Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions (APMSS) hires out three-man teams of ex-military personnel bearing LRADs on ships and has been inundated with work as the piracy problem off Somalia worsens.

"You'll be in absolute agony," APMSS chief executive Nick Davis, a 38-year-old ex-army man, told AFP.

"They're loudhailers that are coupled up to an MP3 player.

"It's very effective up to 1,000 metres and excruciating if you get within 100 to 200 metres if it's at full power. It would give you more or less permanent hearing damage."

...

I predict the pirates will be big purchasers of Bose noise canceling head phones. I think I would want to have a weapon and ammo close by just in case there is an electrical outage during an attack.