Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Roboboat

What could possibly go wrong with this?

Problem with Pirates? Remote Control Speedboat with Machine Gun Turret to the Rescue

"In recent years, maritime shipping companies, private security firms and navies around the globe have pondered the problem of high-seas piracy off Africa’s east coast, where more than 150 merchant ships have been attacked by small craft in 2009 alone. What to do? How to thwart a menace that can resemble a fishing boat? And across an area so vast?
It was inevitable that weapons manufacturers and dealers would weigh in. Now one has. Imagine an aquatic drone, an unmanned boat that could patrol the waters off eastern Africa and allow threats to be assessed and engaged by remote control.
This is an idea proposed by Timothy P. Sheridan, an American arms dealer who has been providing equipment to the Pentagon for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. (Sheridan, among other things, has arranged the shipment of tens of thousands of small arms for distribution to Iraqi security forces.)
His latest venture is called Maritime Defense Systems International, LLC., which offers an automated counterpiracy system, as he calls it, that could be outfitted to a vessel and set loose on patrol. The system contains a forward-looking infrared radar for surveillance and target detection, an automated machine gun on a rotating mount and a satellite video uplink that would let a remote operator run the craft from on shore or a work station on a distant ship.
Think, Roboboat. Now think Roboboat run by a trained naval officer, much as Air Force pilots fly Predator and Reaper drones."

2 Comments:

Anonymous nick z said...

In Pakistan the remote drones target so-called terrorist cells, but kill much more innocent people, and the fascists doing the killing don't have a second thought about it. I'm sure that the same thing will happen with these roboboats and the elite will continue to sip their champagne and pretend that all is well.

22/9/09 8:12 AM  
Blogger nolocontendere said...

Absolutely, and this is far more egregious in that killing and sinking boats leaves no trace of the murder. There's nothing to stop wholesale slaughter of everybody and everything up and down the east coast of Africa.

22/9/09 4:38 PM  

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