WatchStander: Piracy was once an anachronistic phenomenon, but it has been back in recent years, largely due to pirate activity in the waters of Somalia - and off the African coast in general.
As this particular issue seems to be now established as a fact which should be taken into account by the shipping companies, investigations are in development in order to protect ships from attacks by modern pirates, who use small high-speed boats to reach their targets. In this context is also included system WatchStander, which uses radars placed on and two sides of the ship to spot small objects that appear to be moving to intercept.
As reported in a related New Scientist article, the system automatically activates an alarm and activates countermeasures if a threat is detected. WatchStander aims to solve the most basic problem of modern piracy: the early detection of pirates, whose vessels are difficult to detect by conventional systems (which are designed to locate large objects and filter waves).
If the system "sees" a craft moving to intercept, it automatically targets the threat with an anti-counter, such as a very powerful strobe light, designed to confuse the intruders.
In a test earlier this year, the WatchStander was placed on a liquefied natural gas carrier transiting the Strait of Hormuz, south of Iran. The system detected a flotilla of Iranian fishing boats long before anyone else did. “There were 12 Iranian small boats that passed in front of us. You couldn't see them at first. We were getting ready to test the system when the alarm suddenly went off. The crew told us they were smugglers, you see them all the time in the Straits," said David Rigsby, founder the company's.
naftemporiki.gr
