DebateGate
General Category => 3DHS => Topic started by: Kramer on April 13, 2011, 09:07:47 PM
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http://www.katu.com/news/national/119781989.html (http://www.katu.com/news/national/119781989.html)
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A ship-based laser tested by the Navy's research arm could put the heat on Somali pirates.
The Navy for the first time last week successfully tested a solid-state high-energy laser from a ship. The beam, which was aimed at a boat moving through turbulent Pacific Ocean waters, set the target's engine on fire.
The Office of Naval Research says the laser traveled over "miles, not yards." For now, the test is a proof of concept, and it's not yet known when it might be deployed as a weapon.
The baseball-sized laser beam, though, could be used to stop small crafts from approaching naval ships. It could also target pirates.
"You can use the laser to ward off an attack, or you can dial it down to a non-lethal level where it basically becomes a very bright light so they know they are being targeted," Michael Deitchman, the director of air warfare and weapons at the Office of Naval Research, said Wednesday.
Deitchman said the laser provides two benefits not seen in other military weapons. The laser is precise, unlike bullets that can ricochet and hit unintended targets, and the laser's strength can be dialed down from a lethal level to a nuisance level.
Graeme Gibbon-Brooks, the head of Dryad Maritime Intelligence, said the test was "remarkable" for how the Navy was able to concentrate the beam over such a long distance at sea, and given how the boat was being tossed about in rough water.
"Hats off to the U.S. Navy because that is very, very impressive," he said. "It was pitching and rolling and yet they got this very fine beam to focus on one part of an engine casing. That they managed to keep the energy in one place is remarkable."
Somali pirates attacks have become increasingly violent in recent months. Pirate assaults typically involve multiple skiffs zooming in on a target. The pirates often carry and fire AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades at targets.
Some cargo ships now carry private security guards to defend against pirates. They also can use such defensive measures as water cannons and sound blasters. But those measures may not be enough to overcome an armed attack.
Gibbon-Brooks said the new laser "absolutely" could be deployed against pirates, but says a sniper rifle could work just as well. He suspects the Navy has bigger hopes for its sea-based laser. The Navy released a video of the test on YouTube. It's been viewed more than 600,000 times.
"It's a very, very interesting moment for naval warfare in that we have a whole new genre of weapons," he said.
"It's certainly a remarkable step forward. The ability to apply more power in a burst or the ability to manipulate that power is really where I see this going," he said. "I think if you watch the video and think that's what they intend to do to Somali pirates in a year, you don't understand what's being set out in front of them. It could be used in any type of naval warfare."
The laser test was carried out by the Navy and Northrop Grumman as part of a $98 million contract.
The Office of Naval Research's big project is a megawatt-level electron laser that could be used to defend Naval ships against supersonic and ballistic missiles, said Deitchman. The recent laser test helps the Navy move in that direction.
"It demonstrated once and for all that we could get material damage effects with a laser at sea, and it really gives us confidence to proceed on with directed energy systems," Deitchman said.
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XO was wrong again
How so?
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He said the area the pirates patrol was too large to stop them from attacking vessels, and other dumb things.
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The Navy said the area was too large to protect every ship. And it is, that is why so many ships have been attacked.
To stop a ship with a laser, you need to be fairly close to it. This may be a useful tool in stopping potential acts of piracy,but to stop a pirate, you have to be fairly close.
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The Navy said the area was too large to protect every ship. And it is, that is why so many ships have been attacked.
To stop a ship with a laser, you need to be fairly close to it. This may be a useful tool in stopping potential acts of piracy,but to stop a pirate, you have to be fairly close.
not if like I said before they send in special forces teams to exterminate the leadership and severely hurt or kill enough pirates to put the fear of God in the rest of them to knock this shit off.
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put the fear of God in them
(http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo330/Cruz_6791/terminator.gif)
(a just added a pistol-grip shotgun like this in my closet at work)
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So your dream is go cruising down the street, blasting at random with a shotgun from a motorcycle?
It is nice to know that you allow your hirelings to pee when they need to, though. That is to be commended.
The pirates are not any sort of unified group, they are freelancers, like the fishermen that many of them once were. And the Navy did not say that they lacked special weapons to do away with the pirates, they said that the area was too vast for the various world navies to patrol it all. The ship owners could put guards on the ships, but that would cost more than they wish to spend. So the problem will continue. It is not up to me. I was simply repeating what the Navy spokesmen have said: the area is to big to catch all the pirates.
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So your dream is go cruising down the street, blasting at random with a shotgun from a motorcycle?
Yea, because C's reference to keeping one for protection in his closet at work is identical to the notion of driving down mainstreet on a harley, with all barrels firing
::)
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(http://blog.brickhousesecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/sydney-morning-herald-logo1.jpg)
Navy rescues hostages from pirates Dan Oakes
April 15, 2011
(http://images.smh.com.au/2011/04/14/2307102/art_pirate1-420x0.jpg)
Safe ... the boarding party from HMAS Stuart comes alongside the Yemeni dhow. Photo: AFP
AUSTRALIAN sailors have boarded a ship in the Gulf of Aden, rescuing hostages who had been held captive by pirates for three weeks.
Sailors from HMAS Stuart, patrolling the area as part of a multinational counter-piracy operation, also captured 15 Somali pirates.
Stuart spotted a Yemeni dhow on Monday morning and after deciding the crew looked suspicious, the sailors boarded.
Advertisement: Story continues below They met no resistance and discovered that three Yemeni crew members were being held by the pirates. The Yemenis said their boat had been captured by the pirates 20 days before. The boarding party also seized 11 AK-47 assault rifles with 16 magazines, small arms ammunition and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher with grenade, which they threw overboard.
The pirates were released in their skiff after being given food, water, fuel and communications equipment. The Yemenis were escorted from the area in their boat.
The Chief Joint Operations, Lieutenant-General Mark Evans, said he was pleased with the way HMAS Stuart's crew handled a difficult and dangerous mission.
''No shots were fired by either HMAS Stuart or the pirates and no threats were made by the pirates to harm the Yemeni crew once they saw the boarding party rapidly secure the dhow,'' he said. ''The boarding party did extremely well in maintaining the safety of the dhow's crew and ensuring a potentially challenging situation did not escalate.''
It is the second operation HMAS Stuart has conducted in the past two weeks. Late last month it was revealed that Stuart machinegunned an unmanned skiff being towed by a pirate mothership.
Twenty-five nations have committed ships, personnel or other support to the operation, which began in 2009 to combat pirates in the Gulf of Aden and off Somalia, but now also tackles terrorism and responds to humanitarian crises.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/navy-rescues-hostages-from-pirates-20110414-1dg3z.html (http://www.smh.com.au/world/navy-rescues-hostages-from-pirates-20110414-1dg3z.html)
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Raising Arizona: Apocalyptic Biker (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaSnwgJ_xQM#)
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Excellent comical flick
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I was referring to the video clip, of course, assuming that if he did not think that this was cool, he would not have posted it.
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Cool's one thing. Claiming someone is dreaming about doing it, is quite another
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I have no idea whether he was dreaming about doing this or he feels as though it is a cool thing to do. It seems downright dangerous and antisocial to me.
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I have no idea whether he was dreaming about doing this or he feels as though it is a cool thing to do.
"So your dream is go cruising down the street, blasting at random with a shotgun from a motorcycle?"
Your words
It seems downright dangerous and antisocial to me.
It's a video clip of a movie. Many movies are "antisocial" What in the world does that have to do with anything, with thinking Cu4 dreams about doing it??
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I have no idea whether he was dreaming about doing this or he feels as though it is a cool thing to do. It seems downright dangerous and antisocial to me.
you are a pampas ass.
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Get on your bike and drive down the street blasting away like this.
You will be charged with far more than being a pompous ass.
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http://m.npr.org/programs/all/3/135408659?singlePage=true (http://m.npr.org/programs/all/3/135408659?singlePage=true)
In recent years, Somali piracy has grown into a multimillion-dollar criminal enterprise. Rarely a week goes by that pirates don't attack or seize a ship.
Ransoms now average between $4 million and $5 million, and researchers estimate as many as 2,000 pirates operate from Somalia's shores.
Law enforcement sources say the larger pirate syndicates are becoming increasingly sophisticated and professional. Last year, the coast guard in the Seychelles, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, found an 11-page, handwritten piracy contract in a seized skiff. Like many business ventures, the contract outlined everything from division of profits to an employee code of conduct.
There were even incentive bonuses.
Follow the link to read more , or listen to the podcast , very good article .
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It would be great if an invention could end piracy everywhere. I am all for it.
The fact remains that this planet, supposedly designed for humans, is mostly covered with water that we cannot even drink. The ocean is wide, too wide to prevent all piracy. Perhaps someday with global satellites we can track all ships at once and perhaps zap the bad pirates from space with a laser.
I was not "wrong again" on this. I was correct. piracy continues, because the area is to big to patrol it all and to prevent all piracy.
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It isn't really necessacery to patroll the whole area.
You only have to patroll where the ships are.
If the ships were traveling in convoy with a few warships and patroll boats they could pass through the area invunerable to skiffs with small wepons.
If I were a Loyds of London member I would insist that none of my insured craft pass through that area singly.
Convoys are not easy, but nothing new need be invented for them.
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The ships apparently do not follow set routes. I imagine that insurance companies could make routes more uniform, but ships do not all travel between the same ports. If convoys were useful, I think they would use convoys. Apparently they are not a complete solution to the problem.
I do know that the naval authorities say that the reason for piracy is that the area is to vast to patrol it all. I think that they are better experts than, say, sirs or kramer.
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When did I ever claim to be an expert on Naval patrol routes or protocols? Or anything to do with this Piracy tangent for that matter??
Care to rephrase your flawed concept?
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You are a jerk. You will spend weeks denying that water is wet. To you, every question is about your ego.
The original post claimed that I was wrong about the ocean being too huge to catch all the pirates because is some new weapon that the navy was using.
That is not true. What I said was true: the ocean is too large an area to respond to piracy anywhere at any time. I was not wrong. The Navy agrees.
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You are a jerk. You will spend weeks denying that water is wet. To you, every question is about your ego.
The original post claimed that I was wrong about the ocean being too huge to catch all the pirates because is some new weapon that the navy was using.
That is not true. What I said was true: the ocean is too large an area to respond to piracy anywhere at any time. I was not wrong. The Navy agrees.
What does wet water have to do with the discussion?
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You are a jerk. You will spend weeks denying that water is wet. To you, every question is about your ego.
The original post claimed that I was wrong about the ocean being too huge to catch all the pirates because is some new weapon that the navy was using.
That is not true. What I said was true: the ocean is too large an area to respond to piracy anywhere at any time. I was not wrong. The Navy agrees.
And what does that balderdash (i.e. garbage) have to do with anything about my so-called claiming or even acting as an expert in Naval operations??
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Okay, I admit it: you do not know jack about naval operations, okay?
Does that make you happy?
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Who said I was ever sad? Boy, you really do have a problem in making accurate pronouncements
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Who said I was ever sad? Boy, you really do have a problem in making accurate pronouncements
don't call him BOY, he thinks it's racist...
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The ships apparently do not follow set routes. I imagine that insurance companies could make routes more uniform, but ships do not all travel between the same ports. If convoys were useful, I think they would use convoys. Apparently they are not a complete solution to the problem.
I do know that the naval authorities say that the reason for piracy is that the area is to vast to patrol it all. I think that they are better experts than, say, sirs or kramer.
I don't have a degree in it , but I was a sailor and I have sailed in that area, I have made port o'call in Sudan, Kenya and have transited the Suez.
Early in WWII there were a lot of losses to U-Boats and convoy tactics reduced the losses, there was resistance from ship owners and captains because convoys are not easy to manage or particapate in.
I think as long as the pirates are attacking from small skiffs they will be quite vunerable to the small arms that can easily be mounted on any ship and helpless to fight any real warship.
You may have a point that it takes a huge and impractical fleet to patroll the entire Indian Ocean , but my counter point is that it would only take a few warships to escort a convoy even if the convoy was quite large.
The inconvienience of forming convoys would be made up for each time that a piracy was foiled.
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Hey, it is fine with me if they travel in convoys. I assume that they would do this if it were practical. A convoy involves several ships traveling between the same two points at the same time, and I imagine that cargoes would be delayed by using convoys.
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Hey, it is fine with me if they travel in convoys. I assume that they would do this if it were practical. A convoy involves several ships traveling between the same two points at the same time, and I imagine that cargoes would be delayed by using convoys.
Yes that is true , the delays are expensive and annoying , but is looseing an occasional cargo , ship and crew any less expensive and annoying?
I don't assume that shipowners and world leaders are smart , this is not really a safe assumption.
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You have to combine the joint decisions of ship owners, shipping companies, insurance companies and such, and decisions that are made are, I agree, not necessarily intelligent ones. We don't have the figures for profitability in this business,and those are the most significant ones.
Their main concern is not for the crew of their ships.
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The Mersk Alabama was unusual in haveing a lot of Americans in the crew , it is cheaper to hire almost anyone elese.