New Weapon Designed to Zap Scuba Divers

[Sharkbaithawaii]

"Very true...in fact when a sailor falls overboard and the signal goes out over ships comms, the first thing the bridge crew does is not to turn around, but to turn off its SPY-1 radar systems otherwise it will "cook" that sailor in the water."

UUUUHHHHH, SPY-1 RADAR=AIR, radar would do nothing to a swimmer in the water unless the radome fell on his head. You must be thinking of sonar or the ships fathometer not a radar. But if someone was standing infromt of the radome while it was radiating they might be in trouble.

 

[Tigern]

Ships don't all go "active" on sonar just because of a report of a diver in the water. If "diver in the water" is called all ships man extra watches, and station lookouts to see if they can spot the diver. Then EOD is called into start searching vessels near where the call was made to determine if anything was attached to a ship.

As stated above, RADAR won't "cook" a guy in the water.

For the litigator, There is a distinctive boundry around all naval ports that is an exclusion zone. If you enter that area without permission you subject yourself to possible deadly force. This has been in place for a number of years and didn't come about because of the Patriot act.

For the "grenades overboard guy". The Navy may or may not have done this a LOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG time ago but not any time recently. The potential to damage the ship far out weighs any possible chance of getting the "swimmmer".

OK, I'm steping off my

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

Please note that this is from a press release, and being such, somewhat sensationalized.

There are several companies working with the Navy and Coast Guard to investigate terrorist detection and deterrence.

One thing that stood out to me in the Raytheon article was the implication that this system 'automatically' triggers when a diver is detected. That just ain't going to happen. They will not / can not 'fire' any deterrent without identifying and warning the diver.

Underwater loudhailers are used for the warning part. I suggest that if you are diving and hear something along the lines of, "This is the US Navy. You have entered a secure area. Surface immediately," that you do so. Slowly and with your hands where they can be seen.

 

[steveann]

Ships don't all go "active" on sonar just because of a report of a diver in the water.

For the "grenades overboard guy". The Navy may or may not have done this a LOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG time ago but not any time recently. The potential to damage the ship far out weighs any possible chance of getting the "swimmmer".

OK, I'm steping off my

I never said the "grenades overboard" part was smart, I just said that was the standing order that was given (and no, this is not that long ago). As this was on a ship designed to withstand depth charge attacks the damage to the hull would hopefully be miniscule.

The active sonar part, that is a story told to me by a friend. I don't know the full truth to it, but it does not sound like something that wouldn't happen. And yes, an entire squadron's active sonar would probably kill any divers in the water, along with everything else in the nearby vicinity.

As for the expected reaction to a perceived threat to a government owned vessel, yes you are correct. There has always been dire consequences for intruding upon official government property. The Patriot Act, and other legislation and judicial decisions, has given the government the "out" that they were doing it in defense of the national security, which would make suing the government for them frying your dive buddy rather difficult. Of course, the Patriot Act and friends really is just a nuisance pertaining to othe aspects of daily life and is not really a topic to be discussed on this board, but the leeway it gives the governement is.....interesting.

Sorry.....I saw the soap box, and it was just calling to me. And now I shall soap box no more forever. For today, at least.

Steve

 

[Gary D.]

Back when I was a snotty nose kid we used to do compass runs from the sub base at Pearl to Tin Can Row across one of the harbor fingers.

The base would have already been Sonar secured. That wasn’t unusual because divers were working all kinds of weird hours.

Once at the cans we would take big grease pencils and put a big “X” on the side well above the waterline.

There would be sailors, watching movies on the fantail that saw us. Some would take pictures others would point and laugh while we were simulating sinking their ship.

We quit doing it to any of the Queens ships. Those guys pulled us out of the water at gunpoint several times. They didn’t like it at all.

Then we would take a gift-wrapped package to the Quarterdeck and give it to the OD with a simple message. This is a gift for the Captain from the Admiral, could you please place it in his cabin?”

They did it every stinking time. But you’re thinking no big deal, right? Only two sides were gift-wrapped. The other four sides and big red and yellow letters saying, “THIS IS A BOMB”.

The ships of the Queens Navy had a different attitude. They took us into custody. They might have been drinking their rum ration but they didn’t play games.

A little security difference?

Even 60's era sonar was deadly to divers that came within range. Todays is much more powerful.

Gary D.

 

[Spratman]

I guess all the DIR guys would be up the creek....

Also, Tesla's experiments with Extreme Low Frequencies, makes you wonder if some of this stuff wouldn't trigger a quake if it was in a quake area....:06:

Ha ha !!!

'Parently some guys in this area decided to surface within the domain of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Being they were wearing black drysuits it was not long before they were being asked "who goes there".

 

[Gary D.]

I guess all the DIR guys would be up the creek....

Also, Tesla's experiments with Extreme Low Frequencies, makes you wonder if some of this stuff wouldn't trigger a quake if it was in a quake area....:06:

It does and here's the proof.

Take a room full of prople.
Have one of them omit a long low frequency tone.
Then watch everyone in the room shake and move around except the person who produced the tone.

Gary D.

 

[ghostdiver1957]

"If you are scuba diving, be sure not to swim anywhere near any ship or installation that has been protected by the Raytheon Corporation's new "swimmer denial" system"

Heres the link: http://www.cdnn.info/news/science/sc060111.html

Well not exactly by this super high tech intergalactic underwater terrorist protection zapper, but I'm sure come tax time I'll be zapped by the insanely ridiculous cost of this complete waste of taxpayer dollars.

Why would terrorist send divers into the water to bomb our ships> They have already proven how easy it is to hit things with boats and airplanes. Lets face it... it won't happen in the open sea... anything that happens will happen while a ship is in port... and sitting in port there are so many other easy ways to hit it, why spend money on scuba gear?

 

[Kevfin]

Is Osama running a terrorist diver training camp somewhere?

Seriously, if something like this exists or will exist, it is highly improbable that you will ever run into it, and if you do, well, it will not matter anyway.

 

[steveann]

Last I heard, the Taliban was attempting to turn our killer dolphins against us. Either that or recruit suicide puffer fish.