Got pirates? Then you need the Force 80 Anti-Pirate water cannon!
With a range of 90 meters, a flow rate of 1320 gallons per minute (by comparison a firefighters “attack line” pushes 300 gpm) this is an impressive piece of non-lethal weaponry.
Via PirateSafe.
Non-lethal weaponry against pirates? With the goal being to really piss them off before they board your ship with their AK-47s and grenades?
Lol. I see your point but:
How many gallons of water do you reckon one of those pirate skiffs can take on before it becomes unmanueverable or sinks? I’m betting it’s quite less than 1300 gallons.
Fire monitors have been the tradditional Merchant Marine ‘weapon’ of choice against pirates for many years. This looks rather like one of your war tubas….
I’d like to have one on my Citroen. And, Curzon, an Italian cruising ship has run off an assault using something like that «war tuba» just two days ago. They work, it seems, and we won’t have to change the laws in international maritime agreements for the use of weapons on civil ships.
Well, until the pirates will invest on better ships.
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Munro Ferguson: Yes, but that requires your aim to be accurate, and that you have cannons installed on all sides of your boat, with no blind spots…
Sejo: the flesh-burning sonic blasters sound way cooler than a water cannon! (From the start I understood the power of the water cannon; it was the emphasis on “non-lethal” that startled me.)
I don’t really have an opinion on this topic either way, However I would however like to present what information I do have regarding the Force 80 Anti-Pirate water cannon. As a firefighter as far as I can tell the Force 80 is just a standard fire fighting monitor, much like the ones seen mounted on fire trucks or placed remotely on a fire scene. These monitors are supplied by two or three 2″ supply lines. The 300 gpm attack line in an unfair comparison, as attack lines are single 1 1/2″ to 1 3/4″ hoses wielded by hand . Though I am not familiar with the sonic system, I do imagine the appeal of the monitor system would be cost even if you choose to mount one on each side of your ship. Not strictly a necessity as monitors can be moved about and reassembled very quickly . Its is worth noting that accuracy is not a great issue as you may think. At 90M your “footprint” is fairly large and you do have immediate feedback with which to adjust your aim.
I’m pretty sure there’s a brief artcile on startegypage this morning about the measures that merchant ships are taking to fend off piracy. The article points out that alot of the private military contractors are being used to teach the merchant crews how to defend the ship, as well as provide some security for the ships while in transit.
They discuss the LRAD (long range acoustic device), or sonic cannon, and how the pirates were able to defeat it. It’s worth a read.
I’d use two boats, one trying to board, one boarding, the other with a heavy machine gun to surpress the water gun. The second boat stays further away than 90m. This is just silly. If you want to fight, get real, that is, lethal weapons.
The problem with the two boats is legit, it is solved by using remote control. From our keyboards at home it is fun to demand that pirates be shot on sight, in the real world a non-lethal defense is preferable.