Looks like the newfangled sonic weapon, the LRAD, doesn’t work too well against pirates. I could never figure out how a loud noise was going to deter a determined attacker. I mean, these guys are presumably firing off a lot of AK-47s, which isn’t exactly quiet. The pirates seem to have used their AKs to shoot out the device.
8 thoughts on “Never Seemed Like a Workable Idea”
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A loud noise will actually work quite well to deter pirates, assuming it’s the result of rapid gas expansion immediately behind a major caliber bullet.
As a warning system, the LRAD functions beautifully – it gets the point across that if you come much closer, the next loud sound you hear will be after your hull gets perforated. As a defensive system, it is more-or-less useless.
Wouldn’t they just start wearing hearing protection at some point?
Much of the LRAD’s effectiveness also depends on what sounds it projects. Against Americans, the Vonage yodeling would virtually constitute a weapon of mass destruction.
They should use that pain ray weapon thing … you know what I’m talking about?
That could be effective, but it doesn’t actually incapacitate you, it won’t do much. Plus, it’s microwave based, so countermeasures are possible, and aren’t all that difficult to create.
I’m thinking mostly along the lines of something non-lethal that civilian vessels could use as a defense. Personally, I would like all of the pirates blown the fuck up, but I don’t expect that cruise ships and merchant vessels will want to be doing that sort of thing themselves :)
Water cannons seems to be pretty effective when it comes to less then lethal. Of course, you have to have some brave individuals fighting people shooting at you with a stream of water. I wonder how much of a problem a flamethrower would be? Believe it or not, they are pretty much unregulated in the United States.