VIDEO: Loudspeaker device takes aim at pirates

VIRGINIA BEACH

The war on piracy opened another front Friday morning in the parking lot of the Virginia Beach Convention Center, where a small group gathered to behold some of the latest in high-seas, bad-guy-deterring technology.

"It's not a weapon. It's a speaker," offered Steve Palmer, CEO of Beach-based Anchor Innovation. And it's loud.

Ship-to-ship communication across the open sea can be a challenge in the best of times. When one of the parties has a malicious intent and things have the potential to turn deadly, the situation can get even dicier.

And with pirates off the coast of Africa growing increasingly brazen in their attacks on commercial shipping, Palmer's company sees an opportunity.

Enter the long range acoustic device, or LRAD, which is basically a loudspeaker on steroids. These machines come in several flavors, from a small 135-decibel handheld unit that boarding crews can use to a monster 152-decibel unit that can be mounted on an aircraft carrier and controlled remotely. Each has a range of several thousand yards.

This acoustic-deterrent technology got its start after the October 2000 attack on the Norfolk-based destroyer Cole, which killed 17 sailors. The ship was hit by an explosives-laden boat as the destroyer refueled in Yemen.

In partnership with the Office of Naval Research, American Technology began developing a line of very loud, directional speakers that offered a way to communicate with other ships at safe distances and, if need be, send out piercing, non-lethal sounds to keep enemies away. Anchor distributes the machines for San Diego -based American Technology.

On Friday, Palmer cranked up the generator and Anchor president Chris Powell turned on the machines. A potential customer, who declined to identify himself, stood beside them.

Standing safely behind the largest model, Powell hit a button, sending out a sharp WHEE-WHEE-WHEE that caused a flock of birds in a tree on the other side of the parking lot to take flight.

"Let's take a walk," he said.

Across the parking lot, about 80 yards from the speaker, Powell and his customer, who represents a Fortune 50 company involved in commercial shipping, turned around and put their fingers in their ears.

Powell waved and the WHEE-WHEE-WHEE returned. This time, standing toward the business end of the speaker, it sounded like a car alarm from the eighth circle of Hell, working its way directly into the skull via the forehead.

Besides producing the deafening tones, the machines can act as a microphone or broadcast pre-recorded messages in multiple languages via an MP3 player. It can also send out the predatory sounds of orcas and hawks to thwart dolphins and small birds, respectively.

At 200 yards, the sound from all three models was still crystal clear, cutting through the ambient sound of airplanes overhead. The unit is directional, operating in a 30- or 60-degree cone. Outside of that, the sound level drops off drastically.

The hope is that this focused fidelity will persuade pirates to reconsider.

Piracy has exploded this year along shipping routes passing through the Gulf of Aden and around the Horn of Africa, led mainly by armed groups working out of Somalia.

Numerous ships are currently being held for ransom off the Somali coast, including a Ukrainian freighter carrying antiaircraft guns, rocket-propelled grenades and tanks, a Saudi supertanker holding 2 million barrels' worth of oil and a Hong Kong-registered cargo ship carrying 36,000 tons of wheat.

Ships from several nations, some working under NATO, are patrolling the area and the Bahrain-based U.S. 5th Fleet is urging shippers to travel in a protected shipping channel it has established.

However, with an expanse of sea that is roughly four times the size of Texas, these navies acknowledge they can't be everywhere at once. This is where self-defense, in the form of the LRADs, comes in.

The U.S. Navy has been using them for several years now, Powell said, as have the Army and Marine Corps. Growing numbers of commercial vessels have been making inquiries since the increase in piracy attacks, he added, as have the owners of mega-yachts.

Under maritime law, ships have the right to maintain an exclusionary zone around themselves. For commercial vessels hesitant to delve into the potential liabilities of carrying armed guards, LRAD technology gives them a solid, non-lethal way to repel invaders, Powell said.

For military vessels, the loudspeakers become part of their operating procedure. At about 500 yards out, the ship can start with a warning tone, followed by messages to stay away in any number of local languages.

"If you keep coming," Powell surmised, "you're probably not a good guy."

The units run from $5,000 for the smallest unit to about $100,000 for the largest model mounted on a remote pan-and-tilt system.

Less expensive than paying a ransom. Fewer consequences than shooting someone.

Matthew Jones, (757) 446-2949, matthew.jones@pilotonline.com