The pleas of shipping liners and cruise companies to remedy the most prominent maritime crime in the high seas - pirate activity - have not landed on deaf ears. The US Naval fleet announced that they will begin testing a 3D sensor system to accurately identify pirate vessels off the California coast by the summer of 2012.
The sensor system named MMSS (Multi-Mode Sensor Seeker) will be placed on a robotic UAV helicopter called Fire Scout that will be controlled by navy personnel aboard naval fleet vessels. Using mid-wave infrared sensors, high-definition cameras and the addition of a laser-radar (LADAR), the Fire Scout helicopters will provide marine military personnel with 3D images of small shipping vessels in high resolution. An automatic target recognition algorithm will make use of the 3D images taken by the LADAR and cross-reference ship dimensions with those in the Navy’s database to identify suspected marine vessels.
Whether the test will be successful or not, this effort may not be enough to permanently end pirate activity and improve maritime trade and travel safety. The naval fleet is not as large as it used to be centuries ago, and remain vastly outnumbered by pirate ships. Even with effective identification software and equipment, naval ships may not reach victimized marine vessels in time.
The help of marine software companies is needed to develop new technologies to effectively combat maritime crime in the open seas. Due to the limited number of law enforcement ships available at any given time, developing new marine software solutions - perhaps one with a wider radar range that will instantly alert both naval fleet ships and the crew of shipping liners to the presence of hostile or unknown marine vessels - will help naval fleet ships reach shipping liners before an attack even occurs.
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