BAE’s lasers blind high seas pirates, have no effect on Ice Pirates

BAE Systems has had its hands in some pretty crazy research in the past, from Bug Bots to invisibility cloak development and more. But as this next item has implications for our planned dystopian gadget community on the high seas (think Waterworld -meets-The Engadget Show), we took notice tout de suite . Being marketed as a non-lethal deterrent to pirates, the heart of the ship-based system is a Nd:YAG laser that can be used to warn off attackers over half a mile away — and disorient them at closer ranges. “The effect is similar to when a fighter pilot attacks from the direction of the sun,” said BAE’s Roy Evans. “The glare from the laser is intense enough to make it impossible to aim weapons like AK47s or RPGs, but doesn’t have a permanent effect.” Wild, huh? Check out the PR after the break for the complete low-down. Continue reading BAE’s lasers blind high seas pirates, have no effect on Ice Pirates BAE’s lasers blind high seas pirates, have no effect on Ice Pirates originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Posted by on January 11, 2011. Filed under News, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry