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Navy's Latest Anti-Pirate Defence Sadly Does Not Involve Ninjas
Posted by Matt Buchanan at 5:00 AM on October 1, 2008
Piracy on the high seas is a growing problem, so the Navy's latest lightweight fighter, the Littoral Combat ship, has a system specially designed to knock out pirates without killing them (so it obviously don't use ninjas). The Running-Gear Entanglement System, developed by the Coast Guard, is decidedly low-tech—basically a floating net that jams up smaller boats' propellers, leaving them stranded if they breach the perimeter, and easy targets for boarding.
The Navy's 80-foot $US6 million "Stiletto" with its Batman-esque twin m-shaped hull has been floating around as a prototype project for several years now, but it has suffered from budget cuts in the Defence Department. However, it appears that the Stiletto is starting to see some action in the war against drugs. Recently a group of drug runners in Florida tried to elude one by sailing near reefs and sandbars at 42 knots and skimming over water less than 1.5m deep. But the Stiletto kept on coming. After a two-hour chase, the drug boat finally ran out of gas and the passengers were apprehended. They told authorities that it was like being chased by a UFO. A UFO boat, huh? These guys were so f'ing high.
One place where "if you build it, they will come" doesn't always apply is in military hardware. After constructing two Zumwalt class DD(X) stealth destroyers at US$2.6 billion apiece, the Navy has scrapped its plan to build up the rest of its intended 313-ship fleet--turns out, the demand for a ship whose primary mission is to obliterate large land targets with guided artillery and Tomahawk missiles doesn't suit the smaller-scale anti-terror missions most of the armed forces are currently faced with. Now the Pentagon just has to decide what to do with the almost $1 trillion it just freed up in its budget. I'm sure they'll have no problem with that. [
A Royal Navy veteran has been reunited with his watch, 67 years after he lost it during World War II—and, it worked perfectly. In 1941, Teddy Bacon, a lieutenant aboard HMS Repulse, was throwing a line from ship to shore when the gold Bulova watch, bought in the Azores for US$55, slipped off his wrist and into Gibraltar Harbor. The timepiece was never found, until the harbor was dredged, seven decades later.
Last month, the US Navy and General Dynamics took the lid off the new U.S.S Independence littoral combat ship (LCS). This beast will sail close to the shore and throw everything imaginable at an enemy—from armoured vehicles and helicopters to shells, torpedoes and missiles. Plus, it can hustle at a rumoured 60 knots. Basically, that means the enemy will have a difficult time escaping the wrath of this mighty vessel no matter where they are.
According to a just-released Navy research paper, pilots of the MQ-1 Predator 
Scientists at the Britannia Royal Navy College are working hard to make the idea of an invisible ship a reality using metamaterials that refract light in such a way that it "bends" around an object, making it appear as if it were invisible. This would only account for viewing with the naked eye however—naturally radar cloaking would be an important part of the equation. However, it appears that this technology may be able to accomplish a lot more.
If you thought only 
