Monday, May 23, 2011

US Navy Predicting Pirate Attacks

After reading this article HERE  I had to have a chuckle as this is another example of the US spending probably millions on this prediction model and software, when we have been doing the exact same thing for over two years now. We actually publish this on a monthly basis, in addition to our daily reports supplied to our teams on the water.


The U.S. Navy Thinks They Can Predict Where Pirate Attacks Will Happen Next

Let us not forget pirates still exist. In fact, SEAL Team Six exterminated a pack of Somali pirates a couple years back. And because they're still a threat, the Navy developed advanced software that flags high risk pirate attack zones. According to Discovery, the app takes weather, known pirate locations, vulnerable shipping routes and past history into consideration. Thousands of simulations are run, which determines the most probable areas of attack. When the factors all align, the alarms go off.
Naval researchers update the anti-pirate program every 12 hours with new data about winds, wave heights and
undersea currents — all factors that affect the pirates' ability to operate small skiffs to attack commercial ships. The model, known as the Piracy Attack Risk Surface (PARS), also uses classified reports about pirate whereabouts from captured sailors or unmanned drone aircraft patrolling the skies.
The result is a color-coded map that divides the ocean into zones of probability of pirate strikes, much like NOAA's hurricane forecast.
In addition, the Navy is developing a high-speed, remote control boat called the Predator, which can run down pirates with a swiftness. Excellent.

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