DRUGNET

James Bond's Q Would Be Proud Of The Toy US Coastguards Want For Christmas

A rocket-propelled dragnet that slows drug smugglers' boats and subdues the
crew with tear gas may sound like something out of a James Bond movie, but
it's actually the latest idea from the US Navy.

Tired of watching drug smugglers escape, the Navy and its coastguard
colleagues want an effective non-lethal weapon. Since October, the US Coast
Guard has seized over 5 tonnes of cocaine in US waters, but estimates
suggest that may be only 10 per cent of what gets through.

In key smuggling regions like the Bahamas, the Coast Guard has helicopters
that can intercept speeding boatsproviding they can get them to stop. Coast
Guard pursuit boats are only capable of speeds up to 35 knots (65
kilometres per hour), whereas drug-running boats often reach 40 knots, says
Coast Guard spokesman Greg Warm.

So Dick Cavanagh and his team at the US Naval Surface Warfare Center in
Panama City, Florida, are trying a new tack-based on an idea for clearing
sea mines. "The mine-clearer is a net with two rockets on the front to
deploy it and a couple of parachutes at the back to help spread it out,"
says Cavanagh. When explosives attached to the net are detonated, any mines
beneath it explode too. He wondered if the rocket-assisted net could be
adapted to trap speedboats.

Cavanagh says that if the Coast Guard pursuit boat fires off a big enough
net, some of it will drag in the water when it is fired over the drug
smugglers' boat. Adding weights to the edge of the net draws the parachutes
at the back under water, creating heavy drag that slows the boat.

The net could also be modified to subdue those on board. B y rigging a
tear-gas canister to a tension sensor built into the net, a gas cloud would
envelope the boat as soon as the net starts dragging in the water. To
prevent smugglers cutting the net free, the Navy says you could run
electrified wires inside the netting fibres-so cutting the net with a knife
would expose the wires and give the smuggler an electric shock.

Cavanagh is now looking for investors who might be interested in developing
a prototype, and eventually a full-scale product if it works.