Maritime Vessel Stopping Less than Lethal Means of Stopping Waterborne Vessels

This paper reports on less lethal means of stopping vessels and the work of HOSDB in developing equipment that can be used to stop small vessels by fouling up their propulsion unit. Previously, law enforcement agencies have had limited means of stopping suspect vessels. They were able to hail them and request that they stop and, if they did not, they had to escalate their response and take more drastic action such as the use of firearms or ramming the vessel. This new work will allow a more graded response to be taken. Feasibility studies have already been carried out successfully using commercially available equipment. This equipment is being developed to allow it to fulfil the requirements of the law enforcement agencies. This paper will report on trials held to investigate, using underwater cameras, the way the entanglement equipment works and how to improve it. It will also present the means of deploying the entanglement equipment accurately.