The Unifire Anti-Pirate Water Cannon System (APWCS) is a network of high-tech, non-lethal, remote-controlled, stainless steel water cannons that can be controlled safely from the bridge and/or other safe area(s) of a ship or yacht to protect against pirates.
The Unifire "Force" series, high-pressure, high-volume water cannons are effective up to 90 meters away from the ship and can knock pirates off their feet and flood their boat very rapidly. The system's controls are extremely simple and intuitive to use and feature a progressive speed control for very accurate targeting (with movement from extremely slow to very fast, up to 38 degrees of rotation per second).
The APWCS is controlled by a central control station (or stations), called the "Unifire Control System" or UCS. The UCS is placed on the bridge of the ship and/or other location out of harm's way. The system is also combined with off-the-shelf video cameras for a complete view from any location on the ship from the perspective of each and every cannon.
The operator of the cannons can take control at any time of any cannon on the system, and can also send any other (or all other) cannon(s) into automatic protection mode. Each cannon has its own unique, pre-recorded spray pattern that can protect its area of the ship by simply pressing a "Play" button. The system also automatically controls valves to turn the water on and off to each cannon, as each cannon is selected. This way the operator doesn't need to think about valves or press separate buttons to open and close them (unless desired).
The system taps into a ship's existing water supply, so it is economical to install and has an unlimited supply of sea water at its disposal.
Because the Unifire cannons are made from acid-proof, marine-grade stainless steel (type 316), they can use sea water and also can be used with foam, dyes and other chemical solutions.
Good situational awareness is key to thwarting pirate attacks. Most attacks occur when a ship is caught off guard and unaware of the attack until it's too late to take action. In many cases the pirates are on board before the crew is even aware of their presence.
And, although all ships are equipped with radar that is capable of detecting small targets, navigation systems do not typically have the processing power to extract such targets from the clutter and track them. Raytheon has developed a sophisticated small target tracker that interfaces with a ship's existing navigation radar without interfering with normal navigation functions in any way that will detect and very accurately track any boat no matter how small or fast that is approaching a ship from any direction day or night. This allows the establishment of simple exclusion zones around vessels that when crossed by a small vessel trigger an alarm.
A simple chart display, separate from the bridge system, will display the track of the approaching vessel and its range, bearing, and speed. With the click of a mouse a simple, low-cost, electro-optical/infrared camera is slewed to the target for classification purposes. If it is determined the target is a threat then evasive action can be taken, a distress call can be sent, and crew and passengers can get to safety, off the deck, and crew can man the Unifire Control Station.
The Unifire system has been specifically designed to protect ships from pirates, but also provides outstanding fire protection as well. The Unifire Force cannons are highly sophisticated and can work with other technologies, such as infrared cameras, flame detectors and video-tracking technology. The Unifire cannons are thus now being used with such peripherals to provide fully-automatic fire fighting systems. The same cannons are also used on fire trucks (including at numerous major airports around the world), in fixed installations, as well as for police and military applications such as for crowd protection, and many other applications.
For more information, see www.piratesafe.com or contact Unifire (www.unifire.com).
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Unifire Force Monitorsby UnifireAB2,751 views
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