UK-based contractor QinetiQ Maritime has been awarded a grant from the Ministry of Defence to develop anti-piracy technology for the Royal Navy against small ship attacks, the company said recently.
The contract will build on QinetiQ’s past work in anti-piracy. The funding comes from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), a trading fund of the Ministry of Defence.
“[QinetiQ] provided clear evidence of the potential benefit of the technology concept for improved situational awareness that more effectively combines the use of existing sensors with coordination of a ship’s close weapon systems,” a release from the company stated.
“The project…is particularly innovative in nature in that it is looking at an integrated approach to responding to the small boat threat, combining detection, weapon firing and decision making,” said Dstl’s Philip Smith.
QinetiQ has previously worked with the U.S. Department of Defense on an unmanned solar-powered zephyr that could carry a variety of payloads and target pirates. The High-Altitude Long-Endurance unmanned aerial system (HALE UAS) can provide low-cost continuous missions for three-month durations.