Lasers & Sources

BAE Laser Dazzle System enlisted to stop Somali pirates

Sept. 11, 2009

Remember the non-lethal Laser Dazer? Well make room for the Laser Dazzle System.

Remember the non-lethal Laser Dazer? Well make room for the Laser Dazzle System. The United Kingdom's Daily Express reported that a new Laser Dazzle System from BAE Systems (Farnborough, Hampshire, England) was unveiled at DSEi 2009, the Defence Systems & Equipment International show in London, England. The Laser Dazzle system is one of several technologies designed to counter the threat posed by Somali pirates off East Africa.

The article said that the Laser Dazzle System can disable pirates from 1,000 yards. The laser will not harm the pirates but is designed to confuse them when shone on to their boat as they prepare to board tankers and cruise ships.

Earlier this year, Boeing won a contract for a Free Electron Laser (FEL), designed to deliver "U.S. Navy ships to deliver nonlethal or lethal effects on a target."

For more information, go to the U.K. Daily Express article.

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.