Underwater Port Security System (UPSS) was developed for the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

and the

Maritime Safety and Security Team A Maritime Safety and Security Team, or MSST, is a counter-terrorism team of the United States Coast Guard established to protect local Marine (ocean), maritime assets. It is also a harbor and inshore patrol and security team that includes Anti ...

s (MSSTs) for defense against swimmer incursions. It includes the Underwater Inspection System (UIS) and the Integrated Anti-Swimmer System (IAS). Recent developments in

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

have highlighted the need for underwater anti-

frogman A frogman is someone who is trained in scuba diving or swimming underwater. The term often applies more to professional rather than recreational divers, especially those working in a tactical capacity that includes military, and in some Europea ...

security. The UPSS is made in the United States and is reported to be compact enough fit in a large

suitcase A suitcase is a form of baggage. It is a rectangular container with a handle and is typically used to carry one's clothes and other belongings while traveling. The first suitcases appeared in the late 19th century due to the increased popular ...

. The Coast Guard unveiled the system in February 2005 at the Coast Guard Integrated Support Command in

San Pedro, California San Pedro ( ; ) is a neighborhood located within the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay and Los Angeles Harbor Region, Harbor region of the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. Formerly a separate city, it consolidated with Los ...

Ship Protection System

The Ship Protection System (SPS) is a ship-based underwater threat detection system manufactured by FarSounder, Inc. Based on FarSounder's 3D forward looking sonar, their SPS offers 360° coverage of underwater threats to vessels at anchor or at dock. This is a commercial product suitable for mega yachts. SAES has developed an active diver detection sonar DDS-03 that has been specifically designed for the detection of underwater threats such as divers and crewed and uncrewed underwater vehicles (SDV, ROV or UUV), offering protection and surveillance to counter the threat of underwater attacks against harbours, critical facilities, ships, offshore platforms, coastal power plants, shipwrecks, environmentally protected areas and maritime special events.

Underwater Inspection System

The Underwater Inspection System (UIS) is a system manufactured by CodaOctopus and consists of the unique Echoscope Real Time 3D Sonar that is used to scan the underwater environment in zero visibility waters. The UIS system can be mounted on a small boat to scan harbor walls, piers, bridges for an underwater threat and can be used to complement long range diver detection systems by classifying the threat in 3D in real time. The same system can be mounted on remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to create 3D ship hull scans detecting small mine size objects.

Integrated Anti-Swimmer System

The Integrated Anti-Swimmer System is a

underwater anti-diver ultrasound weapons system. IAS includes:- *SM2000 (Underwater Surveillance System), a search

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects o ...

made by Kongsberg Maritime. *An underwater warning

loudspeaker A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or, more fully, a speaker system) is a combination of one or more speaker drivers, an enclosure, and electrical connections (possibly including a crossover network). The speaker driver is an ...

. *An underwater

shockwave In physics, a shock wave (also spelled shockwave), or shock, is a type of propagating disturbance that moves faster than the local speed of sound in the medium. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy and can propagate through a me ...

emitter that can force divers to surface, or stun or kill them. The US Coast Guard calls it an "nonlethal interdiction acoustic impulse". It can track underwater objects, similarly to an

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled air ...

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

. Like other systems, such as the

Cerberus In Greek mythology, Cerberus ( or ; ''Kérberos'' ), often referred to as the hound of Hades, is a polycephaly, multi-headed dog that guards the gates of the Greek underworld, underworld to prevent the dead from leaving. He was the offspring o ...

or DDS-03 are semi-intelligent and can distinguish humans from marine animals, partly because of their different shapes and typical movements underwater. This is not impeded by darkness or fog or low underwater

visibility In meteorology, visibility is the measure of the distance at which an object or light can be clearly discerned. It depends on the Transparency and translucency, transparency of the surrounding air and as such, it is unchanging no matter the amb ...

, and is a great improvement on scanning the water surface by eye from above. Various test attempts by MSST divers to trick the system did not work. In most cases the detected diver would be warned by the underwater loudspeaker; after that, the shockwave emitter would be fired once as a warning, before it is fired to stun or kill. (There is no discussion of other conceivable situations, such as where the diver has a pre-existing hearing impairment and/or where the diver merely mistakes the shockwave as originating for some other reason completely unrelated to port security.) Other Anti-Swimmer-based systems that have been invented, instead of shock-waves, use sound-waves which 'disrupt' the diver causing sickness and disorientation. This technique is considered non-lethal and has been developed using an array of underwater speakers.

References

{{Reflist, refs= SAES
-->

External links

* DDS-03 - Intruder Detection Sona

Mission Detection: The Underwater Port Security System

CNN: Coast Guard to unveil security system
United States Coast Guard Underwater security Diver-detector sonars Deployable Operations Group