News of the melding of two emerging technologies of interest to the Coast Guard.The Navy’s US Fleet Forces command is experimenting with putting “non-lethal” weapons on unmanned surface vehicles.

“Operating in autonomous and semi-autonomous modes, the small militarized boats are equipped to employ a directional acoustic hailer, eye dazzling laser and flash-bang munitions; each non-lethal weapon was carefully-orchestrated to respond to a set of threatening behaviors from intruder vessels.”