Ship Protection and
Anti-piracy
With 360 thermal imaging technology
Ship protection optimization and anti-piracy solution
Maritime security is a critical concern for vessels navigating the vast expanses of the world’s oceans. Ship protection and anti-piracy measures are paramount to ensure the safety of crews, cargo, and vessels. As ships traverse international waters, they encounter a myriad of challenges, including the persistent threat of piracy and other illicit activities. Addressing these challenges requires a comprehensive approach that combines technology, strategic planning, and international cooperation.
Ship protection: Main Challenges
Ship protection can be difficult to successfully accomplish, especially with a single compact, easy to use system. Traditionally maritime threat detection is done with medium range radar and sonar. But radars struggle to detect and track small crafts and wooden or improvised vessels in a wave ridden environment. The threats can come from all directions and the classification made by radar is often inefficient and unreliable for surface objects with low Radar Cross Section. Without imagery and actionable intelligence, the threat confirmation is delayed, causing increased risk to the ship and its crew.
Ship protection: Main Threats
Pervasive Piracy Threats
Piracy remains a significant menace, with pirates employing sophisticated tactics, including armed assaults and hijackings, especially in high-risk areas such as the Gulf of Aden and the waters off the coast of Somalia.
Armed Robbery and Boarding Incidents
Unarmed or lightly armed criminals often target ships for robbery and boarding incidents, exploiting vulnerabilities during transits, anchorage, or slow steaming.
Kidnappings
Kidnappings for ransom continue to plague maritime routes, with criminal groups targeting ships and crews, demanding substantial ransoms for their release.
Terrorist Threats
Non-state actors and terrorist organizations recognize the strategic importance of maritime routes, posing a growing threat through acts of violence, sabotage, or use of explosives.
Ship Protection and Anti-piracy Solution
With Spynel Panoramic Infrared Cameras
HGH Infrared Systems has developed an innovative panoramic solution detecting and categorizing long-range threats. The SPYNEL infrared camera range protects any kind of critical infrastructures or military assets thanks to a 360° camera. Fully passive, the SPYNEL camera ensures real-time panoramic video and automatic detection, classification & tracking.
How to secure your ship against piracy ?
Spynel panoramic thermal imaging cameras are the only ones capable of displaying a wide, 360-degree field of view, with very high resolution and a long detection range, without distorting or splicing images. They are similar to optical radars, but are able to detect threats that are invisible to radar, such as wooden boats. The system is capable of detecting skiffs up to the horizon and is unsensitive to sea clutter disturbance, unlike radars.
Spynel is operational at sea up to levels 5/6 (rough to very rough seas) thanks to an autonomous gyrostabilised platform. In addition to mechanical stabilisation, the images displayed by SPYNEL are digitally stabilised using advanced algorithms. This integrated image processing using deep learning Artificial Intelligence ensures a minimum false alarm rate and a high efficiency to detect and to classify small distant boats.
Why choosing Spynel for anti-piracy?
360-Degree Situational Awareness
Infrared panoramic cameras provide a comprehensive 360-degree view, eliminating blind spots and ensuring unmatched situational awareness for ship crews.
Automatic threat detection, tracking and classification
Cyclope, Spynel’s image analysis software, constantly scans for threats, tracks intruders and follows their movements, in all directions, simultaneously. Panoramic, ring or radar views give the operator a clear overview for greater efficiency.
Enhanced Detection in Low-Light Conditions
The infrared capability excels in low-light or nighttime conditions, extending the effectiveness of surveillance and threat detection, crucial for countering nocturnal piracy activities.
Early Threat Identification
Spynel panoramic infrared cameras enable the early identification of potential threats, thanks to their high spatial resolution of several mega-pixels, that gives an exceptional range, even on the smallest targets up to the horizon. That early warning enhances response times and provides valuable seconds or minutes for crews to initiate appropriate countermeasures.
Adaptability to Challenging Environments
The Spynel cameras are designed to withstand the harsh maritime environment, including corrosive saltwater, adverse weather conditions, and dynamic sea states, ensuring durability and continuous operation.
Multi-Target Tracking Capabilities
Panoramic infrared cameras incorporate advanced algorithms for precise multi-target tracking, enabling simultaneous monitoring of multiple potential threats, a critical feature for countering piracy tactics involving multiple assailants.
Fully passive system
Spynel systems are passive sensors, unlike radars which are active and emit electromagnetic waves. Thus Spynel detection capabilities are not sensitive to the sea clutter disturbance.
Reduced False Alarms with Advanced Analytics
The integration of advanced analytics minimizes false alarms, distinguishing between routine activities and potential security threats, thereby optimizing the efficiency of surveillance personnel.
Integration with Existing Systems
These cameras seamlessly integrate with existing ship protection systems, fostering a cohesive and interconnected surveillance infrastructure that enhances overall operational effectiveness.
Detection small boats with low RCS
Thanks to the thermal imaging technology, the Spynel systems can detect and classify very small boats with low Radar Cross Sections which are not detected by radars (RHIBs, jet-skis, skiffs, kwassa,…).
Gyro-stabilisation platform
Mounted on ships, Spynel panoramic infrared cameras are paired with a specially designed gyro-stabilisation system. This platform reduces the effects of ocean movement and ship vibrations, to maintain high image quality.
AIS/RADAR data fusion
Cyclope can merge the Spynel thermal tracks with data coming from other sensors (AIS, ARPA radar). Thanks to data fusion, the operator can create specific rules to trigger alarms only on real threats, like on “approaching RHIB without AIS and not detected by the radar”.
