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| Anti-terror gun stops boats dead | Anti-terror gun stops boats dead |
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| By Gaetan Portal BBC News The device is being tested at five locations around the UK | By Gaetan Portal BBC News The device is being tested at five locations around the UK |
| The government is appealing to industry, academics and individuals to develop new technologies to fight terrorism. | The government is appealing to industry, academics and individuals to develop new technologies to fight terrorism. |
| One such gadget - a device to stop a speed boat - is already under development under its science and technology strategy. | One such gadget - a device to stop a speed boat - is already under development under its science and technology strategy. |
| At the Defence Diving School near Portsmouth, a team of Home Office scientists and industry experts are developing a device that aims to achieve what some consider to be the near impossible. | |
| Their mission? Stopping a speed boat - possibly laden with explosives - from reaching its target, without the use of lethal force. | Their mission? Stopping a speed boat - possibly laden with explosives - from reaching its target, without the use of lethal force. |
| Cyber terrorism | Cyber terrorism |
| The device, known as the Air Launch Running Gear Entanglement System, looks like a futuristic bazooka out of the imagination of a Hollywood prop designer. The US Coastguard has expressed a keen interest. | The device, known as the Air Launch Running Gear Entanglement System, looks like a futuristic bazooka out of the imagination of a Hollywood prop designer. The US Coastguard has expressed a keen interest. |
| Compressed air is used on the shoulder-held device to propel a line from a pursuing boat which drags with it a high-tech, high tensile net to disable the target craft's propulsion system. | Compressed air is used on the shoulder-held device to propel a line from a pursuing boat which drags with it a high-tech, high tensile net to disable the target craft's propulsion system. |
| Resources need to be drawn together to combat terrorism, says Lord West | Resources need to be drawn together to combat terrorism, says Lord West |
| Watching repeated trials of the system is Admiral Lord West of Spithead - the Home Office's counter terrorism minister. | Watching repeated trials of the system is Admiral Lord West of Spithead - the Home Office's counter terrorism minister. |
| Explaining how the system might be used in the future, he said: "Lets say now we're off Weymouth in 2012 and we're doing the Olympic games, and we suddenly find a boat. | Explaining how the system might be used in the future, he said: "Lets say now we're off Weymouth in 2012 and we're doing the Olympic games, and we suddenly find a boat. |
| "What we want to be able to do is stop it without actually having to kill the people in the boat, or risk killing the people in the boat." | "What we want to be able to do is stop it without actually having to kill the people in the boat, or risk killing the people in the boat." |
| The device is being tested at five locations around the UK while a decision is made over its future deployment. | The device is being tested at five locations around the UK while a decision is made over its future deployment. |
| Lord West says the "boat-stopping system" is only a small part of what science and technology can do to help counter the terrorist threat. | Lord West says the "boat-stopping system" is only a small part of what science and technology can do to help counter the terrorist threat. |
| It extends from cyber terrorism to reducing risk in crowded places and investigating how to intercept new methods of telecommunications, he adds. | It extends from cyber terrorism to reducing risk in crowded places and investigating how to intercept new methods of telecommunications, he adds. |
| "To defeat this terrorist threat to our nation, we needed to draw on all our resources, and what we are very good at as a nation is science technology and academic research, and actually within our industries we can produce really good things." | "To defeat this terrorist threat to our nation, we needed to draw on all our resources, and what we are very good at as a nation is science technology and academic research, and actually within our industries we can produce really good things." |
| The science and technology strategy is, according to Lord West, designed to help keep "one step ahead of the terrorists". | The science and technology strategy is, according to Lord West, designed to help keep "one step ahead of the terrorists". |
| The Home Office is casting its own net as wide as possible to garner innovative ideas - and is encouraging industry and even private individuals to come forward. | The Home Office is casting its own net as wide as possible to garner innovative ideas - and is encouraging industry and even private individuals to come forward. |