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www.sea-technology.com November 2016 / st 21 T he threat that maritime improvised explosive de- vices (MIEDs) pose to inter- national ports and harbors is on the rise and beginning to set off warning alarms in na- tional security circles. The Sea Waterborne Anti-IED Security Platform (Sea Wasp), an ROV developed by Saab's Dynam- ics business area, is a new weapon in law enforcement's armory to combat that under- water terrorism threat. Saab expects that market niche will continue to mature and expand globally in the years ahead. In the United States, the threat posed by MIEDs is es- pecially acute given the num- ber of large, geographically dispersed ports in operation and the sheer volume of ships and cargo that transit these critical arteries of trade and commerce daily. The United States is still a maritime na- tion, as more than 95 per- cent of the economy's goods and services enters and exits through its ports. A few numbers help to illustrate the outsized role America's ports play in the smooth functioning of the nation's economy, and the mag- nitude of the impact a port shutdown would exert on com- merce. Each day America's 361 ports received 80,000 port calls from 9,000 vessels from 58 different nations, accord- ing to 2011 data compiled by the Department of Transporta- tion. The opening of the expanded Panama Canal, now ca- pable of handling even larger container ships, is expected to further boost these numbers, especially among eastern sea- ports. Combined with just-in-time inventory strategies that keep stockpiles for most businesses limited, any interrup- tion in this finely tuned maritime ecosystem will be felt almost im- mediately across the entire U.S. economy. MIEDs come in many dif- ferent types of packages and methods of employment. These include floating improvised ex- plosive mines; specially built or "homemade" submersible or semisubmersible vessels; free- swimming divers with explosive vests; small boats loaded with explosives that can be either radio controlled or manned; and other craft that have been booby trapped to explode when stopped or searched. The De- partment of Homeland Security's 2014 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review has taken note of the challenges posed by IEDs, which, in addition to being rela- tively cheap and easy to build, now have extremist groups dis- playing "an enduring interest in improving improvised explosive device materials and methods to evade security measures." Detecting, identifying, clas- sifying and ultimately eliminat- ing these MIEDs is a difficult and time-consuming operation. The water environment in most ports or harbors is cluttered with maritime debris, accumulated over decades of industrially intensive port operations, which vastly complicates the pro- cess of cataloging what might constitute an MIED. In addi- tion, the water clarity itself is often dark with high levels of turbidity, making visual identification of suspicious objects equally difficult. Today, the only real option available to mil- itary organizations and civil law enforcement agencies is to put divers and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) person- nel at risk by sending them into the potential "hot zone" to physically assess the situation. There is no other alternative Sea Wasp Combats Underwater Terrorism ROV Detects, Handles Improvised Explosive Devices By Jon Kaufmann • Chris Lade Developed by Saab, Sea Wasp is an ROV that identifies, relocates and neutralizes underwater im- provised explosive devices.