The Integrated Anti-Swimmer System is a United States Coast Guard underwater anti-diver ultrasound weapons system. IAS includes:-
- SM2000 (Underwater Surveillance System), a search sonar made by Kongsberg Maritime.
- An underwater warning loudspeaker.
- An underwater shockwave 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 radar. Like other systems, such as the Cerberus, it is 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, 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.
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.
Read more about this topic: Underwater Port Security System
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