High-Tech on the High Seas

Beyond Shout and Shoot

Becker said that if hailing or acoustic devices don't deter attackers from proceeding, "impact" weapons -- from launched rubber pellets to stinger grenades -- could be used against them.

MAD International's David Johnson said that entanglement systems, which deploy carbon fiber filaments from a launcher of some kind, are also used to snag the propellers of a hijacker's boat and potentially disable it. As they get closer, powerful lighting systems that use strobe could also be used to hold them off.

"Anything that will attack the senses," he said.

The U.S. military is also exploring another kind of technology that it says expands alternatives beyond the "shout" and "shoot" options: radiation weapons. The Active Denial System, which fires a 6-foot-wide beam that causes targets to feel a painful burning sensation, was originally developed for land use. But, in November, the Navy Times reported that naval forces patrolling the Somali coast are considering using it over water.

Raytheon, the Waltham, Mass., defense technology company that developed the technology, said the Defense Department has concluded that the system could work at sea.

If pirates actually manage to board a ship, experts say, crews could have other tricks up their sleeves. They could employ "direct energy" approaches, such as Tasers, to protect themselves and the ships' cargo.

"Tasers are the newest layer -- the latest thing," Becker of Aardvark Tactical told ABCNews.com.

When somebody approaches, one of the easiest tactics is to shock him with multiple Taser cartridges, he said. Tasers deliver an electric charge that temporarily causes the target to lose neuromuscular control.

Steve Tuttle, the vice president of Taser International, told ABCNews.com that he couldn't disclose exactly where his company's technology was being used. But, he said, Tasers would effectively protect a ship's control area.

"You'd be doing this without deadly force," he said.

Law enforcement and military units from 44 countries use hand-held Tasers that can "incapacitate instantly" someone up to 35 feet away, he said.