Coast Guard unveils new port security tech.

The Coast Guard has unveiled its first-ever underwater port security system, a network of sensors and divers that are intended to thwart underwater bombers.

The system is designed to protect port infrastructure and vessels from underwater threats, including swimmers, divers, and explosive devices. It relies on a combination of platforms and sensors, including sonar, Coast Guard dive teams, remotely operated vehicles and a variety of methods of stopping underwater intruders.

Coast Guard maritime safety and security teams nationwide will receive the equipment, as well as additional training to include underwater searches and inspections. High profile targets will receive the attention of divers and, in waters too dangerous for divers, piers and hulls will be inspected with remotely piloted vehicles.

New hardware includes a commercially available sound head that detects and tracks potential underwater threats, a Navy processor that classifies underwater contacts, a high-frequency sonar that provides images to positively identify the target as a swimmer or diver and an underwater hailer that allows security team members to communicate warnings and instructions to the unidentified diver.

The system has been in development and testing since November 2002. The Coast Guard's Research and Development Center in Groton, Conn., worked with the U.S. Navy, University of Texas, University of Washington and the Defense Department's joint non-lethal weapons directorate.