Arr, matey.

The Department of Defense will begin funding an Office of Naval Research (ONR) – sponsored project aimed at developing Web applications to help multinational navies police the world’s oceans, officials announced.

Pirates, ye be warned! 

I don't know how effective this technology will be if you're...you know...fighting 18th century pirates. Capture of the Pirate, Blackbeard, 1718 depicting the battle between Blackbeard the Pirate and Lieutenant Maynard in Ocracoke Bay (Painted by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, 1920)

The International Collaborative Development for Enhanced Maritime Domain Awareness (ICODE MDA) was one of 14 projects selected by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics to receive $1 million awards beginning this fall through the Coalition Warfare Program, which funds international collaborative research efforts.

The ICODE MDA project is a research alliance between ONR and Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center Pacific (SSC Pacific). ONR is partnering with scientists in Chile to build widgets, or Web-based applications, for use by sailors and maritime operators to analyze data and other information to combat pirates, drug smugglers, arms traffickers, illegal fishermen and other nefarious groups.

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