Pentagon Boosts Ability to Rescue Men Overboard or Behind Enemy Lines

For those wearing U.S. military uniform, there are few things worse than falling off a warship, unless it’s becoming stranded behind enemy lines on a battlefield. Both are scary, potentially fatal events — and something the Pentagon is trying to fix. The Defense Department announced a pair of contracts Thursday aimed at helping to rescue such lost souls. The Navy is buying what it calls “Man Overboard Indicators”— miniature radios, basically — that transmit a water-activated alarm when a sailor falls off a ship. The objective of the program “is to outfit each ship with a system capable of alerting the crew to a man-overboard event, so that a lifesaving rescue can be effected,” the service says. The latest $8 million contract to BriarTek Inc. is to support the systems while at sea. Read more HERE