Is the USA the only country with the black box pinger finder?

The British ship HMS Echo & submarine HMS Tireless have been out there since tuesday.

The black box ping can be picked up by pretty much anybody, since it is just sound waves (37.5 kHz). So, all of the boats and subs out there can hear it. I think the US simply has a submersible designed specifically for finding this sort of stuff.

The “black box” doesn’t “ping”, that is to say it does not communicate, it simply records data. The “pinger” on an airplane is a two-way communications device that is not automated and can be turned off (as, from what I understand, they believe is the case in the Malaysian Airlines flight).

It’s widespread technology; a Chinese ship seems to have detected a pulse.