I am sure that many here are aware of the piracy problem both in this body of water and some others around the world. I heard yesterday that despite recent international efforts to thwart the Somali pirates, some 90-odd vessels had been successfully seized just this year. I also heard that the main base (or one of them, anyway) has been identified along the Somali coast.
So here is my question: should the US and/or allied forces strike the base and disrupt the pirates’ operations ashore at Eyl?
If I understand things correctly, the US Navy can intervene directly to stop pirate operations in progress, or act/strike preemptively on known pirate forces. Is that right? Also, I gather that Naval forces from any nation are generally reluctant if not prohibited from using force to recapture a foreign-flagged vessel that’s been taken by pirates. (unless that foreign nation has granted authority, I guess…?) If that’s true, I suppose that our ability to actually retake ships is pretty limited.
Is there anything to prevent US forces from hitting the pirates ashore, though? I know that they will likely be operating near civilians, so that might be a limiting factor. Assuming that good intelligence was available, though, why not bomb the hell out of the shore base(s)?
Train and arm merchant vessel crews. Small arms and maybe a few .50 caliber or 20mm deck guns to disable pirate vessels.
Issue letters of marque and reprisal to “friendly” merchant vessel captains authorizing them to lay waste to these scumbags and destroy any of their vessels.
I have seen a disturbing and very public reluctance by shipping companies to arm their crews. The pirates know this. It’s not financially feasible to put separate armed security crews on the ships most of the time, but if they won’t arm the regular crews, at least have some randomly placed teams (sort of like Air Marshals) as a deterrent.
arming the crews is obviously the first thing… i’m guessing these pirates have AKs, PKs and RPGs, but a reasonably trained and well armed crew could not only fend them off, but cripple that cell’s ability to molest future vessels. how well does a 40mm perform on water? mk19’s with lots of ammo.
personally, i think the shipping companies that use those lanes should pool their resources and hire a private company. blackwater is already headed to the area (under whose authorization or dime and under what orders i don’t know), I’m sure they’d be more than happy to do a little house cleaning. and I’m not just talking “security.” that’s no-man’s land out there.
if I was an eccentric billionaire i’d handle the problem personally. lots of fun to be had over there right now.
Not sure if any of you have seen the “Shadow Force” show that the Discovery channel is airing, with Cobus Claassens, but one of the episodes was them boarding/raiding suspected pirate ships. Due to the laws in that area, no one is allowed to possess firearms. The pirates know this and take advantage of it (they’re already performing illegal acts, so why do they care if they break a few more laws) and the ship’s crews are left vulnerable. The “Shadow Force” crew is even bound to this law and they were facing potential AKs, RPGs, etc… armed soley with knives and their knowledge as a defense. Pretty crappy deal if they came up on a pirate ship that actually decided to open fire. They stated many times that, if that were to happen, they would literally be dead in the water.
Until the governing bodies make it legal for the crews to arm themselves, we’re going to continue seeing pirate attacks occur and increase. It’s free pickings.
of course… i didn’t really think about who the “crew” is aboard some of these vessels. some may even be tipping off the pirates with GPS coordinates and more. the rest probably cant really be trusted with firearms. hmm.
it’s hard to remember that the rest of the working world isn’t American, sometimes.
Thats all well and good until you screw with someones oil. You mess with someones oils supply (via hijacking a Saudi Arabian super-tanker) and pretty soon the 160th SOAR flys some people out to negotiate with you. (Hint - you dont want that)
From what I have read they are surprisingly very well trained and have very good tactics. It would take in my opinion private highly trained operators with the right weapons. One of the top Admirals was on Fox talking about the tactics used and said these are not rookies. They are well armed and know what they are doing. Think about it they just took over a ship the size of a Carrier with 100 million in oil on it.
Once they are on board it very difficult to kill them without risking the crews.
The military claims their radar can pick up the pirates from a distance it’s just they can’t get there in time to help. I don’t see why the ships radar cannot pick them up from closer ranges. If you know they are there it shouldn’t be too hard to take out little boats with a couple of .50s. 2 cents
I dont see what this has to do with the us military unless its a military ship that gets attacked. I say let the companies that own these boats hire PMC’s to stand guard when they operate in that area.
Ya gotta be kidding me! Gun control laws don’t work? Is this the perfect example proving gun control laws only take firearms out of law-abiding hands and remove the ability to defend yourself and your property?
One shooter per ship with a .50 cal bolt gun would go a long way. He can start in on them well before they’re within RPG range. Probably wouldn’t have to pay him much-- $15K /voyage would be cheap when your boat, crew, and bazillion-dollar cargo are at risk.
Probably could charge the shooter that much and have plenty of guys standing in line looking to burn some vacation time…
I read something some where, that Blackwater is supposed to have a “naval” section that is geared to support and attack this specific problem. Merc’s on fast attack boats or some shit like that. Hired by countries and shipping companies where pirate attacks frequently occur.
I did read in USA Today or Fox or somewhere (through an online news aggregator) that some shipping companies are hiring armed and unarmed guards (contractors) and that Blackwater is getting into it as well.
A 50 cal, a couple 30 cals, a Mk19, and some M203 and precision rifles in the hands of trained people should get these pirates to move on.
I’ll chime in on the subject. My last branch of service was with the USCG assigned to the NSA in Bahrain from 2004-2005. Our mission was to provide assets for the protection of the Iraqi oil platforms and various types of maritime patrols. Additionally we also conducted patrols in this area as well as a training mission for the Yemeni coast guard.
I have no clue what all the legalities are as to ships being armed, etc…etc…nor do I care. Having said that this is a large problem and it needs to be addressed. As much as I despise the U.N for being a worthless body with the balls the size of a tick, they need to take action. It is my understanding that international law allows the government ships of any nation to repel any act of piracy in international waters. Let the U.N then request that naval forces from any nation form a coalition with the expressed purpose of putting and end to these acts of aggression. I don’t mean arrest them and put them on trial, I mean blow them the fuck out of the water! Then we can start focusing on the areas of land where they tend to come from and put a “covert” ass whipping on them as well.
The only other option would be to allow PMC’s the ability to conduct such operations (when contracted) though I believe that this is in contravention to international law.
They can pick them up at closer ranges, but they are not at closer ranges.
Picking up a radar paint at distance means that you still have to close the distance to do anything, and that’s presuming that there is a Marine MEU/SOC in the vicintiy with a maritime interdiction team already on 5-minute strip. It also presumes that you can identify that a radar paint is a pirate ship without getting eyes on it and extablishing PID. That’s REALLY unlikely. Like, somewhere on the level of unlikely as that of me being elected Pope on the next go-around.
I’m willing to bet that you meant to say something else, because your post reads like you don’t understand space/time relationships, which is truly odd for a board full of shooters.
