Somalian pirates...

[Uncle Cracker]

More ships attacked by pirates based in lawless Somalia. Fortunately, no success this time. There is supposed to be a multinational coalition of naval assets patrolling this area, but apparently they are always somewhere else... Why don't they just mount a couple mini-guns on some of the merchant traffic and chew up a few pirate boats? I suspect the frequency of these attacks would go down dramatically... Dyin' ain't much of a livin'...

[dbhost]

To heck with the mini guns. I am thinking some beefy .50 cal armor piercing firepower... Maybe an RPG or two, nothing too dramatic you know. Shred a couple of those Pirate boats, and a few of the pirates. When their little buddies finally make it back to shore with the horror stories, they might just stop...

[Uncle Cracker]

And when they see which boats those Zodiacs come from, instead of putting 'em on a list, call in an air strike and put 'em on the bottom...

[cabinetman]

LOML has the video game.
.

[footprintsinconc]

... Why don't they just mount a couple mini-guns on some of the merchant traffic and chew up a few pirate boats?

i was thinking the same. i dont understand how they are able to get on just using a boat or two? wouldnt the crew on board be enough to push off the people who try to climb on? there has to be more to what they do to get on than we know... but they should be able to defend themselves even before they get close enough to get on!

[shoottx]

I think something like this might work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8hlj4EbdsE

[radhak]

i was thinking the same. i dont understand how they are able to get on just using a boat or two? wouldnt the crew on board be enough to push off the people who try to climb on? there has to be more to what they do to get on than we know... but they should be able to defend themselves even before they get close enough to get on!

These are not your garden-variety thugs. Nowadays they use sophisticated weaponry/gadgetry, and are far more ruthless than normal : for one, they have the open seas where it's not very difficult to isolate the victim ship; then, they know that if caught, they are gonna be shot down or bombed out, so they rarely have any motivation to leave anybody alive, unless it's for ransom.

npr had a piece :
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=89934203

To see how it has grown, first read this piece from 2002 :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2148444.stm

then this from june this year :
http://www.forbes.com/2008/06/09/pir...610piracy.html

And they operate in quasi-military fashion, surrounding the target with many speedboats so a gun or two may not deter them. If anything, those guns might attract them. Nowadays the stakes are so high (eg, oil cargo) that anything less than governmental action may not amount to much. Cruise and cargo ships can neither afford nor handle this type of armed conflict. In fact many developing countries just throw their hands up because they cannot afford the guns to counter the pirates! Malaysia is a pretty well-to-do country, and still is helpless. Check this out for the latest word on this :
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122083029536208391.html

[footprintsinconc]

thanks radhak, that made some interesting reading. i guess, after reading this stuff, you are not safe on land and nor on water in the middle of no where.

[Uncle Cracker]

Guys, they know which boats are being used as "mother" ships for these pirates. The Navy could put a Seal team in there and blow 'em all out of the water on their lunch break. There is no government in Somalia. There are not any political considerations here, so why the delay?

[jlm]

There is no government in Somalia. There are not any political considerations here, so why the delay?

I think our government remembers the last time they got involved in a military intervention in Somalia. I would guess that they look at the situation and decide it's easier to have the State Department tell people to avoid those waters than to involve our military (who have much higher priorities at the moment). Then, if any Americans do get robbed or killed by these guys, they can say "We warned you to stay out of there."

You're right, there would likely be few political repercussions of such action, but conversely, very little political gain as well. It's not like there's a significant segment of the U.S. population that's clamoring for us to send special forces teams into that part of the world. And in Washington the general rule seems to be "If it doesn't get me more votes, I ain't interested."

[Richard in Smithville]

In the first and a bit of the second world war, Q-ships were used to counter the U-boat attacks. Perhaps such a ploy would be useful again.

[Kristofor]

Guys, they know which boats are being used as "mother" ships for these pirates. The Navy could put a Seal team in there and blow 'em all out of the water on their lunch break. There is no government in Somalia. There are not any political considerations here, so why the delay?

Why risk Seals to an accident or unlucky shot when a single plane sortie or cruise missile is enough to sink a base ship. Right now we worry about possible implications of who else might be on the boat (by choice or not).

My money is on a bet that eventually the pirates will do something stupid (killing a cute/young American couple on their honeymoon, killing a number of kids of any nationality, capturing a ship with lots of weapons, etc.) and the public will get all huffy and we'll take a harder line.

[Uncle Cracker]

And why risk a cute young couple? Or why wait for the public to get huffy? (I already am.) And certainly why wait until these thugs capture more weapons? There is adequate motivation now. And now is when we should go get the job done, before others see that they're getting away with it, and decide to join the fun, in Somalia or elsewhere. My Seal team mention was simply to illustrate how easy this would be to take care of (at least, for the moment), rather than to suggest that as a primary course of action.

[os1kne]

I agree that the pirates should be removed from the planet, but I don't think that the U.S. military should do the job. I'm a big fan of the U.S. military, but in many instances over the past few decades our miliary has been somewhat of a police force for the planet - at great cost. In most cases our help is not wanted, or appreciated by the local people and our involvement causes increased hatred of America.

I'm sure that a number of our military units could quickly and efficiently put an end to the bulk of the sea piracy on the planet, but I don't think that is what our military is for. If the piracy is happening off our coast, then our military should handle it. Military forces from a number of other nations could also handle the problem. If our allies request help, then we should help if we are able.

I think that the security of the cargo ships is the responsibility of the owners/operators of the ships. If they need to mount a few machine guns and have some RPGs or even a helicopter gunship to protect their cargo, so be it. When a few pirates get sunk, the attacks will dramatically slow down. The pirates don't want to sink the cargo ships because they'd lose the cargo - they attack the cargo ships because they are easy targets, slow boat with a small, unarmed crew.