Best response to Somali piracy?

**Merlin** · 10 May 09,, 15:07

Originally Posted by Ozarks

The simplest solution is to permit the merchant ships to carry their own defensive weapons. It doesn't take much to defend a large seagoing merchantman against punks in rubber boats. ...

Why, why they do not do it?

Is this the reason?

Ship captain: Just arming crews won't stop piracy

30 Apr WASHINGTON (AP) — The planet's shipping fleet should be protected from deadly pirates by arming senior crew members, or not — depending on who was speaking Thursday to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Maersk Alabama Capt. Richard Phillips or his boss, Maersk Inc. Chairman John P. Clancey.

"It would be my personal preference that a limited number of crew aboard the vessel have access to effective weaponry," Phillips told the panel, his wife and a crew member seated behind him.

But doing that could expose sailors to a tactical escalation in violence - and, Clancey said later, the corporation to liability.

"Arming merchant sailors may result in the acquisition of ever more lethal weapons and tactics by the pirates, a race that merchant sailors cannot win," Maersk Inc. Chairman John P. Clancey said in his prepared remarks.

The captain and corporate chief - shoulder-to-shoulder yet somewhat at odds - illustrated the knotty problem Congress, the shipping industry and foreign governments face as they consider how to crack down on a worrying spike in piracy and its threat to billions of dollars in cargo, military equipment and humanitarian aid. ...

**Officer of Engineers** · 10 May 09,, 15:51

HORSE PUCKEY! Unless you're going to show me that the Somali pirates have access to AShM, then a couple of .308s with guys who knows how to shoot would do them in.

**Ozarks** · 10 May 09,, 17:45

Originally Posted by Officer of Engineers

HORSE PUCKEY! Unless you're going to show me that the Somali pirates have access to AShM, then a couple of .308s with guys who knows how to shoot would do them in.

You are right.

The pirates are very vulnerable at the moment of boarding while they are directly alongside. Crew on the deck of the ship are 'en defilade'. The crew can see them as they come over the rail but they can not see the crew.. An armed man in prone on deck has all the advantage.

What would happen if the world's nations did nothing? How long before crews begin refusing to sign on? How long before insurers began raising rates?

The ship owners have found a way to make us suckers subsidize their liability risks. They are putting the ships and crews in danger> They are encouraging piracy by paying ransom. They are arming the pirates vias the money they give the pirates.

We could start by declaring that anyone who pays ransom is aiding and abetting the crime and shares equal responsibility with the perpetrators. We could declare that ransom is not a legitimate business expense and not tax deductible.

Let them clean up this mess of their own making.

**Grim** · 10 May 09,, 22:19

Any one know how go about defending an LPG or other form of petroleum tanker from pirates? From what I've read it not smart to be discharging firearms on deck of one of those floating roman candles. Is it possible to modified tankers so they can defend themselves? Or do they require an escort to be defended?

**nizawa** · 11 May 09,, 05:36

The best solution against pirates would be a strong, centralized government of Somalia,
this government had a sizable navy to control the coastal region. However, I have no idea
how to establish such a government. Arm the merchant ships cannot solve the problem.
As pirates are mostly armed with AK-47 or RPGs, effctive only 300/400 meters. theoretically
a M-2 Machine gun can out-range them. But at this distance, how do you know that you are not shooting at harmless fishermen?

**roffelskates** · 11 May 09,, 05:50

Putting a 16 inch gun on top of your deck. That's my solution!

Realistically, have them provide their own security, but at the same time have counter-terrorism units converted to counter-piracy to defuse pirate leaders and operations. In the mean time, putting something like a .50 cal on top of a ship is the first step in making sure the pirates don't come back.

I think it's also ridiculous that some people are proposing that the pirates should just take over the cargo ships instead of them defending themselves. We don't surrender, that's not how we roll. Fight to protect you and your crew, if it's just a few dudes between you and freedom? Take it!

**Ironduke** · 11 May 09,, 08:34

However, I have no idea how to establish such a government.

Welcome to the club. Neither does anybody else, including the Somalis.

**Maxor** · 11 May 09,, 18:59

I have a way it just doesn't go over well with most popular opinion. First thing you do is go in and kill all armed resistence you don't work about anyones feelings just if they are armed and threatening they die. Then you import a bunch of your own semi-disaffected populace while exploiting the natives. You keep them armed and keep their decendents very class concious. AFter a couple of centuries of this strong central government called colonization when someone suggests giving them self determination you look at them laugh and go, when you are talking about poor uneducated natives that doesn't work. If we had succesfully eradicated the natives our brotherly people the colinsts would have thrown off the yoke if they were being exploited by us and since they aren't we'll call it a commonwealth.

**Grim** · 13 May 09,, 16:56

I like they way LtCol Bateman lays out a foundation for considering the problem on the SWJ.
http://smallwarsjournal.com/mag/docs...42-bateman.pdf

**BadKharma** · 13 May 09,, 18:10

somali cruises

Interesting spoof website.

**Merlin** · 14 May 09,, 08:15

One can go after this London intelligene hub. But unfortunately London is only one of the hubs.

This is London – the capital of Somali pirates' secret intelligence operation

11 May [Guardian] For the 14 crew aboard the Karagöl, a *Turkish chemical tanker churning through the lawless waters of the Gulf of Aden, it was the moment all seafarers dread: heavily armed Somali pirates were speeding towards the slow-moving cargo vessel, and there was no chance of escape.

The Turkish sailors were swiftly overpowered and the 5,850-ton tanker was diverted to a port in Somalia, where it was held for two months while its owners negotiated a ransom payment. ..

What the crew could not know was that their ship had been singled out as a target by a network of informers based several thousand miles away – in London. Security officials say well-placed informants in the British capital, the world centre of shipbroking and insurance, gather so much detail on targets that, in the case of the Karagöl, they not only knew its layout, route and cargo, but had spent several days practising the assault.

The attack on the Turkish ship was a sign that the pirates have turned a regional phenomenon into a global criminal business that now reaches into the heart of London's shipping community. ....

Speaking by telephone from Istanbul, Dincel said today that London was one of a number of centres the pirates contacted regularly after the tanker had been sailed to the Somali coast and senior gang members had boarded and taken control. "Every day the chief of the pirates got in touch with people from London, Dubai and some from the Yemen," he said. ...

**Merlin** · 19 May 09,, 08:42

This below is about sea piracy at the other busy ocean trade route, at the Straits of Malacca. Perhaps some experience can be gained from this as long as we bear in mind the geo-political environment is different. Click into the link to read more.

Straits of Malacca pirates on the run

19 May KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Pirate gangs in the Straits of Malacca can be "struck down" within the next five years if the current aggressive pace of enforcement is maintained, a senior Malaysian maritime security official told Reuters.

Abdul Rahim Hussein from Malaysia's National Security Council said intelligence and enforcement cooperation between the littoral states of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore is now "at a new peak", which has led to a marked decline in piracy incidents.

Abdul Rahim, undersecretary of maritime security policy, said there had been no incidents in the Straits this year, a marked drop from 2004 which recorded 38 piracy attacks in the shipping channel that carries a quarter of the world's traded goods.

The three littoral states have aggressively increased patrols and cooperation since July 2005. ...

The 1998 Asian financial crisis and a separatist struggle in the Indonesian province of Aceh resulted in major hardships and displacement of people in the region, contributing factors fuelling the rise of piracy incidents in the Straits, said Rahim. ...

Most of the acts of piracy in the Straits [recently] consist of petty theft where fishermen are robbed of their nets and outboard motors, Rahim said, and the possibility piracy could be used by regional terror groups such as Jemaah Islamiah (JI) or separatists like Abu Sayyaf "is negligible". ...

**DPrime** · 20 May 09,, 12:42

Originally Posted by Officer of Engineers

HORSE PUCKEY! Unless you're going to show me that the Somali pirates have access to AShM, then a couple of .308s with guys who knows how to shoot would do them in.

Sir, I think you're right, in most cases anyway. I'm tending now to question how committed some of these pirates are. Considering how much traffic is in the area, I would think that even a moderate amount of resistance would probably convince them to back off and choose an easier target.

Only problem, though, is that some (not sure how many at the moment) countries don't allow ships with armed crew to dock at their ports.

**USSWisconsin** · 22 May 09,, 15:09

the 0.50 M2 seems to be the best fit for the threat, a small patrol boat with a diesel engine, modern communications and navigation aides and a couple fifities, as an escort, sort of like a WWII fighter, a mother ship could be used to support them, in the same way escort carriers were used in WWII. Perhaps the mothership would have a couple SuperCobra's in case the pirates decided to do something big to defeat an escort. Nothing is free, the ships transiting the area would need to pay a fee for escort. But escorts like this would be an economical alternative to frigates

**Native** · 22 May 09,, 20:40

Originally Posted by USSWisconsin

the 0.50 M2 seems to be the best fit for the threat, a small patrol boat with a diesel engine, modern communications and navigation aides and a couple fifities, as an escort, sort of like a WWII fighter, a mother ship could be used to support them, in the same way escort carriers were used in WWII. Perhaps the mothership would have a couple SuperCobra's in case the pirates decided to do something big to defeat an escort. Nothing is free, the ships transiting the area would need to pay a fee for escort. But escorts like this would be an economical alternative to frigates

I'm in, i'll be your SIO.