Thread: Best response to Somali piracy?

Originally Posted by reasonmclucus

The U.N., or shipping nations, could require that all craft in shipping lanes have running lights and some type of transponder such as aircraft carry. Any craft without lights or transponders could be sunk without warning.

What does the UN have to do with the situation? Involving them will only mean no action taken against a threat that should be eliminated.

Originally Posted by reasonmclucus

U.S Navy SEALS should be given the opportunity to practice their skills, although possibly in a way that wouldn't indicate obvious sabotage. For example, they might attempt to contaminate fuel or drill holes in boats. Setting what would appear as accidental fires could reduce the ability of pirates to operate.

Subterfuge? Do you really think that will be a deterrent? A strong message needs to be sent to these criminals that their actions will not be tolerated.

Originally Posted by reasonmclucus

Increased water (surface and submarine) and air (including UAVs) patrols should be part of the response, but they should be combined with countries placing armed marines or soldiers on ships carrying their flags. An old WWII tactic for dealing with submarines might be helpful. Decoy ships could be used to attract hijackers to be captured or killed......

Maybe......or maybe not.

History tends to show that "Q-ships" were marginally successful in World War One and practically useless in WW II. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q-ship
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("You guys are like my Q!.....I mean from James Bond, not Star Trek."--Buffy to Giles and Xander, (w,stte), "BtVs")

William, The above point to good thoughts no doubt but would you not agree that by doing this we would be just as bad as Iran with Hamas, Hezbollah and all the others? That is not to say the ideas dont have good intentions.

Dreadnought,

There is plenty of precedent for bringing some of the bad guys over to our side.

To name a few: Baratarian Pirates were of assistance to then Col. Jackson at New Orleans, there were Kit Carson scouts in Vietnam, former Iraqi Insurgents have been in the U.S. employ, etc., etc. and it was all considered well and good.

Some of Somali pirates are no doubt capable of being rehabilitated into instruments suitable to the forwarding of U.S. policy in the region.

There are very likely a few Somali patriots and nationalists among these pirates and perhaps we ought to feel them out. They might be bought out at a reasonable price and put to good use.

Possible scenarios:

1. In cooperation with whoever we choose to recognize for government in Somalia, some of these pirates might be mustered into some sort of nascent Somali Coast Guard type of formation to aid in starting to restore order to the area and combat some of the problems in those waters.

2. Al Qaeda and other Jihadists have been known to operate in Somalia and neighboring countries. Some of these pirates may be suitable material to act as privateers in the ongoing struggle against terror in the region.

3. Under various and sundry international convention, rehabbed Somali pirates might be useful as corsairs against slave traders.

4. Slightly more outlandish but quite possibly legal: given the state of relations between North Korea and the U.S., there may be some use for the pirates on that front as well. Suppose a Korean merchant loaded with Taepo Dong 2 parts and technicians was headed to Iran. We might legally have some of these pirates sail on over and put the squeeze on them...quietly, of course . I believe that there is precedent for this sort of thing and it is acceptable under various and sundry convention. Think about it: one small boat could cause one big pain in the ass for two Big Pain In the Ass Rouge States.

Just a few thoughts to clarify what I had in mind. Imaginative, arguably, but not without precedent.

I think that a counter piracy strategy of convoy, coop, capture and/or kill would do the trick.

Regards,

William

Originally Posted by Merlin

While longer term efforts are made on land to have a government that can keep security in Somalia, I like the stop gap idea of a convoy system.

If ships are coming down the Red Sea, escorted conveys through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden can be together. After the Horn of Africa, these conveys can be spit according to the directions, say some going East, and some going South. ..

I wrote the above yesterday. I now notice Wall St Journal has the same idea, of convoys.

Convoys Are an Answer to Piracy

Apr 14, 2009 [WSJ] PETER D. ZIMMERMAN
Piracy never really disappeared; it plagues maritime commerce as much today as it did in the Caribbean in the 18th century and on the Barbary Coast in the 19th century. But until recently, modern-day pirates mostly rustled some cargo and let their captives continue, leaving the crew unharmed.

That's changed. Pirates in the waters off Somalia, and from the Gulf of Aden to south of the equator, are no longer simply interested in seizing ships and cargo. Now they are out for the multimillion dollar ransoms paid by ship operators to rescue their crews. They've come up with a good business model, too, with a low cost of entry: a fishing trawler to serve as a mother ship, a few high-speed inflatable boats, weapons and crews to seize their targets. Very few of these thieves have paid for their crimes despite the presence of a small fleet of warships in the region. One way to deal with the threat is to revive convoys.

To be sure, in different circumstances naval patrols have worked. Towards the end of the 20th century, pirates in the Strait of Malacca, which links the Indian and Pacific Oceans, not only captured ships, but crews that resisted were often murdered and their ships renamed and reflagged. Gradually, naval patrols by Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore made life more dangerous for the pirates and safer for mariners. In 2007, the Strait was declared "piracy free." But those patrols were feasible because the Strait is a long, narrow passage never more than 150 miles wide.

Down by the Horn of Africa, however, patrolling one million square miles of ocean with the 60 vessels on station is an impossibility. A radar mounted on the top mast of a destroyer is unlikely to "see" a small rubber boat 25 miles away and can search only about 2,000 square miles -- about one-fifth of 1% -- of the sea in which pirates prowl. The rescue of Captain Richard Phillips by naval Special Forces operating from the USS Bainbridge, and the recent rescue by French commandos of a captured yacht, demonstrate that aggressive maritime policing can thwart pirate goals. But it is far better to prevent attacks in the first place. ...

Thirty thousand ships a year, roughly 100 a day, 50 in each direction, transit the waters off the coast of Somalia. One convoy in each direction, each day, alternating between fast ships and slower ones, and each accompanied by four or five escort vessels, would do the job. There would then be only two targets a day in each area of coast for the pirates to find, instead of 100. When marauders approach a convoy, they could be warned off by the escorts or destroyed if they attack. ....

Mr. Zimmerman is professor emeritus at King's College London and a former chief scientist of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Well, before one goes off and gets all their eggs in one basket, they ought to be aware that the Agulhas Current is a rather infamous region for encountering rogue waves, waves that can appear in an instant and snuff out a decent size tanker before a distress signal can be sent off.

If it's not one thing, it's another.
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("Charlie don't surf!"--Colonel Kilgore, (wtte), "Apocalypse Now")