This really is getting out of hand, No sooner have they docked their captured supertanker... they go out again & seize another ship

Actually I get the impression that the german navy has chnaged it's procedure, there have been several news from the past three days that they have taken operations more actively in recent times, sending a helicopter after ships that send a distress call. To what degree they were armed and were authorized to engage with weapons, I do not know. So far the ROEs had been to simply observe events, but not to act. Maybe they have been changed. If so, I would like to know what the ROEs are now.

The French organise convoys since quite some time, but it is too few such convoys. French and British sailors and ships have opened fire at pirates in the past days and weeks. The result seem to be that the number of speedboats attacking a target ship has increased - they now come in swarms of up to 8-12 . they were also decribed to operate in such numbers now that the navy loses track of them in the meaning of not having enough ressources to target them all, and that operaiton area is huge. Which is another argument imo to engage them not on sea, but on land.

Missile-armed drones that can patrol the sky for as long as they have weapons or up to - how long? 24, 36 hours? also is a good option. you see a speedboat - you hit it the moment you see it from out of the blue. Should affect their moral, I guess.

Flying drones seem to be the future anyway.

Private enterprise to the rescue:

http://hamptonroads.com/2008/10/blac...somali-pirates

I liked the part about the "former Navy SEALs" -- that would make a rather quick, one-sided action flick! A cheaper alternative would be, as any SH3 player can guess: armed merchants.

Intresting article on the situation.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/bsp...e#contentSwap2

Go India.

INS Tabar has sunk a mothership....

:up:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7736885.stm

You have to love how they threatened to destroy a warship that had guns trained on them. Idiots.

PD

i think proceeding to air strikes this isn't a viable solution why cause soon or later a bomb'll hit a house full of women and children and a reporters group'll manage to get there in a clandestine way to film the scene to put it on our screens and to scandalize us . i think maybe a solution should be to make more air patrols

Some companies hire British ex navy officers who travel down there by regular air traffic and board the ships without firearms, but bring one of these new sound cannons with them that can pass international borders if deconstructed. It then gets rebuild aboard the ship. source: Some BBC reports from the past two days.

I do not like these sound cannons, for they do nothing to fight the cause of the problem, and let's the attackers escape. I do not wish to let them escape and needing to fight them again and again on other days.

I also do not like the idea of armed Blackwater guards on civilian ships, it puts the merchant crew at risk if there is a firefight, not to mention the ship itself (one RPG going into the bridge, and go figure). Also the reputation of these mercenary companies is somewhat ruined after Iraq and too many complaints there are of these guys being undisciplined trigger-happys (proved in Iraq). War is no business for private enterprise, this is a serious distortion. europe has struggled for long time to get rid of these mercebnary armies we had in earlier times, and replace them with regular standing armies "owned" by a nation'S king.

or to create escorts i mean find a viable joint point in the indian ocean where ships could joint their escorts Diego garcia maybe

and how long should it go like this? It again does nothing to reduce the number of pirates. Piracy itself needs to be battled - not just arranging ourselves with the situation. Hell, they have a constuction boom along the coast! Piracy has turned into a job-motor, one news said today. Tolerance will not get us anywhere else than increasing the problem, and widening their action zone. They already buy better ships and weapons. Sooner or later they get missiles and SAMs, both on sea and on land - and then your tolerance has led you to increasing the drama in africa, and the navy having to deal with an even greater risk.

Let'S shatter them now, while they still are a relatively small opponent. Why waiting until they became a more potent one? The Sirius Star really escalated things and should be understood as a wakeup call, really.

Couldn't agree more. Well said. :yep: Let's take the gloves off and send a clear message to these thugs that they have bitten off more than they can chew. :arrgh!:

You don't see this matter as I see. First of all keep your "John Rambo", "John McCain", "Chuck Norris" idols, "haaaa! I will send my frigate, my planes, my warships and everything in my arsenal" dreams and gun magazine with big boobs women aside.

Look, first they stole tanks. Now in order to fuel those tanks, they stole a tanker. Now they have two elements but they are lacking munation. For this, they will attack on a military vessel sooner or later....and so on

I say they are creating a stolen army.

They need to steal a refinery first.

create escorts from Diego garcia with for example two departures one at 8h00 and one at 18h00 these guys have nothing but wood barcasses you don't need Moscow like cruisers to provide the protection you take the main navies US , England , France , Germany and the Aussie navy and you're done . Somalian have nothing in their country if you withdraw them what feeds them soon or later they'll have to go back to a peaceful society . Piracy are their only way to buy weapons . The problem won't be sold if they haven't a government and that can be done by the somalian people only