Hi Yall...
I have a Question for those of you that know something about modern Warships...
from a "modern destroyer and general warship noob"
Here goes.
In the golf of aden, off the somali coast, Modern warships that cost 10s od millions of Dollars and Euroes are safeguarding shipping lanes, not much unlie back in WWII... hopping from hotspot to hotspot distress call to distress call.
Their enemies are small Boats, between 10 feet and up to 50 feet long from what i gather. Manned with kalashnikov wielding RPG swinging Pistols Bracing men... threatning tankers and cargoes...
Now i find that, as is normal, quite distrurbing.
What i (pretend to) know
But these Destroyers all have one single large
Cannon up front, a single or two AA guns, anti-missile-missiles, anti ship missiles and cruise missiles and such.
The Large Cannons seem to be similar in caliber to those carried on old WWII destroyers. Okay, they have been upgraded in electronics, motorics and Ammunition and are WAY more accurate, destructive and fast firing nowadays.
Sailors and boarding commandoes aboard are probably armed with
7.62mm Machione pistols, Pistols, and maybe even some long range (sniper) rifles?
The
Helicopters they carry (Sea lynx, SH60...) are armed with Torpedoes or anti ship Missiles (Lolz
) and machineguns of up to .50 inch calibers in the doors...
The question that arises...
How the Blue funk do they chase down the pirates?
turning a DD to hunt the
is timeconsuming, and there are too few DDs around the zone to do so.
Deploying the Choppers, armed with machineguns, puts the choppers in range of small caliber fire and the odd bazooka. God beware if the ragheads ever lay their hands on a bunch of IR guided Missiles
a la stinger?!!
and if wou find one or two of their boats or mother ships,
how do you destroy these things asap if you cannot go near them with the chopper, and your DD is 25 miles away?
all you can do is track them and attempt to discourage them from acting by showing the flag?
would smaller, but faster Warships with more Firepower instead of large modern DDs not be more effective to do the Job?
I am thinking of tracked Miniguns on the DDs, two or more cannons of large caliber, Helicopters with guided missiles and Rocket pods...
something more "down to earth"... something "lots of guns in your face"
Forgive me for the heap of questions... but it is, to me, an interesting subject, and i would like learn a bit more about how the "war against pirates" is fought...