Severomorsk has left the red sea and is now operating in the Gulf of Aden and off the Somali coast as part of the CTF150 task group which is currently being led by the Germans.
During the morning of the 4th February we received a call from a Panamanian flagged container ship Baltic star who was being attacked by Somali pirates.
Baltic star was over 40 miles away so we kicked our engines up to flank speed to close the distance as well as put the helicopters in the air.
What was happening was truly shocking and something not seen before this was a coordinated attack by not 1 or 2 skiffs but 5!
Both KA27 helicopters carried KH-35 Uran missiles so they are well armed to deal with the situation, upon overflying the pirates one helicopter was shot at and damaged.
The KA27 immediately returned fire sinking the vessel with its Uran missile before training on another and firing on that one too.
While you may have thought the pirates wanted to escape they kept attacking the container ship meaning to board it, this would have made getting them captured harder if we had to send the special forces onto the ship.
I ordered the second KA27 to engage both Uran missiles were fired sinking 2 more skiffs, with one remaining skiff left it had decided enough was enough and headed back towards the Somali coast, and right into the path of the Severomorsk.
Unwittingly the Skiff tried to out run us and cut us off however our 7,500ton destroyer does not exactly stop on a dime, and we accidently made contact with the skiff causing it to take on water.
We reversed engines and backed away before sending over an armed boarding party to arrest the survivors.
Both helos were on station above the container ship, once we had arrested the skiff crew we proceeded to check out the container ship which thanked us for our assistance, she was damaged but able to make her own way to clear waters.
The Severomorsk is now heading back to the scene of the other skiffs to find survivors and we have recalled the helicopters.