Somali Pirates Seize Cargo Ship With 24 Aboard

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

Seems counter intuitive that by not engaging an enemy army directly that they are forcing me to fight on his terms.

I could see a strategy utilizing a major force in such a way, but it would only result in a prolonged war of attrition. A war of attrition against a faster lighter force that can pick and chose its battles is not feasible.


Well then it comes back to flexibility and forcing the enemy to guard against anything again. IF its defended against an attack on the ground then attack from the air, if its defended against air attack then use TBMs, if it has defenses against that jam them. Either the enemy siphons forces to defend those sites against anything or it bunches its C4 with other rear units making more inciting to attack as it would cause more damage.



A light division doesn't mean it does not have firepower, it means it not mounted on heavy armored vehicles. The HIMARS rocket artillery is mounted on a 5 ton unarmored truck, the M1128 features a 105mm gun capable of enraging enemy armor but is mounted on an wheeled APC. There are missile like the 9M133 Kornet that out range a tank gun (the 9M123 has even more range).

The trick is to have a combat force with the greatest verity of the most powerful weapons on the fastest platforms in every unit.


The whole point is that it would not fight in the open. It would fight in skirmishes of its own choosing depleting the enemy that way.


Well the US and CTF-151 can't be everywhere. Local navies and coast guards are necessary to conduct counter piracy operations. Not every navy around there can afford clearly marked ships with well trained multilingual signalmen.

This is the best some of these navies have to use:

to secure the region

[Gerald]

Somali pirates are reported to have received a total of $15m (£9m) in ransom money to release two ships.

They are believed to have been paid a record $9m (£5.6m) for Samho Dream, a South Korean oil tanker, and $7m (£4.3m) for the Golden Blessing, a Singaporean flagged ship.

"We are now counting our cash," a pirate who gave his name as Hussein told Reuters news agency. "Soon we shall get down from the ship."

The ships' release was not confirmed.

The Samho Dream supertanker was hijacked in the Indian Ocean in April and its crew of five South Koreans and 19 Filipinos were taken hostage. It was carrying crude oil from Iraq to the US.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11704306

Note:6 November 2010 Last updated at 14:54 GMT