Comments on: Close Encounters of the Pirate Kind

By: vibram five finger

vibram five finger — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:50:11 +0000

http://www.fivefingeronline.com/

By: MaritimeDog

MaritimeDog — Thu, 14 May 2009 13:28:34 +0000

I believe some of the writers are looking for a solution in one step. How about seperating the wheat from the chaff? If you can remove the legitimate shipping and concentrate on the remainder you have simplified the problem. Yes I agree current navigational radar will not pick up the small pirate boats but there are other options. The idea here is to bring the data that is known to the watchstander on each ship to a central point and to form a larger picture

By: Scathsealgaire

Scathsealgaire — Fri, 01 May 2009 03:31:05 +0000

I used to be a small boat operator of a Survey Ship, for us to even be seen on radar we had to have a radar reflective ball on a pipe sticking up 2.5 metres in the air. With out it no one would have picked us up on radar.
So straight away I see a problem with this Tech.
I made this same post over at “war is boring” and someone noted that the “motherships” would still show up.
But this would still not help in the Gulf of Aden.
I agree this is most likely a marketing ploy.

By: sea_alex

sea_alex — Fri, 01 May 2009 01:23:55 +0000

There is already a system on merchant vessels its called AIS (Automatic Identification System) and its been around for years and required by law. AIS is the ship version of the transponders aircraft use it transmits the ships name, speed, heading and whole bunch of other things the user wants to add. With an AIS unit can you see all the information of vessels in the area it can also be integrated with the ships radar & gps so that instead seeing a return you can have all the information on the radar screen which is quite helpful. The downside anyone can buy an AIS unit and therefore your broadcasting detailed information about your ship to anyone out there. I worked on a ship in pirate area and we decided not to transmit AIS, no sense in darwing more attention to ourselves.
AIS data is also on the web where you watch live ship tracking like here for example http://www.shipais.com/

By: jsallison

jsallison — Fri, 01 May 2009 00:04:59 +0000

Every US-flagged vessel should be implicitly considered to have been granted a letter of marque and effectively an auxiliary cruiser of the USN. Arm the damn merchantmen and this goes away, much more cheaply than some multi-echeloned technobabbleladen ISO9000 compliant TQM passive-agressive BS.

By: maybe_I_Know_something

maybe_I_Know_something — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:38:21 +0000

The key to solving this problem is to stop these guys BEFORE they get close to a merchant ship. You need the right information at the right time and an ability to respond quickly. If these pirates are operating from known ports, then we probably have a good idea how to respond quickly. And if we can really spot these guys from satellites and distinguish them from the good guys we can give some good information EARLY enough to the ‘quick response force’ so they can respond BEFORE any more innocent lives are endangered. This sounds like a good idea to me. Is there any other way to collect this kind of information?

By: Byron Skinner

Byron Skinner — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:34:34 +0000

Good Morning Folks,
I think Spookie Jones goy it right. This is a thinly disguised attempted for Lockheed and the satellite industry to sell goods.
I think that anyone who has look at the proposed QDR will see that this is not the way this problem should be dealt with. Once the pirates are on the water as it was in the 17th. Century they have won. Again I will refer to a book that is being published in May, I have an advanced copy of it and am almost done reading it called “The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates” by Peter T. Leeson should be a must read for all who are attempting to deal with this problem and professor Leeson for George Mason University should be hired as a consultant on this issue.
I have some serious disagreement with prof. Leeson’s assumptions of pirate tactics and their demographics of the 17th. Century, I think he focuses on the exceptions rather then the average to base his arguments, but he could have done it either way and come to his same conclusions, which I can mostly agree with.
It would appear that this problem is the classic case of how “The Six Strategic Principles” that as the basis of the QDR can be applied to dealing with what at first seems to be a purely military problem. Since I think Christian is going to put up a piece on the QDR soon, I won’t go into details but save my comments for that posting.
ALLONS,
Byron Skinner

By: Spookie Jones

Spookie Jones — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:35:23 +0000

Another try by a contractor to re-invent the wheel. Yawn…

By: Scott Drumm

Scott Drumm — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:40:19 +0000

While a better network would be nice, I don’t subscribe to the “techno-fix” theories for solving the age-old threat of piracy on the high seas.
One idea we could resurrect from the past is to commission several Q-ships (see Wikipedia) — These would be vessels which appeared to be merchants but carried concealed armaments and troops to lure pirates in and then smash’em flat.
Also, since the pirates are operating out of known ports, destroying their harbors might make them reconsider the error of their ways.

By: campbell

campbell — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:27:48 +0000

All very nice to know where commercial ships are; but, the problems isn’t THEM. Hello? The problem is pirate boats, of every size, scattered everywhere.
The problem is how to thwart pirate craft. In order to deter them, you have to be in place. As has been said, it’s a big, big ocean out there. Surface ships cannot respond quickly enough, helicopters are faster, but have to deploy from surface ships; airplanes are fast, but can do little to interdict pirate craft. both airplanes and helicopters have fuel/range restrictions.
what is needed, is an aircraft that can fly quickly, and hover like a helicopter, doesn’t need to deploy from a ship, can land on the water with boarding parties in order to inspect/interdict pirate craft, and which has unlimited range and linger ability. at comparatively little cost; and can be fielded now, not years away.
AMPHIBIOUS, FAST, ALL WEATHER, RIGID SHELLED, SOLAR/BIODIESEL POWERED AIRSHIPS.
(not blimps)