EDITOR’S NOTE: Our boy Joe Buff went a little crazy on his latest post, forwarding me a 1700 word essay about the evolving piracy threat, the shipping industry’s response and the geopolitics of marauding banditry.
So what I did is post it to a Military.com news page and break it into two digestable parts. I’ll crop a little teaser here, but be sure to read the rest of part one after the excerpt…
Is King Neptune trying to mock the multinational counter-piracy mission of Combined Task Force 151 off the Horn of Africa? Just a couple of days before November 20’s festivities in Norfolk, VA, where M/V Maersk Alabama’s Captain Phillips thanked the skipper and crew of USS Bainbridge (DDG-98) for his life-and-death rescue from Somali pirates back in April, another band of Somali pirates attacked M/V Maersk Alabama again. Only this time, following the latest recommended shipping industry best practices, a private security detail was aboard. They drove the pirates off after a brief firefight and non-lethal noise projector barrage at 300 yards range; there were no reported injuries.
But behind these two different types of American operational successes lies a more troubling picture. In response to outside pressures, pirate mission planning and implementation have gotten more ambitious and sophisticated during 2009, especially since the summer monsoons died down. According to London’s International Maritime Bureau, although a smaller percentage of hijacking raids have succeeded this year relative to 2008 — 11% compared to 17% — a larger number of attacks have occurred, 359 so far this year compared to 293 total last year. The types of ships attacked and sometimes hijacked run the gamut from oil tankers, coal carriers, container ships, and bulk cargo ships, to fishing boats and private yachts. While published estimates vary, right now Somali pirates hold captive about one dozen vessels, anchored in shallow water, and almost 300 crewmembers, most held aboard in horrendous living conditions.
– Joe Buff
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
Should be fairly easy to retrofit all ships with fore and aft M2 .50 cal mounts. Probably a large quantity of experienced operators willing to get paid a good salary to man them too.
Good Morning Folks,
I see Joe is working on another novel. Pyracy in Somalia or such. The truth is once the pyrates hit the water anti-pyracy has lost the game. I find it amusing that we the world trading nations are bothering with a bunch of drug hopped teenagers with PRG’s and ancient AK’47 in old fishing boats.
First off the arming of merchant sailors or putting “Blackwater” types on merchant ship is to expensive, also there is the possibility of mutiny and the pyrates would know which ships are armed anyway from there sources in Yemen and which are not.
The idea that these guys could locate, find shipping routs and schedules, find out who has the money and which ships are ripe to take on their own is the height of absurdity.
Where is the money coming from to buy satellite phones?
Who is organizing pyrate bands, these teenagers don’t have that level of management ability?
Who is negotiating the ransoms?
Who are the bag men?
It would appear that the pyrates are getting more efficient. The problems with the USN and other navies it just doesn’t make sense to use $ billion vessels with millions of dollars a day in operating expenses to chase down. The average ransom is like $2-5 million bucks or less the a weeks operation overhead for a $1.8 billion DD-51.
It has already been established that there is a London-Madrid-Yemen connection, and it is Yemen that the Bosses lay out and plan the missions.
ALLONS,
Byron Skinner
Piracy in modern times as well as ancient times all depends on scouting out the harbors and getting to know shipping patterns as well as having inside information.
They are not the typical western teens and tweens. They are hardened and are sailors and soldiers that live in a highly precarious part of the world – they are not so dumb and have grown up fast.
The corruption endemic to their part of the world is now cancerous in the West.
How much does it cost to buy off warlord to go bother the other corporation's ships? and surprise! The pirates took money already from the other corp to hit yours as well. The pirates know you have no way other than normal politico channels or means to get revenge.
I doubt that they are non state agents and independent. They have to spend their haul on shore. That makes governments complicit.
Saw a special on pirates the other day. The people who's villages are used dont get crap. These arent downtroden people fighting for rights. These are criminals, crooks, rapist and increasingly islamic thugs.
This is what well get if we give in to the demands of terrorist. More and more of them.
I don't see how arming a merchant ship and her sailors is too expensive. A small arms locker would go a long way in deterring an attack and can be had at a minimal expense. The real problem here is the ports of call residing in countries that have banned private firearm ownership. Perhaps an exception needs to be made for these crews.
Id add M2 50 cal with prior poster & gun lockers hidden about ship & have crews carry undercover sidearms when in known pirate waters.
Have a silent GQ.
Then Id have some 20mm cannon mounted for backup.
Guns would be semis with 20 rd plus magazines.
Uzis, Mac 10, TEC 9, Sterling SMG, type subguns.
Even updated WW2 guns Id house if crew wanted to bring some aboard.
The fact is that shipping companies have always known that paying ransom is the easiest and least expensive option. Nothing is going to change.
The truth is this will continue until it is no long generating funds for the bad guys. The blackwater guys are expensive but you have hundreds of guys who are trained in doing just this type of mission. Every navy ship has security teams and every month these folks get out of the military and take this training with them. Two 4 man teams with side arms M4's, 870's and a few M14's with scopes, and the usual 50's and guess what now you have a trained deterrent team; Fast, mobile, trained, and very capable. these folks would be cheap than the gun bunnies of blackwater even if they are paid $1000 ad that is still cheaper than some spec op guy who's now a well paid merc. There are a lot of folks out there that very well trained but where never spec op types. Through a medic/corpsman in the mix and you'll have a solid unit package.
This is just my opinion i could be wrong.
Why can't we just wait until they are doing the money transfer on land and just bomb them then? As for arming ships. Yes do it. Give them fixed weapons mounted on the fore and aft sections akin to what we did during both World Wars. Or even better, lets send some "commercial vessels" into the area and when the pirates attack, pop down the sides on a few containers and waste them. Lets bring back the Q ship! We also should get some type of Patrol boat. Light, fast, heavily armed. We should also arm our UAVs out there. I'm pretty sure a Hellfire can hit a small skiff without much problem. Then we don't have to worry about them asking us to release their buddies next time. Start killing them and fear will begin to take a toll.
A real concern is that as merchant ships arm themselves more for defense, the pyrates will not be deterred but will up-arm themselves for more aggressive attacks that they press home in order to capture their lucrative prizes. The teenage assault-squad pyrate operators are not suicide attackers but within Somali culture they are trying to prove their manhood to each other, show their loyalty to their clan leaders/commanders, and are seeking to lift their extended families out of abject poverty and squalor — all of which demand that sacrifices be made. Things could escalate and get very bloody and expensive all around.
Remember that during the "Tanker War" in the Persian Gulf in the 1980s, where the U.S. Navy protected (or tried to protect) strategic oil tanker traffic from RPG attack by Iranian small/fast boat swarms, many ships were badly damaged and some 550 merchant sailors were killed. In addition, in protecting the shipping, the U.S. Navy suffered warships hit by mines and air to surface missiles, and also in the confusion of a gunboat swarm attack on a USN cruiser, an Iranian civilian airline got shot down with high loss of life and horrendous geopolitical negative publicity etc. Do we want to gradually slip into that sort of a mess again?
It is simple. Pirates will pick the easiest, richest targets. How many attacks on US ships have taken place? One? And it ended with pirates getting shot in the head by Marine snipers. Since then, there have been one or two attempted attacks on US ships, but that's it. The pirates learned not to attack US ships.
There is no "us" here. "We" can't do anything about pirates, because you're defining the conflict as the pirates versus the rest of the world. The pirates will continue to attack ships of countries that will pay ransom, and they will continue to avoid countries that respond with force. I don't see how it is a problem for the United States. If countries aren't willing to protect their own ships, then this happens.
Comment by Brian is very well put… Let's take care of our own.. If the others choose to pay ransom, then so be it.. Arming a merchant ship is not a big deal, and trained men are available to do the fighting.. Hell of a lot cheaper than paying ransom and teeners or not, they cannot begin to have the training available to our folks…
Who are "our own?" These ships are owned in one country, registered in another, and crewed by sailors from several more yet.
My understanding is that pirates have been avoided ships registered in the US. Good enough for me.
Pirates pick soft targets.that's why they're pirates….
Ever heard of a pirate robbing a bank? No…..
And no Virginia, there is no Santa Claus, Psalm 34, 36…….
Though, there are VFW members that are still wondering why the National Anthem is considered to be hated by GOD….
I'd be careful what and who's backing what, because notoriously backing America's enemies is getting to be a very, very good temptation for the "evildoers." And, not having the right information, well, you might be declaring more than humbling America's enemies.
Remembering Fort Hood is getting to be like Remembering the Alamo….
How about a secure "battle bridge" with quarters that the crew can run the ship from if they are attacked?
If you can't get to my crew and they are safe, and I control where the ship goes and how we get there, you're going to be in a bad way when my ship rendezvous with either a friendly armed merchant ship or warship.
Good Morning Folks,
I see the sillies have got into this discussion which is a strong indicator of lack of any real interest in the topic, maybe Joe and Christian you should give Pyracy off Somalia a rest.
Before you do though, I will suggest something that has been over looked in dealing with these Pyrates, and that is changing the laws of the sea. As the law stands the only time a Pyrates can be taken into custody is if they are caught in the act. If they haven’t started boarding a ship simply by chucking their weapons over the side they are safe. If the Pyrates have already have started the boarding process then it’s most likely to late to engage them with out putting the boarded ships crew at risk.
If the laws of the sea were changed and exclusive uses shipping lanes were created for merchant vessels, where fishing boats, private yachts, and other non merchant ships would be prohibited from entering. These lanes could be made narrow enough to be patrolled efficiently by the worlds militaries. Any non merchantmen in one of these lanes could be boarded and the crews taken into custody and their vessels confiscated.
This idea lacks the drama, noise, weapons and all the romance of dealing with Pyracy, but it might start to deal with the problem. Right now it’s nothing more then a stand between $ billion war ships with millions of dollars a week in operating cost and a few drugged teenagers with small arms and a hand full of ready for the junk yard fishing boats.
ALLONS,
Byron Skinner
It is a surprise that those pirates caught could not be charge as there are not international law governing it.
Those navies patrolling the area should just sink them or blow them out of the water as soon as they can confirm that they are pirates.
They should not be allowed to go scot free and no point in handling them back to Somali government as they will be back to business as usual the next day.
What Somali government?