Might we suggest a couple of other items that have had some effectiveness in the past? Like a 20mm Oerlikon deck gun with a couple of .50 caliber machine guns and the odd grenade launcher for balance? Just a thought.
Thursday 11 November 2010
Anti-piracy weapons
Might we suggest a couple of other items that have had some effectiveness in the past? Like a 20mm Oerlikon deck gun with a couple of .50 caliber machine guns and the odd grenade launcher for balance? Just a thought.
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5 comments:
I could see the RPV being useful, if it was used to direct fire from, say, an OTO- Melara 76mm.
The remote controlled boat, by comparison, looks more like a way of making the pirates a present of an M240 with a full ammo locker, once they figure out which radio frequency range to jam.
As for the laser "dazzlers", rifle and mounted persuasions, they would be more interesting and useful if they got rid of the rapid-shifting "dazzle" widgetry and just concentrated on putting out a beam capable of burning through things at 500 meters or so. Things like pirate boats' gas tanks, for instance.
/just a thought
cheers
eon
Why the "High Tech" solutions? As a Mathematician I am used to reducing any problem to one already solved.
Navy hunts down Pirate.
Pirate given "suspended" sentence (at nearest convenient yardarm) or secured at low tide and collected after high tide (how good are they at holding their breath?)
Simples!
Of course that requires a Navy with the spirit of Nelson, Cochrane or Fisher.
Anonymous the Mathematician: modern pirates, unlike their colleagues in the Age of Sail, can range far from their home ports, and strike quickly. Navies tend to be large and slow things, giving the pirates plenty of warning to retreat inland. (Unless they're the crew of geniuses that decided to take on that Dutch warship a few months ago.) I'd say that a few machine guns on merchant ships that go through dangerous waters, might not be a bad idea. I assume that the most vegetarian pacifist won't hesitate to pull the trigger when he's got a boat-load of armed brigands bearing down on him.
Actually, I think you're all right. What we need is a two-pronged approach:
Arm (as in deck guns) enough merchant ships and supplement their crew with ex-special forces men that piracy becomes a high-overhead job with a low life expectancy.
Meanwhile, the Allied navies issue instructions (whether the Somali government likes it or not) that all fishing and commercial vessels are to be moved to safe ports under Allied control where IFF transponders will be fitted. Any vessel not so fitted or that strays out of designated sea lanes or safe fishing zones will be regarded as hostile and sunk. Any pirates who take hostages and do not immediately surrender on command will face a military tribunal and a mandatory death penalty. Pirates who murder hostages will face summary execution at the commanding officer's discretion. There is legal precedent for this and is covered under the Geneva Conventions.
Finally, the Allies will give notice to all pirate bases that they have 24 hours to evacuate women and children, then the bases will be blasted off the face of the Earth. Any future base identified will be destroyed without warning.
It worked before.
David;
It always works. When you look back through history, starting with the Cilician pirates who were thoroughly stomped by the Romans under Julius Caesar and his general, Pompey, the pattern is always the same.
Namely, that pirates are drawn to areas of high-volume maritime commerce. They run high, wide, and handsome there- until they piss off a major naval power to the point that it drops the hammer on them.
The only difference this time is that so far, however seriously the navies are taking piracy, they can't convince their governments that it's a serious enough problem to let them take the gloves off.
I am afraid it will take ships actually lost, and crews and passengers actually killed, for that to happen. And with our present "leaders", maybe not even then.
cheers (sort of)
eon
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