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| Africa: Horn |
| 'Mother ship' behind pirate raids |
| 2005-11-11 |
| Okay. Who called it? Pirate attacks off Somalia's coast are being organised from command vessels, or "mother ships", the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has said. It says speedboats are being launched from ships that prowl the routes of the Indian Ocean, searching for targets. Last week, a luxury cruise liner off Somalia's coast was attacked by pirates with rocket-propelled grenades. The IMB says pirates are still holding seven ships and their crews, seized in the world's most dangerous waters. In the past few days, at least four other vessels are reported to have been attacked. Captain Pottengal Mukundan, director of the IMB, says pirate attacks are being launched from at least two "mother ships". Real simple solution to that... Capt Mukundan says speedboats carry out the attempted hijacks before returning to the larger vessels floating at sea. This means even ships sailing far off the coast are vulnerable to attack. He says the situation off the coast of Somalia appears to be completely out of control. Ya don't say? The IMB has recorded more than 30 hijack attempts in the region since March. These latest attacks follow a thwarted attempt by pirates in small boats to commandeer the luxury liner, the Seabourn Spirit, which was steaming some 100 miles (160km) off the Somali coast last week. But the liner's crew took evasive action, repelling the attackers without returning fire. Might be time to return fire, perhaps? |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #4 The solution is ridiculously simple. Take a page from our nuclear submarine force. Whenever our subs surface, they look for an "all's well" signal from home. If such reassurance is not forthcoming within a certain time window they proceed with launch sequence authentification. All large passenger transports and commercial ocean-going vessels, especially LNG and oil supertankers, should be required to have GPS transceivers that are piggy-backed with an "all's well" code transmission device. The system must be cycled at least once each day. Make it a mandatory criteria for obtaining insurance on the vessel. To prevent pirates or terrorists from catching on, a "false positive" code could make the ship's transceiver console go "green" despite a distress code having been transmitted in actuality. That way, a ship's crew could seem to comply with a captor's demand that they enter the right code and yet still summon help. Only senior crew members would possess the codes and a "canary" system would ensure traceability to whichever given individual entered daily clearance notifications or distress responses. Cost? Perhaps a one-time $1,000 charge per ship (at worst per year), including crew training and financing of a global monitoring center. This represents a tiny fraction of any seaworthy craft's commercial value. Any questions? Next problem, please. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2005-11-11 23:42 |
| #3 Or a P3C out of Deigo Garcia with a couple of AGM-84's. Wide area Search AND Destroy, all on 1 platform. Good response time too. |
| Posted by: Dave 2005-11-11 21:13 |
| #2 Two things needed: 1. A converted merchie "Q-ship" with some concealed 25mm or 40mm guns to patrol the sealanes. 2. A 688-boat to go after the mother ships. |
| Posted by: Mike 2005-11-11 19:13 |
| #1 al-Qaeda connection to be announced in 10...9...8... |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-11-11 16:03 |