The USS Nicholas, a guided missile frigate, was tracking the pirates when they opened fire early Thursday in Indian Ocean waters, the U.S. military said. The Nicholas returned fire and disabled the skiff.
Navy personnel later boarded and detained three suspects. The Americans found two more bandits on a nearby mothership and later sank the skiff. It was not the first attack against a Navy ship, but it underscored the fact that most pirates aren't terribly sophisticated, said a piracy expert at the British think tank Chatham House.