Posted on 04/14/2009 9:24:15 AM PDT by jay1949
During World War II, my father was a U. S. Navy Signalman assigned to an outfit named the Armed Guard, whose purpose was to protect and assist the merchant shipping which was vital to the war effort. The Armed Guard was effective in many cases in protecting merchant ships against the Nazi privateers. If the Somali pirates want a war, here's a way to combat them.
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...armed with rocket launchers, I would hope.
> ...armed with rocket launchers, I would hope.
Flamethrowers, “Most Secret”-style.
Those were on US flagged ships though. I can’t see our troops being deployed to Liberian or other nations flagged vessels, can you?
I would imagine, thay are on there own. It should be up to each country or shipper to protect their own ships.
Not our problem. The Barbary Pirates did not cease being pirates when we attacked them, they just ceased attacking us. I suspect that we would see a rise in U.S. flagged vessels if that was our course of action.
U.S. flagged ships for starters; but it would be in our best interests, I think, to protect certain other vessels carrying goods to U.S. ports. Or perhaps others will follow our example (novel idea, that).
Why not issue our own letters of mark & reprisal? Then we could stimulate our own economy by having American Privateers blast the bastids!
I think Gatling guns would be particularly effective against the inflatable boats often used by the pirates.
I agree that the only realy way to deal with force of arms is with force of arms, but armaments on commercial ships runs into trouble with international laws. I’m sure we can count on the UN to be it’s usual self-serving useless self in this matter.
The Somali pirates rely on fast, small boats to catch and board merchant ships and count on a lack of resistance; the discouraging effects of, say, a modern Gatling gun would be considerable.
A little fancy for the job, but it's self-contained and automatic.
That would be a very good thing.
Yes, and the French have already started. I do hope this is the beginning of a trend. If so, perhaps it will filter over to others.
The CORRECT technique for dealing with Somalian piracy - is to DESTROY the Somalians responsible for the piracy, by ANY and EVERY means possible.
Now is a great opportunity to create a private force, that will act as an escort for these ship. Any takers? Here are the requirements for the new company I am starting.
1) Must be able to take a seagull down in flight at 1200 yards with weapon of your choice.
2) Must be able to go into full combat with Guns and Roses “Welcome to the Jungle” blairing on loud speakers.
3) We take no prisoners.
4) Must be able to stomach horrible USO shows that I will fly in once a month for morale building.
5) Must be up for high adventure and low pay.
The shippers need to arm their crews. Problem solved.
I dunno - throw in the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders and yer on. BTT.
I miss the day when “Piracy” was some snot-nosed kid trying to get an illegal copy of Halo in his mother’s basement.
Someone was suggesting chartering large cruise vessels full of armed people, where the deal is if you’re lucky, you’ll get to shoot up a pirate ship full of vermin. Sort of like those whale-watching cruises.
Say no more, I've got just the guys.
To combat piracy, revive Q ships, jeep carriers and pocket battleships [or the IOWAS].
I would imagine that would be up to the shippers, their country of registration and the ports they pull in to.
fighting fire with fire, eh?
Dude, I am in.
Although I am better at 50 yards with a .45 :)
Appitite for Destruction is on my “Range Practice” play list.
Prisoners? Who needs them. Kill ‘em all, let God sort ‘em out.
My Dad tried to convince me for years that I should go into the FBI or another ABC group...then I discovered boys and makeup. Fortunately for me, my darling husband has no problem with me beating him at bullseye league every weekend. :)
The twenty first century solution is to provide sufficient numbers of CIA type drones to patrol Somalia’s shores monitoring native boat traffic. All boats obviously armed or not fishing would be taken out by the onboard Hellfire missles they carry. Costs would be paid by shipping companies with costs diminishing, in my estimation, rather rapidly.
While I think it behooves all nations who use ships to transport goods to arm their own ships, I think the US should encourage them to do so and give them tips on how to train the crews.
US ships should all be armed and have crews, even if they are a separate Armed Guard as this article suggests, that are trained in the use of the weapons.
I think you will run afoul of the law with the sea gull test, aren’t they protected:). However, if you ran the test in open waters you would probably ok. When you say weapon of my choice for taking down the gull, do you include a .30 MM gatling loaded with buckshot?
A fifty caliber machine gun or 25mm chain gun on both ends of a ship would certainly be a deterrent. You need long range firepower to hit the pirates before they get within RPG range.
Don't forget Filipino rock bands.
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