Posted on 04/15/2009 12:12:08 PM PDT by Onelifetogive
The solution to the world's pirate problem may be made in Mobile.
The dramatic showdown between the U.S. Navy and a group of Somalian pirates ended badly for the buccaneers, but military experts say it also demonstrated that the Navy is ill-equipped to deal with a growing threat to global commerce.
That's chiefly because the Navy lacks the sort of fast, flexible vessel that can chase pirates where they roam, the so-called "green" waters within 100 or so miles of shore.
Enter Austal USA's littoral combat ship, a swift, agile and lethal vessel that may be a pirate's worst nightmare. A prototype of the sleek and menacing ship is docked at Austal's Mobile River shipyard, where it is being prepared for delivery to the Navy later this year.
Old salts would call it a corvette — a versatile sloop born in sailing's Golden Age to patrol coastlines and escort merchant vessels through shipping lanes.
But the modern version is a marvel of innovation: Austal's ship, The Independence, can roar from zero to 50 knots in minutes. Its trimaran hull keeps it stable in rough seas and enables it to chase enemies into water as shallow as 20 feet.
Described by Popular Mechanics magazine as a "speedboat on steroids," the cutting-edge warship can sweep mines, track submarines and launch helicopters from its stern deck.
On its bow is the baddest gun in Alabama: a 57 mm cannon that can fire 220 rounds a minute, with computer-controlled precision and a nine-mile range.
The LCS is "an ideal platform" to counter pirates, Rear Adm. Victor Guillory, director of the Navy's surface-warfare division, told Congress last month.
The Navy is evaluating two versions of the LCS — the other is produced by Lockheed Martin Corp. in Wisconsin — and ultimately wants to buy 55 of one or both to fill out its fleet.
Both teams are trying to rein in costs that have more than doubled the Pentagon's original estimate of $220 million per ship. The overruns are primarily due to an endless series of design changes imposed by the Navy, leading powerful critics, including U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Bay St. Louis, to call for the program to be scuttled.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, however, reaffirmed his commitment to the LCS program as part of his proposed 2010 defense budget.
Gates, who announced plans to purchase three of the ships next year, said the LCS "has a capability that we just have to have. ... It would have enormous value against fast boats like we see, for example, in the Persian Gulf."
The recent standoff involving the Maersk Alabama illustrated that need.
After an unsuccessful attempt to hijack the U.S.-flagged cargo ship, a group of teenage pirates took Capt. Richard Phillips hostage and fled in a lifeboat. The Navy dispatched the USS Bainbridge, a guided missile destroyer, to confront the brigands — the naval equivalent of swatting a gnat with a sledgehammer.
"So we end up with the spectacle of an American destroyer, the Bainbridge, with enough Tomahawk missiles and other weaponry to destroy a small city, facing off against a handful of Somali pirates in a tiny lifeboat," defense analyst Robert Kaplan wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times. "This is not an efficient use of American resources."
Kaplan, senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, D.C., said the LCS would be the Navy's best tool for fighting pirates but argued that a fleet of 55 isn't nearly enough. The Gulf of Aden alone — just one of many piracy hotspots around the globe — is more than a million square miles, an area four times the size of Texas.
"Yes, these fast, maneuverable ships have low drafts and are thus suited for many different kinds of unorthodox missions close to shore," Kaplan wrote. "But the oceans are vast, and ships cannot be in two places at once. Without sufficient numbers of them, it's hard to believe that they will make much of a difference."
More ships would mean more jobs in Mobile. Austal already employs more than 1,000 at its local shipyard and could double that total if it wins additional orders for its LCS. In addition to Gates, the company could soon gain a high-powered advocate at the Pentagon in Bob Work, a respected naval analyst nominated by President Barack Obama to become Under Secretary of the Navy.
Work told defense blogger David Axe in a recent interview that he views the LCS as key to the Navy's future.
"I firmly believe that if the first two (prototypes) deliver on the performance that the Navy has asked them to have, the LCS is going to be one of best deals the U.S. Navy has made since World War II," Work said.
It's on the horizon, but the way they are planning to do it the drones will be large, heavy and expensive. There will be significant challenges in launching & recovering drones of this size safely. But I agree with you. It would seem possible to do this very cheaply.
Nice!
Even modern PT boats would need a tender to act as a floating base or dock. This is all possible, but the solution needs somebody to give the order.
The Tarawa class also have the ability to dock and store landing craft. They could act as base ships for fast boats as well.
Alabama ping!
USS Peleliu was involved in stopping a pirate attack in that region just last year.
I was just looking at this vessel in your picture. Our ‘tea-party’ was on the opposite side of the river from this ship. We had an excellent tea party too...between 2,000-4,000 people attended.
Looking like a fishing boat is effective deterrance to a "search and destroy" drone. Only by boarding pitate ships can we be sure they are pirate ships. Even then it is difficult, as non-pirate boats must arm themselves against pirate ships.
I’m not surprised in the least that the US Government would look to a $220 million dollar solution, when they can achieve the same result for a few thousand dollars by outfitting the crew with a couple dozen Remington 870’s, Marlin 308’s and 338’s, Bushmaster AR-15’s, and surplus bowling balls.
Good point. Given that the default position of the Media is to report “Dead Civilians”, when in fact they are terrorists, drone strikes against small vessels could quickly become counterproductive.
I don’t know why they don’t just send the PC-1 Cyclone class.
Cheaper solution: long-endurance Predator-type UAVs that can be launched from a base ship (not a super-carrier), patrol long stretches of water, and engage pirates with rocket and machinegun fire
I think along the same lines. It would be good also to consider using a radar aircraft (piloted or not) to keep all boats/ships in the area under surveilance. That way when a pirate boat approached a cargo ship you would know where it came from - and could sink the mother ship as well as the actual attack boat.For defensive purposes, a Marine on board a freighter with a .50 cal Barrett rifle with some explosive rounds would be able to give any attack boat something to think about besides ransom money. Would they need to board the freighter at sea to get around firearm restrictions at ports of call?
Sounds like something that the Global Hawk reconnaissance UAV was designed for. Have one or two Global Hawks on station finding targets for a few Predators.
One rule of thumb we can apply is that if the boat has an engine capable of speeds exceeding 15 knots, and there are arms aboard, we put a bullet through the engine and give them some paddles to get home with.
Agree ... and a few bullet holes in the hull a inch or two below the waterline. That'll keep'em busy ...
Global Hawk
Sounds just right!I'd imagine they are a high-value asset, needed in Afghanistan.
This is sounding more like the original mission of the Swift Boats in the Vietnam war, interdicting arms traffic offshore.
The mission changed and they went upriver later, iirc.
Few boats are going to have enough armor to resist RPGs and shallow enough draft to do the job. Maneuverability and speed are always in a tradeoff over crew protection.
Using drones to shadow such vessels and separate the fishermen from the pirates and track them might be the way to go.
If there was some way to 'tag' the boats (RFID transponders?) and know which was which, even the 'dual use' vessels could be monitored and appropriate action taken.
For Heaven's sake, no! Let the pilots have some fun and get some practice! ;-D
A drone pilot can have some fun, blast some bad guys and at 5:00 pm go home to the wife and kids.
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