Not sure what to think.
Sounds like an awesome ship...
Austal's ship, The Independence, can roar from zero to 50 knots in minutes...
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.
Bama ping!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_class_hydrofoil
They had a perfect solution but they were decommissioned in the 90’s.
Seems to be a 2009 version of the old PT boat. Small, very fast, armed beyond its size, and nothing to argue with.
You complete the task at hand with the appropriate tools. The Bainbridge showed you don’t need an elephant to squish a mouse.
How many of these for the $$$$$ of a carrier?? Different tool for different jobs.
A PT Boat on steroids.
WAAAAY overkill for these pests. Pirates have to get close to take over a ship. A few men standing watch with 308 rifles can keep a few thugs in an open boat at bay. A few shots at their engine should disable them enough to be easily run over.
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
But somebody tell me why we are not building fixed wing and rotary drones by the 100s...equip them with two or four missles each. Fly them off "pocket" carriers for fixed wing or back of destroyers for rotary. Relative to other methods discussed, they are cheap.
Then...simply "search and destroy". Keep them flying until a) all pirate vessels at sea are sunk and their "crews" killed and b) track outbound vessels back to launch points and destroy completely these points.
Were we to do this, I would predict that these scumbags will begin to kidnap innocent kids and women and put them into the "pirate vessels" so that when we sink the vessels, we kill the women and kids too.
Same thing with the shore launch points.
But until or unless that would happen, I think the use of drones should be encouraged.
Good Lord! Is it up to me to remind the Navy that it owns helicopters and jets!?
We need to have C-130s and C-17s LAPES fast attack boats into trouble areas.
Alabama ping!
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.
I don’t know why they don’t just send the PC-1 Cyclone class.