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.
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.
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.