Posted on 11/11/2005 8:45:41 AM PST by 1066AD
'Mother ship' behind pirate raids Pirate attacks off Somalia's coast are being organised from command vessels, or "mother ships", the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has said. It says speedboats are being launched from ships that prowl the routes of the Indian Ocean, searching for targets.
Last week, a luxury cruise liner off Somalia's coast was attacked by pirates with rocket-propelled grenades.
The IMB says pirates are still holding seven ships and their crews, seized in the world's most dangerous waters.
In the past few days, at least four other vessels are reported to have been attacked.
'Out of control'
Captain Pottengal Mukundan, director of the IMB, says pirate attacks are being launched from at least two "mother ships".
Capt Mukundan says speedboats carry out the attempted hijacks before returning to the larger vessels floating at sea.
This means even ships sailing far off the coast are vulnerable to attack. He says the situation off the coast of Somalia appears to be completely out of control.
The IMB has recorded more than 30 hijack attempts in the region since March.
These latest attacks follow a thwarted attempt by pirates in small boats to commandeer the luxury liner, the Seabourn Spirit, which was steaming some 100 miles (160km) off the Somali coast last week.
But the liner's crew took evasive action, repelling the attackers without returning fire.
To scare off the pirates, they deployed a military-grade sonic weapon, capable of causing permanent damage to hearing from a distance of more than 300 metres (984ft).
Somalia has been without any effective government for 14 years.
Despite attempts to establish a new administration earlier this year, the country remains divided between rival warlords.
Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4428808.stm
That's kind of overkill. Not that there's anything wrong with overkill when it comes to terrorists or pirates. Still a nice little SSK, maybe one with air independent propulsion, could be seconded from one of our allies. Since it's in the Indian ocean, and the Pirates are Muslims, maybe the Indians would like to have a go with their Kilos, or since it's former areas of Italian influence, maybe the Italians could be persuaded to conduct a little training exercise in those waters.
Not in any particular instance, but they knew it was possible. They didn't let it affect the mission of sinking as much Japanese shipping as they could.
The same would probably be true in this case, we'd probably not know if the "mother ship" had hostages on board or not. If we did know, then most likely we'd do it the hard way, as you suggest.
Yes ours, and stealthy. Called Sea Shadow and built by Lockeed, same as the F-117. You can see the family resemblance. :)
However it's only an experimental ship.
Tourist Guy meets Heineken Guy.
LOL! Complaining about someone preventing bandwidth piracy...with a post about how to stop piracy. Ironic post of the week!
With a top speed of only 13 knots, I don't think the Sea Shadow would be the right choice.
Sounds like a job for the US Navy.
You think they are flying the Jolly Roger? I doubt we would just sink any vessels we find in that area, but would have to catch them "in the act".
Is it just me or does it look liking the wake is coming out of the front; sailing backwards?
Oh but that would scare the paying passengers, LOL.
Yikes, what a scary looking dude!
Good points.
Religions: Sunni Muslim
http://www.indexmundi.com/somalia/demographics_profile.html
It's ours. It's the Sea Shadow.
It's just you. Just kidding, I know what you mean.
This could also be a good mobile headquarters for Bin Laden, and could assist his mobility in the Indian Ocean area.
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