Something like this:
Posted on 10/29/2007 5:20:16 PM PDT by burzum
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. destroyer has entered Somali territorial waters in pursuit of a Japanese-owned ship loaded with benzene that was hijacked by pirates over the weekend, military officials said Monday.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Arleigh Burke entered Somali waters with the permission of the troubled transitional government in Mogadishu, U.S. officials said. In recent years, warships have stayed outside the 12-mile limit when chasing pirates.
The ongoing operation was confirmed to CNN by two military officials familiar with the details.
Gunmen aboard two skiffs hijacked the Panamanian-flagged Golden Mori off the Socotra archipelago, near the Horn of Africa, said Andrew Mwangura, a spokesman for Kenya's Seafarers' Assistance Programme.
The Golden Mori radioed for help Sunday night. The Burke's sister ship, the USS Porter, opened fire and sank the pirate skiffs tied to its stern before the Burke took over shadowing the hijacked
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
That’ll be a tremendous explosion!
How do you stop a ship loaded with benzene that doesn’t want to be stopped?
“ship loaded with benzene” I say let it get into port before launching the missle-the light show would be out of this world.
LOL!, they are so screwed!
ping.
Because until recently the relationship between the pirates and the Somali government was pretty much the same as that between the Barbary Pirates and the Bey of Algiers (and other Barbary coast satraps). Either they were one and the same, or the pirates were operating under the protection of the government, with appropriate payments to the proper governmental authorities of course).
Personally, I would not want to have the Arleigh Burke on my tail. Those must be very nervous pirates at the moment.
I say hold the ship, and let the Japanese security forces have at the pirates.
Its probably Islamist off the coast of Somalia that are the pirates. I’m sure they are going to go down with a fight.
They’re f***ed, now.
Are the crew of the tanker still on board or did they walk the plank?
Prayers for all on board.
Something like this:
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/weaps/mk-38.htm
They’re probably deployed with a couple of these MK38 25mm Bushmasters, waiting for something to move.
This isn’t a Cole situation.
Dimensions:
153.8m x 20.4m x 9.3m
Guns:
Mk45 127mm .54
(2) MK15 Block 1 Phalanx Gatling 20mm Gun
Missiles:
(2) MK41 Vertical Launching Systems (MOD 0 forward, MOD 1 Aft) with 29 cells forward and 61 aft to house
SM-2 SAMs, Tomahawk and ASROC.
(2) MK141 quadruple launchers for RGM-84 Harpoon
ASW:
(2) MK32 triple 324mm torpedo tubes for MK46 of MK50 ASW torpedos
Electronics:
SPY-1D, SPS-67, SPS-64 radars
(3) SPG-62 directors for SAMs used with AEGIS FC system
MK160 MOD4 gunfire control system including optronic backup
SQQ-89(V)6 sonar incorporating SQS-53C hull mounted and SQR-19 towed array sonars used with MK116 MOD7 ASW fire control system.
Propulsion:
(4) GE LM 2500-30 Gas Turbines giving 100,000 hp to two shafts
Speed:
30+ Knots
Crew:
300+
Aircraft:
Helicopter Platform
Interesting sidenote:
The USS Arleigh Burke, DDG-51, is the first ship of the Arleigh Burke class of guided missile destroyers.
The best known ship of this class is the USS Cole, DDG-67.
Those pirates might not know how to use the radar or communication on board to realize they've just entered the Gulf of Holy Sh#t....
Filipino crew among 23 seized off Somalia — piracy watchdog
Agence France-Presse
Last updated 05:38pm (Mla time) 10/29/2007
KUALA LUMPUR — (UPDATE) A Japanese chemical tanker with 23 Filipino, Korean, and Myanmar crew on board has been hijacked off the coast of northern Somalia, a piracy watchdog and officials said Monday.
The vessel, believed to be carrying oil products, sent out a distress message on Sunday which was picked up by a rescue centre in Norway and relayed to the International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre here.
“We tried to establish contact with the ship but we failed to get any response, so we than contacted coalition warships in the area,” IMB spokesman Noel Choong told Agence France-Presse
The coalition naval forces informed the IMB that the ship then entered Somali territorial waters, meaning no rescue could be initiated, he said.
“Somalia has no central government so that’s a big problem,” Choong added.
Choong declined to name the ship but a maritime official in Nairobi identified it as the Panama-flagged Golden Mori and said it was seized about eight nautical miles off Socotra archipelago.
The captain and chief engineer are Koreans, and the remainder of the crew are Filipinos and Myanmar nationals, Choong said.
He said that for the past two weeks there has been a spike in piracy activity off the coast of war-torn Somalia, including another successful hijacking on October 17 on a cargo ship which was travelling to Mombasa, Kenya.
“It was attacked with automatic weapons and hijacked. As of last week there was still no information about the safety of the crew and the location of the ship,” he said.
Choong said there were also two unsuccessful hijacking attempts in the lawless region earlier this month, but that the pirates failed to board the ships.
In Tokyo, a Japanese foreign ministry official confirmed the attack on the Panama-flagged ship.
“There are no Japanese among the crew members, but we won’t disclose further information as the maritime company has requested us not to,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
Pirates have attacked several vessels this year off Somalia’s vast and largely unpatrolled coastline, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
The attacks stopped in the second half of 2006 during six months of strict rule by Islamists, who were ousted by Ethiopian and Somali government troops at the end of the year.
Somalia, which lies at the mouth of the Red Sea, has been without an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre sparked a bloody power struggle.
Originally posted at 04:34 pm
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