No Wonder These Somali Pirates Are So Successful

• December 1, 2008

There’s something wrong with this picture…

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Somali pirates hijacked a chemical tanker with dozens of Indian crew members Friday and a helicopter rescued three British security guards who had jumped into the sea, officials said…
Still on board were 25 Indian and two Bangladeshi crew members, said diplomats who could not be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media. The British security guards escaped by jumping into the water, said a news release issued by their company, Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions.
The company said it was aware of the incident on the chemical tanker it identified as M/V BISCAGLIA.
“We have been informed by coalition military authorities that three of our unarmed security staff were rescued from the water by a coalition helicopter and are currently on board a coalition warship in the Gulf of Aden,” the company statement said.

So the crew stayed on board, but the anti-pirate security forces jumped ship when attacked?
I’m no expert on combating piracy, but I think they’re doing it wrong.
Of course, actually arming these guys might be a good idea too.

Tags: Domestic Issues, Politics

http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Certainly the radar should be able to pick up an object like that. You don’t want to run your great big oil tanker into a rocky outcropping do you?

There are some technical and personnel challenges to be sure. However the problem is a lack of will rather than being hard to do.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

True, it just seems to me that the radars are in place now as well as the operator to watch said radar.
Dadoo

What can security people do without arms? If I were a security guard, I’d jump too. I’d be the first one killed.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Certainly a 50 cal would do the job that much better. However moving it around the ship to deal with different threats as well the cost of training ammo would favor a 308 weapon.

And we’re not going against armored crafts here.
RebTex

One reason they let the small boats near is because the crewmembers buy & sell goods through the small boat operators.
Cigarettes, alcohol, & general contraband.
It’s common practice.
Nearly like the spliff salesmen when you hit the tarmac in the Bahamas.
I agree with the 50 cals maybe with a rail shoe so it can be used from anywhere on the deck.
Couple that with a good use of the deck fire monitors to flood the boats & wash the vermin off the ladders.
As for the U.N. or even Geneva Convention, the M60 isn’t allowed for use on personell but IS allowed for equipment & materiel.
I say “isn’t…it “wasn’t” as of my seperation.
Claude

This is funny:

Still on board were 25 Indian and two Bangladeshi crew members, said diplomats who could not be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

Are the restrictions on speaking to the media or providing their real names?
http://www.bikebubba.blogspot.com/ Bike Bubba

Whistler; absolutely, but I think that to share the love adequately with jihadis carrying Kalishnikovs, you might do better with “Ma Deuce” than the M60. Either would be better than what we’ve got now, but who wants a fair fight?
Halatbis

The security forces got trained at the United Nations Peace Keeping Forces base in Belgium, or was it Sweden? One wonders–what in hell is going on? Incompetence reigns?
RebTex

I know it seems ridiculous.
And remember that they’re not hitting the ships on the open sea.
THey’re hitting near straights. The straights are high traffic areas & would be difficult to impose a “no float” zone very far from the ship.
Seth Williams

Dadoo: personally, I wouldn’t take a job like that if I couldn’t be armed.
lucky13

There is a show on History channel called Shadow Force. They go into some of the problems with Africa and some of the UN rules on boats with weapons. I’m not sure what the rules are for Somali and its waters, does anyone know??
RebTex

THis would be my next fear from the pirates.
Had they pulled this one off, it would make headlines for weeks

“A luxury cruise ship carrying dozens of British passengers has been attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Somalia, en route to Oman.

The Oceania Nautica was fired at during its 32-day voyage from Rome to Singapore.

The ship — carrying 690 passengers and 386 crew — was approached yesterday by two small skiffs which fired several shots.

No one on board was hurt and Nautica’s captain Jurica Brajcic was able to take evasive action and outrun the two boats.

“One of the skiffs did manage to close the range to 300 yards and fired eight rifle shots in the direction of the vessel before trailing off,” said a statement by Oceania. “No one aboard Nautica was harmed and no damage was sustained…”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/cruises/3538744/Pirates-attack-cruise-ship-off-Somali-coast.html
http://www.bikebubba.blogspot.com/ Bike Bubba

I believe the U.N. at least discourages this, as do many nations. Nothing that the host nation (the nation whose flag is flown by the vessel) couldn’t fix, though. If even one large purchaser of middle eastern oil decided that they’d like to deploy a few machine guns on ships, it could be very effective.

The one difficulty with long range machine guns is that if I were a pirate who knew merchant ships carried light arms, I’d attack at night. Perhaps you’d need to add searchlights and microphones to detect these guys before they got to accurate AK and RPG range.

That’s an engineering project I’d love to be part of….
http://www.bikebubba.blogspot.com/ Bike Bubba

Radar would probably pick up at least outboard motors. That said, why not listen for the engine, too? The technology to do so is seen at every NFL game every week. It’s cheap, works…and all you need to do is filter the signal to “listen” to the appropriate engine frequencies.
di butler

When a little group of nabobs from a 3rd world country in a flat-bottom fishing boat can easily hijack a supertanker then there may be some major f#ck ups going on. I saw a show on the History channel where a cruise ship was being hijacked by a group of guys like these, and they had this siren mounted on the boat that emmitted this ear piercing sound over and over. The punks actually gave up, they couldn’t take the sound, and had to keep their hands over their ears, so they couldn’t shoot. Seems like that could be one option…
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

MZ: It seems to me that a heavy machine gun would really chew up those boats from standoff distance. With the more stable shooting platform that the ships would provide you could walk the machine gun over to the boat and chew it up well before fire from the pirates would be a threat to individuals.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

I’m certainly no expert but it doesn’t seem that it would be hard to defend a large ship from a bunch of punks in a small boat.

Of course you’d have to have the right weapons, like say a couple M60′s.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

I don’t know the “rules of the road” but if I were a ship captain I’d want to be able enforce a mile exclusion zone around my vessel.

Of course a known commercial vessel wouldn’t be a problem.

If they’re attacking at night (night time boarding of an hostile ship would be a problem) the radar should see them coming.
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/entry/homosexuality_is_wrong_-_a_compendium move_zig

I’m certainly no expert but it doesn’t seem that it would be hard to defend a large ship from a bunch of punks in a small boat.

Of course you’d have to have the right weapons, like say a couple M60′s.

Toot,

Mark 19′s with anti-personnel rounds (AP) e.g. grapeshot, maybe some flechettes and White Phosphorus for flavor. Yummm

The problem the ship crews are having is the same problem all those dead and wounded in Mumbai had, as did the passengers on the Long Island Railroad, the students at Columbine, the assembled crowd at Tiananmen and the American Indians during the 1800′s…

Their opposition had the guns.

The victims didn’t.

Pretty simple math.

Don’t trust anyone who wants to take your guns.

Buy ammo…. NOW.
RebTex

rescued three British security guards who had jumped into the sea, officials said…

I wasn’t aware they had French Nationals in British security…..
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

I’m no expert at naval warfare, or modern piracy, so maybe I’m missing the mark…but can’t the big boats typically see these smaller boats coming?

And if so, it seems any sort of weapon with a decent amount of range would keep these pirate boats at bay.

The pictures I’ve seen show the priate boats as being pretty ratty. As Whistler says, chewing ‘em up with a machine gun before they even get close seems like a good first line of defense.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

the radar should see them coming.

Would they maybe be too small to be picked up by radar?

I have no idea.

The one difficulty with long range machine guns is that if I were a pirate who knew merchant ships carried light arms, I’d attack at night.

Well that’s the question: Would on-ship radar be good enough to detect a small boat in the night?
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

One reason they let the small boats near is because the crewmembers buy & sell goods through the small boat operators.
Cigarettes, alcohol, & general contraband.
It’s common practice.

Well what’s more important? That small bit of trade, or not having your ship captured?
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

I’m with Whistler, a couple of M60′s matched with stationary mounts spread throughout the vessel would go a long way toward repelling these attacks.

What’s stopping the ships from doing this? International law?

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