PIRATES NESTThe U.S. Navy destroyer Howard continues to shadow the Ukrainian vessel Faina, which Somali pirates seized last week. Faina is loaded with around three dozen T-72 tanks and other weapons reportedly bound for Kenya. "Howard is on-station," Commander Curtis Goodnight, Howard's skipper, told a Navy reporter. "My crew is actively monitoring the situation." The destroyer has even established unspecified "bridge-to-bridge" comms with the hijacked ship.
What might the Navy do if ordered to secure the seized weapons? Two recent French anti-piracy raids might offer a preview. In one raid in April, French commandos in helicopters, operating from ships, chased pirates onto land. A sniper in one chopper shot out the engines of the pirates' vehicles; another chopper landed commandos to grab six of the startled Somalis.
In another raid in September, French commandos parachuted into the water near a hijacked yacht, under the cover of darkness, and swam a short distance to board, unseen. They shot dead one pirate, captured others and freed the yacht's owners.
So if the Pentagon decides to take out the Faina pirates, how's it going to go down? Four words: Djibouti (where U.S. Special Operations Command has a base north of Somalia), helicopters, Navy SEALs.
PIRATE`S PARADAISE
Indeed, one of Faina's captured crewmen, in an interview with a Russian news Website, practically pleaded for the Navy commandos to come to his aid, the AP reports:
At the end, when the reporter asks whether he sees a way out, [the crewman] replies: "You are so clever that you are understanding everything" and switches to Russian, saying "kotiki, kotiki, kotiki" — part of the word for "seals" — an apparent reference to the possibility of an operation by special amphibious forces to rescue the hostages.
When Somali pirates seized a Ukrainian vessel smuggling 33 T-72 tanks to Sudan, the U.S. Navy rushed a large Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, USS Howard, to keep an eye on the arsenal ship, and perhaps intervene if the pirates attempt to unload the lethal cargo.But in future pirate fights (and there will be future pirate fights, since the problem is only growing) the Navy might deploy its latest inshore warship, the late, over-budget Littoral Combat Ship. The new, lightweight fighter comes equipped with a system specially designed for taking out "low-intensity" threats such as pirates, without killing them. That's one subject of my new piracy story in Popular Mechanics.
The so-called Running-Gear Entanglement System, developed by the Coast Guard and included in the LCS' surface-warfare module, is essentially a floating net for clogging up the propellers of skiffs and other small boats, stranding them in the water so boarding teams can catch up. French Troops Snatch Pirate Hostages
Pirate Attacks Up 75%; Nearly One Raid Per Day
Secret Weapon of the French Anti-Pirate Raid?
Somali Pirate Map Found!
Behind the French Anti-Pirate Raid
Somalia Kidnapping Economy Booming
Combined with Fire Scout robot choppers for surveillance and Long-Range Acoustic Device sonic blasters, the planned 55-strong LCS fleet will boast a full quiver of technologies for spotting, warding off and capturing pirates. But even the latest warship is not a permanent solution, according to Martin Murphy, a naval analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. "Piracy has only ever been defeated when defeated on land," Murphy says. Somali Pirate Vessels Vs. Navy Tech
In the wake of last week's Somali pirate raid that nabbed a Ukrainian ship laden with weapons, an international naval flotilla is assembling to protect commercial shipping. But the roughly dozen warships slated to patrol the Horn of Africa in coming months are spread thin. "We're not always there" when pirates attack, a Navy source told Danger Room.
"We're encouraging mariners to take necessary precautions," the source said.
What might that include? Guns are out of the question, said maritime consultant Tim Colton, due to legal problems with arming untrained mariners. That leaves nonlethal weapons as one alternative. Some of the wealthier shipping companies fit their vessels with sonic weapons and high-powered water cannons, as I explain in my new piece for Popular Mechanics. But those devices are "too expensive" for the smaller firms, according to Colton.
Colton said one U.S. admiral floated the idea of putting mercenary teams on commercial vessels to defend against pirate boardings. But this, too, "raises more legal issues than anyone could possibly count."
In short, there's no easy seaborne solution to piracy. Experts stress that ending piracy requires law and order on land, where pirates have their bases. But law and order for Somalia, which has lacked a functioning central government since 1991, is no doubt years and years away.
"We're encouraging mariners to take necessary precautions," the source said.
What might that include? Guns are out of the question, said maritime consultant Tim Colton, due to legal problems with arming untrained mariners. That leaves nonlethal weapons as one alternative. Some of the wealthier shipping companies fit their vessels with sonic weapons and high-powered water cannons, as I explain in my new piece for Popular Mechanics. But those devices are "too expensive" for the smaller firms, according to Colton.
Colton said one U.S. admiral floated the idea of putting mercenary teams on commercial vessels to defend against pirate boardings. But this, too, "raises more legal issues than anyone could possibly count."
In short, there's no easy seaborne solution to piracy. Experts stress that ending piracy requires law and order on land, where pirates have their bases. But law and order for Somalia, which has lacked a functioning central government since 1991, is no doubt years and years away.
