Another Pirate Attack...

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I wonder how long it will be before bulk oil and gas ship owners will be supplying high tech modern weaponry to crew to protect vessels and cargo.


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Protecting Gas with high tech weaponry would seem to be a bit high risk. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I think the dangers of individual ships protecting themselves are obvious. Better to go for convoys and escorts.
 
One tactic that helped in the case of airline hijacking was to make it illegal to pay ransoms. But I guess the prevalence of flags of convenience would make that a hard one to enforce; you'd need to add it to the international Law of the Sea.
 
A cheaper way of solving the problems is to stop paying the ransoms and to ensure that any hijacked ship is met by a commando squad. Just see how piracy thrives when it stops bringing in money and anyone who sets out to do it doesn't come back.
 
I guess the ones organizing it no longer go out to sea themselves but send out expendable minions.

I imagine a convoy system would thwart most attempts at hijack though the fact that the Sirius Star was taken so far away points to a new level of risk. How long before it spreads worldwide and how bad does it have to get before Western governments make the rules of engagement more robust. The Indians don't seem to have their hands tied and I bet the Russians don't.
 
The organisers I'm sure rarely went out anyway so if the expendable minions realise they're going to get shot if they hi-jack a ship then they'll soon find another job.

As for convoys, it really hasn't got that bad and never should be allowed to. Think of all the extra cost in shipping if they had to wait at a rally point, before sailing at the speed of the slowest ship just so they can be near a warship.

I don't know how many navies have a vessel present in those waters at the moment, but i'm sure if there were half a dozen, with a team of special forces on board with permission to attack and sieze any hi-jacked vessel as soon as they saw fit, and to stop, search and confiscate any vessels they suspect to be pirates, then piracy would cease to be a problem very quickly.
 
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I don't know how many navies have a vessel present in those waters at the moment, but i'm sure if there were half a dozen, with a team of special forces on board with permission to attack and sieze any hi-jacked vessel as soon as they saw fit, and to stop, search and confiscate any vessels they suspect to be pirates, then piracy would cease to be a problem very quickly.

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Well, there are definitely more than six ships already. Navies present are at least: US, RN, France, Denmark, Germany, Russia, India. Some of them surely have several ships. All may not be dedicated to pirate hunt entirely but some are. Another EU-led force is currently being assembled as well.

However, attacking hijacked vessels would endanger their crew and probably the other crews held by the pirates. Not a very good idea...
 
I don't think the Indian navy ship did anything different from the RM crew last week. I just so happens that it was the warship that was fired on and replied! Maybe the military should be hunting down more of the mother ships and dealing with them. Surely an AWACs aircraft could be used to co-ordinate things.
 
from the times online [ QUOTE ]
What can be done to stop the pirates? Ship owners are reluctant to hire armed guards for fear of escalating confrontations. But nine days ago three former Royal Marines posted as private guards on a tanker in the Gulf of Aden ....

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It can't be anything a decent navy couldn't deal with, otherwise maritime powers would employ pirates rather than bother with having navies.
The problem is simply one of political reluctance to send in a few gunboats and aircraft and hunt them down.
 
I understand the pirates have now been threatened by an Islamic organization for taking a ship flagged by a moslem nation (Saudi).
 
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