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2010-01-05 Africa Horn

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Posted by Steve White 2010-01-05 00:00|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top

#1 The Indian Ocean is a big big place. Things could happen with no tales and pirates just never come home.....
That's the way to do it.

Posted by 3dc 2010-01-05 02:56|| 2010-01-05 02:56|| Front Page Top

#2 the pirates have an infrastructure in Europe and elsewhere that provides information, conducts ransom negotiations, and facilitates transfer of funds. Start with the information guys and work your way up and down the food chain with "accidents"

Posted by Frank G 2010-01-05 07:47|| 2010-01-05 07:47|| Front Page Top

#3 Convoys.

Or the insurance companies decide to deal with the pirates once and for all by acquiring marine infantry (say from Xe) to supplement the corporate fleet by going ashore to clean out the pirates' lair.

The threat is that the nation states have abandoned the responsibility for protecting the lives and property of their citizens giving rise to international and unaccountable vigilantism. Whether they want to recognize it or not, this is the major step in the delegitimization of the nation states' sovereignty. Large multi-national firms could arm up to the detriment of world order.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2010-01-05 11:23|| 2010-01-05 11:23|| Front Page Top

#4 Q-ships. A big fat container ship comes loping along, the pirates come charging in, and all of a sudden the sides drop off a couple of 40-foot boxes to reveal a dual 40mm Bofors. Fifteen or twenty rounds later, game over.

Posted by Mike 2010-01-05 11:28|| 2010-01-05 11:28|| Front Page Top

#5 Large multi-national firms could arm up to the detriment of world order.

Not to the detriment since the developed world has already abandoned any semblance of protecting it's citizens and property. Beating down barbarians is an expense line and a corporation will abandon that the second the threat goes away, unlike a governmental bureaucracy. Thing is, one WW2 wooden PT boat could take all the Horn of Africa pirates yet navies with a trillion dollars worth of ships and manpower won't do squat.

Posted by ed 2010-01-05 13:12|| 2010-01-05 13:12|| Front Page Top

#6 Blackwater/Xe should negotiate a deal with the US Government for some of the excess "Fletcher" class destroyers in mothballs. I'm sure they could do a fine job of putting 20-30 ships in tip-top condition, replace the hand-loaded dual 4.5"ers with auto-loaded 76mm single mounts, replace the second-generation shipborne radar with a top-of-the-line set, and run convoys from Egypt to Sri Lanka or South Africa.

Posted by Old Patriot 2010-01-05 13:50|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/ 2010-01-05 13:50|| Front Page Top

#7 The US Constitution allows Letters of Marque to be issues.

Posted by lotp 2010-01-05 14:02|| 2010-01-05 14:02|| Front Page Top

#8 um, that should have read 'issued'. A way to authorize confiscation of pirate property without declaring official war.

Posted by lotp 2010-01-05 14:28|| 2010-01-05 14:28|| Front Page Top

#9 The more Armed guards on the ship, the less likely teh pirates will try to capture it. Heck they only need adveritse that they are arming the crews.

Posted by Cyber Sarge 2010-01-05 15:03|| 2010-01-05 15:03|| Front Page Top

#10 Did I miss the part where the American taxpayers pay for a Navy to fight their wars successfully in time of war, and to protect Amercian flagged commerce in times of peace? If the Navy isn't doing those jobs, we need to get different leaders or different ships to do it. Sort of the same idea with the Army, fight our wars successfully and protect our nationjal soverign territory (borders) in peacetime. Gee what a concept.

Posted by NoMoreBS 2010-01-05 17:29|| 2010-01-05 17:29|| Front Page Top

#11 Yes, you did.

"The purpose of the Navy, Vice Admiral John Bird, commander of the Seventh Fleet, tells me, is not to fight. The mere presence of the Navy should suffice, he argues, to dissuade any attack or attempt to destabilize the region.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2010-01-05 17:57|| 2010-01-05 17:57|| Front Page Top

#12 OP, Been to Mare Island lately? The ghost fleet is a ghost. The only Fletchers left, if any, belong to foreign navies or museums. Heck, there's only one Spruance class DD left. The rest were used for target practice.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2010-01-05 18:00|| 2010-01-05 18:00|| Front Page Top

#13 But long-term, it's a dangerous development because it will make poor African countries reliant on private companies' money to run their militaries.

As opposed to, say, being reliant upon UN peacekeeping missions.

Blackwater/Xe should negotiate a deal with the US Government for some of the excess "Fletcher" class destroyers in mothballs.

Maybe they can get a package deal for some B-17s or DC3s as well. I understand with a little bracing, they might be able to carry cruise missiles.

Posted by Pappy 2010-01-05 21:22|| 2010-01-05 21:22|| Front Page Top

#14 I suspect the boilers on a Fletcher would not be operable at this point in time.

You'd be better off buying a late model austal ferry (of which there are many on the market, like the ones that were in Hawaii that the environmentalists drove out of business and then ranted about how uneconomical they were) and sticking a 3" gun on there.

Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2010-01-05 21:57|| 2010-01-05 21:57|| Front Page Top

23:52 USN, Ret.
23:45 USN, Ret.
23:41 USN, Ret.
23:04 OldSpook
22:55 bossman
22:43 Iblis
22:25 3dc
22:23 tipover
22:16 tipover
22:13 3dc
22:04 tipover
21:57 Thing From Snowy Mountain
21:56 JosephMendiola
21:52 Eric Jablow
21:50 JosephMendiola
21:50 Clyde Jeger2762
21:48 JosephMendiola
21:47 Clyde Jeger2762
21:36 JosephMendiola
21:35 DarthVader
21:33 3dc
21:32 Pappy
21:29 Nimble Spemble
21:28 Nimble Spemble