Fighting Pirates with Mercenaries - TOLD YOU!

[Bill Mattocks]

I believe I suggested this some time ago. Only difference is that I suggested putting a platoon of US Marines on all US-flagged vessels in the area, for a couple of reasons besides fighting pirates. One would be to project US power and the other would be to encourage US shipping companies to stop flagging their vessels in other nations to avoid taxes/regulations/etc. But this works too. The point is still the same; you engage the pirates at the point of contact, you don't go looking for them. You don't know where they are at any given time, but you know where they will be - they attack ships in the area. Not enough ships in all the navies of the world to guard every vessel and a huge waste of time. Searching every suspected ship is an impossible and expensive task. Put armed guards on the ships and shoot pirates dead on sight.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/pirate-fighters-inc/all/1

The world’s governments are waking up to the sobering fact that the gazillion-dollar warships they’ve sent to the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean can’t keep up with the region’s elusive pirates. The hijackers’ simple, brutal tactics are too effective. Their business model is too attractive. And they’ve got nothing to lose but their lives.

The days are probably numbered for 10,000-ton Burke-class destroyers chasing down illiterate Somali thugs sailing in souped-up fishing boats called “skiffs.” The future of the piracy war could belong to Dave and guys like him, standing lonely guard on gigantic, fortified commercial vessels speeding through pirate-infested waters.

Destroyers are expensive and ill-suited to long, tedious piracy patrols. Armed guards are comparatively cheap and, as Dave proved that April morning, highly effective. Sure, guards come with their own limitations and complications. But hiring professional ship-protectors beats the alternative: an endless, pointless military exercise.

Dave and his three teammates from Protection Vessels International, a 3-year-old, English firm offering “safe passage for vessels, master and crew through high-risk environments,” watched as the suspected pirate mothership silently approached the car carrier. “When it got to approximately seven miles distance, we saw a small craft being launched from it and it began to approach from the port side at 23 knots,” Dave recalled. The boat carried four men, at least two of them armed with AK-47s.

That’s when the PVI guards, all former Royal Marines, knew for sure that the carrier was under attack. A hijacking could mean: months of captivity and abuse for Dave, his teammates and the ship’s crew; a multimillion-dollar ransom for the vessel’s owner; and a small but meaningful blow to an already-rickety world economy. “We immediately increased speed to 19 knots, altered course, activated the piracy alarm and informed [the authorities],” Dave told Danger Room.

They prepared for battle, “kitting up” with body armor, helmets, warning flares and rifles. At that moment the front line of the piracy war, which has claimed scores of lives on both sides and cost ten of billions of dollars in ransoms, insurance premiums and lost property, intersected the fast-shrinking span of water between his ship and the approaching pirate skiff.

 

[RandomPhantom700]

With the reservation of my usual concerns about the military hiring contractors, I'd say good call. I hope it works without introducing its own ills.

 

[Stealthy]

A well placed flare followed by a few warning shots if they continue the advance should be enough to scare off all but the most brazen of pirates. But what I am I saying, I want to help the pirates, that is my dream job so I would deploy multiple tenders and advance on the target ship from many angles splitting up the handful of mercs and ensuring "some" of my trusty swashbucklers make it on board. Then I get those sexy new AR platforms, Ballistic vests and Tacticool gear they were using.

The main advantage the larger ship would have over the trusty little skiffs is a more stable shooting platform allowing longer ranges but I just can't see modern shipping companies consenting to long range preemptive strikes.

 

[Big Don]

In Balance of Power, by James W. Huston, the story centers around issuing letters of marque (article I section 8 of the constitution) to the captains commanding Carrier battle groups to combat piracy. As interesting as an idea that is, I'd rather issue them to Private military contractors on a finder's keepers payment plan.

 

[elder999]

A well placed flare followed by a few warning shots if they continue the advance should be enough to scare off all but the most brazen of pirates. But what I am I saying, I want to help the pirates, that is my dream job so I would deploy multiple tenders and advance on the target ship from many angles splitting up the handful of mercs and ensuring "some" of my trusty swashbucklers make it on board. Then I get those sexy new AR platforms, Ballistic vests and Tacticool gear they were using.

Oh, I get it now! "Stealthy."

Can you say LARPER? I knew you could. :lfao:

 

[Bill Mattocks]

A well placed flare followed by a few warning shots if they continue the advance should be enough to scare off all but the most brazen of pirates. But what I am I saying, I want to help the pirates, that is my dream job so I would deploy multiple tenders and advance on the target ship from many angles splitting up the handful of mercs and ensuring "some" of my trusty swashbucklers make it on board. Then I get those sexy new AR platforms, Ballistic vests and Tacticool gear they were using.

The main advantage the larger ship would have over the trusty little skiffs is a more stable shooting platform allowing longer ranges but I just can't see modern shipping companies consenting to long range preemptive strikes.

I agree that the pirates' tactics will evolve in response to the presence of armed guards, but not for awhile. At first, they'll simply take low-hanging fruit; the ships that don't challenge them when they approach.

As the pirates experience more ships that are armed and fighting back, they will modify their tactics, and your recommendations are sound, so I'm sure they'll try that. However, the defense will evolve as well. Potentially with more armed guards, remote-controlled weaponry, etc. With regard to what will be allowed by modern shipping companies, it all comes down to cost. When pirate insurance was cheap, they bought that and did not fight back. When the pirates began to kill and injure the crews and to go back on deals, insurance costs skyrocketed and now the owners are seeking other alternatives. If the courts of the world condone shooting of pirates outright, then I suspect that's what will be allowed.

As far as tactics go, there really is no other logical way of organizing a defense. There is too much ocean to patrol to put the navies of the world to effective use, and it's incredibly expensive to put a combat vessel with hundreds or thousands of crew up against a few pirates in dinghies. As the article mentioned, there's no way to search all the suspect ships, and when an attacked vessel calls for help, it's a rare situation where a warship is close enough to respond in minutes. And once the pirates board the ship they're attacking, you can't engage them with naval gunfire, helicopter gunships, etc. You have no alternative but to negotiate or board and go hand-to-hand, with the victim crew's safety in jeopardy. None of what's been done up until now makes any tactical sense whatsoever, and I'm no military genius, but if I can figure that out, you'd think the morons setting up these defenses could also.

Put small cadres of armed men on the ships. Engage the pirates at first contact. Escalate when and if pirate tactics evolve. This is not rocket science; you guard the bank vault AT the bank vault, because the robbers have to come to you.

 

[elder999]

I agree that the pirates' tactics will evolve in response to the presence of armed guards, but not for awhile. At first, they'll simply take low-hanging fruit; the ships that don't challenge them when they approach.

As the pirates experience more ships that are armed and fighting back, they will modify their tactics, and your recommendations are sound, so I'm sure they'll try that. .

Except that they're not. The main advantage of the skiffs is in speed and stealth-most target ships can make a pretty well insurmountable obstacle if the crew practices repelling boarders alond with the armed security contingent.

One ships crew has even successfully repelled pirates with a firehose. You keep watch. Prepare to repel boarders. Repel boarders. Won't work every time, but it'll be more successful than not, even without mercenaries on board.

In the end, they'll have to give up the speed of the skiffs for larger platforms, like the ships the skiffs sometimes launch from. Probably won't work-the law of the sea pretty much does condone shooting hostile boarding parties outright. Various authorities like the Coast Guard must be yielded to, and one would be foolish to repel boarders from the Navy of even nearby countries, but unknown and unidentified hostiles can pretty much be used as chum.

 

[RandomPhantom700]

Elder beat me to it, but aren't the skiffs, if seen ahead of time, pretty much just fish in a barrel until they make it to their target? I would think that the guards would have a relative advantage from their position above in the target craft. I am, however, naive to most combat situations that don't involve shooting off-screen to reload, so I might be wrong. :rofl:

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Except that they're not. The main advantage of the skiffs is in speed and stealth-most target ships can make a pretty well insurmountable obstacle if the crew practices repelling boarders alond with the armed security contingent.

One ships crew has even successfully repelled pirates with a firehose. You keep watch. Prepare to repel boarders. Repel boarders. Won't work every time, but it'll be more successful than not, even without mercenaries on board.

In the end, they'll have to give up the speed of the skiffs for larger platforms, like the ships the skiffs sometimes launch from. Probably won't work-the law of the sea pretty much does condone shooting hostile boarding parties outright. Various authorities like the Coast Guard must be yielded to, and one would be foolish to repel boarders from the Navy of even nearby countries, but unknown and unidentified hostiles can pretty much be used as chum.

Small-unit tactics are the same no matter how they are employed. One sets different kinds of ambushes and traps based upon the perceived size, strength, and ability of the enemy, taking into consideration the goal (an intact ship and live crew), one's own capabilities, terrain, logistics, and possibility of reinforcement. Stealthy's point was well-made; when the ships with armed guards are perceived to be more common than not, the pirates will change their tactics. They could employ more than one of the 'mother ships' they currently use to deploy their skiffs to put more fast boats in the water. They could even attempt to pick preselected targets and blockade them with many of the larger ships, swaming and overwhelming their defenses (this would require advance intelligence about the incoming vessels and locations of nearby military vessels, etc). There are many tactics they could try, and manpower seems not to be a major obstacle. They could even try counterfeit routines where they impersonate law enforcement or various military vessels. Who knows? The point is, this is small-unit tactics, and these things have been going on forever. There is always a way to perform an ambush, and always a way to defend against them.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Elder beat me to it, but aren't the skiffs, if seen ahead of time, pretty much just fish in a barrel until they make it to their target? I would think that the guards would have a relative advantage from their position above in the target craft. I am, however, naive to most combat situations that don't involve shooting off-screen to reload, so I might be wrong. :rofl:

Big ocean, big waves. Skiffs bob up and down. They move fast, they come in from behind and alongside to avoid detection as long as possible. Goal is to make it alongside. They have small arms and some rocket-propelled grenades, which they do use, since they don't have to worry about sinking such large vessels with them (but they have started fires on tankers, etc). A single skiff should be easy pickings, but multiple skiffs coming from multiple angles can overwhelm a crew of four armed guards, especially if they've been successfully distracted by one of them acting as bait. Effective non-sniper rifle range from a vessel is about 100m in good conditions, so you have a small window to engage unless you're employing heavier weaponry to defend.

 

[CanuckMA]

One word: Phalanx

Mount one at the bow and one at the stern. Have popcorn already microwaved to watch the show, because the show won't be long enough to microwave a bag of popcorn.

 

[Big Don]

One word: Phalanx

Mount one at the bow and one at the stern. Have popcorn already microwaved to watch the show, because the show won't be long enough to microwave a bag of popcorn.

As big as the ships are, you'd probably have to mount one on each quarter.
Lease the weapons and operators to whoever wants them. For Christ's sake charge a lot, the country needs the money.

 

[granfire]

In Balance of Power, by James W. Huston, the story centers around issuing letters of marque (article I section 8 of the constitution) to the captains commanding Carrier battle groups to combat piracy. As interesting as an idea that is, I'd rather issue them to Private military contractors on a finder's keepers payment plan.

LOL, throw back...

 

[cdunn]

As interesting as an idea that is, I'd rather issue them to Private military contractors on a finder's keepers payment plan.

Um, that would be how letters of marque actually work in the real world. Too bad it's considered a war crime.

 

[granfire]

Um, that would be how letters of marque actually work in the real world. Too bad it's considered a war crime.

ah, it's been done before.
You just have to give it a clever name and a charter.....

I think it was called Privateer....

 

[Big Don]

Um, that would be how letters of marque actually work in the real world. Too bad it's considered a war crime.

Finally after the Congress of Paris at the end of the Crimean War, seven European nations signed the Paris Declaration of 1856 renouncing privateering, and forty-five more eventually joined them, which in effect abolished privateering worldwide.[SUP][29][/SUP] The United States was not a signatory to that declaration.
It isn't, it might be considered an act of war, if, the privateers attacked vessels from other nations, but, Somalia and Indonesia, where the majority of modern pirates ply their trade, aren't much of a threat...

 

[Empty Hands]

ah, it's been done before.
You just have to give it a clever name and a charter.....

I think it was called Privateer....

Only one problem with this plan - privateers expect to make a profit. These pirates are dirt poor. I don't think privateers will sail on the sole promise of beaten up, barely seaworthy small boats and a handful of knockoff AK-47s probably manufactured decades ago.

 

[cdunn]

Only one problem with this plan - privateers expect to make a profit. These pirates are dirt poor. I don't think privateers will sail on the sole promise of beaten up, barely seaworthy small boats and a handful of knockoff AK-47s probably manufactured decades ago.

In theory, you can pay a bounty to the marque-granted privateers to drag other pirate boats in to a court of law. Where the problem with letters of marque happens is that they ceed the property of the ships to be reprised against to the privateer - And the Law of The Sea states that only a ship in government service may haul a ship back to the courts, which are to determine penalties against the pirates AFTER their trial. The question as to if a ship holding a letter of marque is in government service is, as far as I can tell, open, but the practice of pre-rewarding the privateer booty seized from the pirates is clearly illegal.

 

[granfire]

well, then there is that option of a well placed shot below the water line....Davy Jones' Locker....

 

[Big Don]

Part VII Article100

Duty to cooperate in the repression of piracy

All States shall cooperate to the fullest possible extent in the repression of piracy on the high seas or in any other place outside the jurisdiction of any State.

Anyone that disagrees with suppression of piracy, is acting contrary to the Law of the Sea.

Article105

Seizure of a pirate ship or aircraft
On the high seas, or in any other place outside the jurisdiction of any State, every State may seize a pirate ship or aircraft, or a ship or aircraft taken by piracy and under the control of pirates, and arrest the persons and seize the property on board. The courts of the State which carried out the seizure may decide upon the penalties to be imposed, and may also determine the action to be taken with regard to the ships, aircraft or property, subject to the rights of third parties acting in good faith.

That would seem to indicate we could LEGALLY use the US Navy, and perhaps a MEU and seize what the pirates have, and disburse it as we see fit.