Pirates....now with tanks!

[GePap]

Base? Any village with fisherman could serve as a base for these guys - they are using boats, not ships that generally need special facilities.

Although there have been reports of them using motherships that would allow pirate boats to operate further afield. The Indian Navy claims to have sunk one in the last few days

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11/19/somalia.pirates/index.html?eref=rss_latest

[Saras]

Originally posted by GePap
Base? Any village with fisherman could serve as a base for these guys - they are using boats, not ships that generally need special facilities.

well doh, but they still need to moor them somewhere and refuel and service. Say there are 50 such places. 10 days, 5 teams, 1 sortie per day. Or burn one down and warn others on what's coming if they continue to allow basing from their fishing village, or smth.

[GePap]

You can run a boat up to any beach, so every mile of coast is a possible site - and how hard is it to bring in some gasoline tanks on a truck, or hell, a donkey powered cart? As for service, I doubt they have to use any tools not found in a standard tool box kept in a boat.

And putting boots on the ground? Having the chance that those teams will get into a firefight and either lose men, or kill civilians in a crossfire? The political implications of that are too great for any country taking part in the flotilla to risk.

It would make more sense to try to follow the money and see where these multimillion dollar ransoms end up.

[Felch]

Originally posted by GePap
It would make more sense to try to follow the money and see where these multimillion dollar ransoms end up.

I think the French already did that. Some commandos killed and captured a bunch of pirates after buying back hostages.

Not a long-term "find the shadowy organization behind it all" type of thing, but probably more realistic.

[Patroklos]

Base? Any village with fisherman could serve as a base for these guys - they are using boats, not ships that generally need special facilities.

Although there have been reports of them using motherships that would allow pirate boats to operate further afield. The Indian Navy claims to have sunk one in the last few days

Th ey require deep water ports to hold their prizes (and defend them from other pirates). We know where they are based because the pirates are building big ass mansions.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Patroklos


Th ey require deep water ports to hold their prizes (and defend them from other pirates). We know where they are based because the pirates are building big ass mansions.

According to this, there are no deep water ports in Somalia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deep_water_ports#Indian_Ocean

and according to this there are only four ports in the country:

http://www.worldportsource.com/ports/SOM.php

of which one is in an autonomous region (Somaliland) seeking independence that is not as connected to this whole piracy problem.

I had read that the pirates simply laid anchor offshore.

[Darius871]

If the tanker's simply anchored offshore and not in a port (easily verified one way or the other by satellites or air recon for something that big), why doesn't one or more navies just go up and seize it? What am I missing here?

[KrazyHorse]

That the navies don't want to end up with a bunch of dead hostages on their hands?

[GePap]

Plus any possible damage to the ship or the cargo.

[Chemical Ollie]

Yeah, a 300-meter tanker full of crude oil is not exactly a thing you want blown to pieces

[KrazyHorse]

Have the pirates rigged the ships to blow? My guess is that they wouldn't bother. The hostages are protection enough.

[Krill]

It'd be worse if they just made a few holes in the side of the tanker instead of trying to blow up that much oil. I say trying because oxidising a hydrocarbon without oxygen isn't particulary easy...

[GePap]

My statement was meant in general. Personally I think it would be more difficult, not less, to cause serious damage to a ship like that supertanker - after all, that thing must have been built with many safety systems, and is probaly a lot harder to sabotage than your regular cargo ship, no matter how dangerous the cargo.

[Chemical Ollie]

Even if super-tankers are tough built and can take a ship-to ship collision without breaking, I doubt that they are built to endure military violence of the 2000's.

[Winston]

Judging by this photo of crew and pirates aboard the Ukrainian ship MV Faina, perhaps having a team of snipers standing by could come in handy.