Modern Piracy

[Patroklos]

I keep hearing about small boats from small countries surprising everyone during naval war games.

Thats because in war games both sides continue to play regardless of what happens. It does nobody any good to pretend they are dead for the duration of an exercise.

Its like when you played cops and robers when you were kids, the small boat pretends it dodged fire from eight 50.cals and a 5" shotgun and the ship shouts "I GOT YOU!" "NO YOU DIDN'T!"

Honestly, given the broad side I just described, do you see an explosive laden bass boat making it very far (while having to slow down to cross an 8' wake)?

[OzzyKP]

Ah, I didn't realize that no ships are ever considered "dead" in war games.

However, what is the range and accuracy of those guns? How would a destroyer or battleship or aircraft carrier do against a swarm of small speed boats. Or heck, what about a swarm of jet skis? One driver and one guy with an RPG.

I imagine missile defense systems would be useless against an RPG. Would the 50 cals be able to take out all 30 or 40 fast moving jet skis? With the armor as weak as it is, only one or two would really need to survive to get a shot off I suppose.

[Naked Gents Rut]

Honestly, given the broad side I just described, do you see an explosive laden bass boat making it very far (while having to slow down to cross an 8' wake)?

One? No. Twenty? Yes.

Put AShMs on those twenty little boats and you have a dead warship.

[OzzyKP]

I edited my post to make the same point.

[Patroklos]

Ah, I didn't realize that no ships are ever considered "dead" in war games.

It makes sense if you think about. Honestly, short of lasers or paint rounds how would you ever know if that deck watchstander hit that small boat with his .50cal or not?

Missiles are a bit easier, you can illuminate a target and both you and the target know a launched missile would have got you. Even so, the aircraft continues its attack run so it gets the practice.

One? No. Twenty? Yes.

In open water a large ship can outrun a speedboat (and make that a 14" wake). Think about what exactly can be done with a ship's wake (with you yourself moving at 30 knots.

Yes, at some point you can overwhelm a vessel which is why I always say Iran can get a warship or two if they suprise us while ships are in the SOH or NAG, but those circumstances are just that, there is no reason for us to expose ourselves that way in a declared shooting war.

And you guys are discounting aircraft cover.

[Patroklos]

However, what is the range and accuracy of those guns?

The five inch? Dead on out to the visible horizon (13nm).

The .50 will go several thousand yards, accuracy suffers I am sure. Thats why they are automatic and we have eight of them.

The Phalanx can shoot down supersonic missiles, I am sure a speedboat will not stress it

[Naked Gents Rut]

In open water a large ship can outrun a speedboat (and make that a 14" wake).

You can't outrun a missile launched from said speedboat. And both speedboats and missiles are cheap.

Yes, at some point you can overwhelm a vessel which is why I always say Iran can get a warship or two if they suprise us while ships are in the SOH or NAG, but those circumstances are just that, there is no reason for us to expose ourselves that way in a declared shooting war.

This is exactly right; the surface navy can't get anywhere close to shore in a war with a real enemy. Time to stop wasting money on expensive hulks that are only useful in peacetime and plow the savings into a badass sub force.

[Patroklos]

You can't outrun a missile launched from said speedboat. And both speedboats and missiles are cheap.

I can, however, shoot it down. What missiles do you think these speed boats have? The most advanced Iranian speedboats actually carry torpedoes, not missiles. The rest are just gun boats.

Time to stop wasting money on expensive hulks that are only useful in peacetime and plow the savings into a badass sub force.

Good luck enforcing sanctions with submarines. I can't wait for those AA submarines!

[Asher]

Why do we need naval ships to protect merchant ships?

Clearly the solution is to just make all of the Navy boys pilot the merchant ships and mount a gun on all of them.

We don't need trillion dollar aircraft carriers, we just need a couple guns on each freighter and gay-sex-happy sailors to keep themselves entertained between attempted hijackings.

[Naked Gents Rut]

I can, however, shoot it down.

One? Sure. Twenty? Not so sure.

Good luck enforcing sanctions with submarines.

You don't need a CSG to enforce sanctions. All frigate surface fleet.

[BeBMan]

Maybe they should legalize downloading goods from merchant vessels to dry out piracy. But off course teh merchant mafia is against it cuz it wants only profit

[SlowwHand]

A cruise ship got away from a pirate attack today, while being fired upon. Outran the little skunky-smelling pirates.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
A cruise ship got away from a pirate attack today, while being fired upon. Outran the little skunky-smelling pirates.

That article was what prompted me to post this thread.

[Blaupanzer]

Back to the OP, the trick is the pirates boarding the merchant vessels. These days even a supertanker has a crew of less than twenty. Half a dozen to a dozen men armed with automatic weapons are more than enough to take the ship and convice the crew to cooperate. The ships in the waters off Somalia are queueing up for passage thru the Suez canal. Thus, they are moving slow and are vulnerable to being boarded by pirates, especially at night. The big tanker that got taken was news because she wasn't trying for Suez, but planning to sail around Africa. This whole problem can be solved by using convoys, but these make the voyage of each ship take more time. The merchants have, to date, paid the ransoms just so their other ships can proceed at speed.

Patty is right about an important fact mostly unknown by us landlubbers. That is that on the water, bigger ships, especially in terms of length, are faster than smaller ones. Other constraints may exist, for example aircraft carriers have relatively slow cruising speeds to facilitate launch and recovery. However, sufficiently powered big ships are universally faster than smaller than smaller ships in open waters.

[SlowwHand]

The Nautica was on a 32-day cruise from Rome to Singapore, with stops at ports in Italy, Egypt, Oman, Dubai, India, Malaysia and Thailand, according to Oceania‘s Web site. Choong said the ship was carrying 656 passengers and 399 crew members.

What about this one?