A U.S. military commander urged the shipping companies on Monday to provide armed guards for their cargo boats in case of piracy in the Horn of Africa.Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, who is in charge of the U.S. Navy’s Central Command fleet, said during an interview with CNN that shipping companies needed to provide a last line of defense against being boarded by pirates, including armed guards and barbed wire around the lower parts of the ship, among others.
“You need two things to have a successful piracy attack. You need pirates that are seeking monetary gain and you also need a ship that’s able to get pirated,” he said.
The commander said that two vessels survived pirate attacks last week because they had put barbed wire around the ship on the closest avenues of approach…
There really is nothing new about defensive armaments in the Merchant Marine. Vessels were armed during both of the World Wars as defense against submarine and aircraft attacks. A maximum of four 50-calibre automatic weapons mounted for raking fire – two on each side of the craft – with trained gunners – is about all you need.
A lot less expensive than a million-dollar ransom. If you can get it past the fracking lawyers.
Eideard said, “A lot less expensive than a million-dollar ransom. If you can get it past the fracking lawyers.”
Maybe the lawyers should be required to travel with every unarmed merchant ship… 😉
Arming the ships makes “common sense” to me. Got to have “the public” behind you though to support the policy when the first bored gun crew slaughters an innocent fishing vessel. Shouldn’t be that hard given they are all foreigners.
It would probably be a better idea to give each merchant ship a squad of fully armed Marines. I know it is more expensive than machine gun emplacements, but you have trained people who can take out the pirates and the crew can lock themselves in the bridge and steer the ship.
A quick and dirty barracks can be made from a few shipping containers.
I disagree bobbo, from what I’ve read about the pirates, their tactics and their ships are very different from a fishing boat. I say give the cargo ships machine guns, that will scare away most of the pirates.
There are enough captured RPGs and rounds in Iraq to arm all of these ships. Let them have at the pirates.
Mail me a penny postcard when one of you glances at the history of armed merchant marines – instead of relying on your crystal balls.
Training personnel to use a machine gun (or a RPG) effectively ain’t exactly rocket science.
Freighters and tanker are not armored. An RPG round could cause some serious insult. These guys can now afford to buy stand off shoulder launchers, which can be fired out of the range of a .50 caliber gun. You would have to engage them with heavier weapons with explosive warheads. These are not easy weapons to man and fire, and radar controlled weapons would be too expensive. You have to take out their base of operations and destroy their ability to continue. Remember a modern freighter steams at over 20 knots. A rickety old fishing boat is not a danger, unless they contain speedboats. All this can be done with rotary and fixed wing assets. As for the captured pirates, throw them over the side, or avoid taking prisoners. So Somalia has bee screwed over by the West, what African nation hadn’t.
# 7 RTaylor said, “These guys can now afford to buy stand off shoulder launchers, which can be fired out of the range of a .50 caliber gun.”
Let them try and hit with one while in a small pitching craft, out of range of an M2… Lots of luck.
The way I understand it, one of the main reasons such vessels are not currently armed is that and armed vessel can be subject to special inspections while in port which can delay shipping. Therefore it might be cheaper to pay the ransom than incur late shipping fees from having you ship detained at various ports.
# 10 GetSmart said, “Then no one would want to pay the ransom.”
LOL!
Hold your fire men, that boat racing in off the starboard bow is just full of women wearing hijabs and waving their hankies.
Modern .50-calibre weapons have a range exceeding 1 mile. The .50 BMG round has an effective range of 1850 meters and can reach over 6000 meters.
#7, their is a problem with your argument. The fact is the pirates do not want to sink or destroy the ship. If they do that then they do not get any money. All the shipping companies have to do is make the odds no longer in their favor. I say let the ships be armed with 50 cals. That will in effect make it impossible for the pirate gangs to do their mischief.
Will it stop it completely? Probably not, but you can make the cost so high that it takes a huge capital investment to hijack a ship, right now all you need is a few guys in a shipping boat, with a Russian RPG, and some machine guns. Plus lets be honest, if pirates realize that all American flag merchant ships are armed, they are probably going to go find a softer target.
ok, so lets say we permit armed guards on the ships, and maybe a 50 cal. machine gun mounted on the deck.
that means when any ship enters a U.S. port, it is now legally transporting guns that would otherwise be illegal in the port itself.
how long would it be before a few al-quaeda nutbars hire themselves out as “security” so they can take a trip to New York or L.A. and go on a shooting spree as soon as they arrive?
#15 There’s nothing to stop a ship from doing that now. BTW – an officer would have secured any weapons long before entering US waters. Come up with a better excuse to keep ships as soft targets for pirates.
I’m for killing as many pirates as possible.
1. Shoot the Navy’s lawyers with the .50 cal
2. Arm the ships
3. Sink the mother ships
4. Destroy the towns they live in
By letting them ransom the world, they gain power and prestige and the nasty guys like Al Queda arrive or copy elsewhere.
This is all because the commercial ships are not allowed to arm themselves due to international law. Reverse this and we’ll see a decrease in piracy at sea. Don’t use our Navy as bodyguards.
I’m all for arming merchant ships, for any number of reasons. But to stop pirates from boarding—that is climbing up the side of the ship—wouldn’t a few strategically placed pots of boiling oil do the trick?
That would avoid all the “weapons” laws in the USA at least.
Right on, #10. Throw in a few Wall Street bankers with those lawyers, too. If no one paid the ransoms, the pirates wouldn’t have the scratch to buy better toys to make piracy more efficient. Hell, the pirates that got the $40 million ransom probably have a sub already.
Since onboard arms are a bit sticky, why aren’t the cargo ships hiring armed escort boats for the vulnerable locations, or do they think our navy should be doing it pro bono?
# 21 Patch said, “or do they think our navy should be doing it pro bono?”
We should protect US flagged ships. Other countries can protect ships flying their flag…
# 7 RTaylor said, “These guys can now afford to buy stand off shoulder launchers, which can be fired out of the range of a .50 caliber gun.”
Bzzzzt. Wrong answer, Quick search of the Internet produces an effective range of an RPG as 500 meters. As god pointed out that isn’t even close to a .50cal (my hopefully next gun).
#18 sailor said,
1. Shoot the Navy’s lawyers with the .50 cal
2. Arm the ships
3. Sink the mother ships
4. Destroy the towns they live in
What Navy are you referring to? It isn’t the Navies of the world that have a thing to do with it and it sure as hell isn’t our Navy.
International Law probably covers this, I don’t know since I’m not a lawyer. Shoot the lawyers would have been more appropriate.
You may need some guys from, um, blackwater, on some of these ships. Four heavy machine guns and a couple of rockets.
Tankers have special issues but cargo haulers could do it. Of course 25 million could cover the cost of putting some rockets on a lot of tankers…I think that was what one was worth.
Of course if you waited till they got close and dumped some crude over board at the bow and set it on fire…Yeah that might ruin their day.
I used the term RPG loosely, I should have stated shouldered fired anti-tank weapons, not a $50 50 year old RPG. Al those millions can buy some good black market weapons. The range of an M2 is useless unless you have a well trained gunner. That speed boat is moving also. You would need constant training for the gun crews. Sometimes you have to hit someone hard enough, they’ll not come back for more. Blow the kingpins to bits. By the way have everyone forgot how great these hoods behaved a few years ago with US troops on the ground? Screw’em, lets move on.
#25 So? As stated above: If they destroy the vessel there is no money in it for them.
What was your point?
Arrrr! Cutlass aint going to do it.
Arming merchant ships again(like in times of war) seems logical.
If you have weapons you will need training. I wonder if they will need to work with the STCW to add certifications and job descriptions. You can’t just plop a mounted 50cals on the decks and tell the crew to have at it.
Some non-lethal water canons manned from an armored positions and Razor Wire and moving at flank speed over troubled waters would go along way cutting down boardings
Please don’t make the Navy (i.e. the taxpayer) protect these ships. Make the ships pay to protect the ships. Then maybe our manufacturers will become a little more competitive and who knows, some jobs might start flowing back to the 1st World.
Every pirate killed just creates more pirates.
What about a firehose, spraying kerosene, with a flare-gun providing the chaser. Douse them when they get close. Let them use the RPG if they care.
Everything necessary is already on board a freighter. I’m presuming the cargo ship could withstand the conflagration. Anyone know?
Cmon guys. You’re from the land of opportunity.
I can’t believe that no one has mentioned it.
I’m gonna start selling cruises on these target ships to NRA members.BYO guns.
Maybe we could launch MV Charlton Heston if there is enough interest.