Here's A Job For A Submarine
Seems like there's a pirate "mother ship" hanging around off the Horn of Africa, launching small boats filled with pirates to attack passing shipping. If only there was some military asset that could perform oceanic surveillance while remaining undetected, could stay on station a long time, and observe suspicious ships that probably wouldn't launch their speedboats if they thought someone was watching... and if this ship had a weapon that could sink said ship quickly, that would be even better.
Going deep...
posted by Bubblehead at 11:16 AM
6 Comments:
Ever see or hear of the movie, "assault on a queen"?
Old Frank Sinatra moview, with Verni Lisi(?) at her best ;)
Story line is they resurrect a WWII sub to hold up the Queen Mary.
11/12/2005 1:38 PM
Shipmate,
Head on over to The Politburo Diktat, Eagle1 and I took over one of the Commissar's posts where he calls out the Navy. Your perspective would, I think, round out the comments.
BTW, remember in the 1990's, the Canadian's used their O-boats to prove Spain was violating their fishing grounds. Spain threatened to send Frigate escorts next time? Great fun. You are right, though. Some nice video of a 'mother ship' going "boom" might have a nice impact on future pirate operations. You might even be able to get readiness points for it.
11/13/2005 11:05 AM
Hmmm. Use a subsurface craft of some sort? How unsporting.
But an excellent idea.
11/13/2005 5:54 PM
Ah, the Cod Wars. Nowadays you can get a former Canadian fishing boat, cheap, provided you promise to not fish with it.
Subs are one tool in a toolbox for this antipiracy stuff. What you need is information, particularly at the beginning of the kill chain. Most of these things are comparatively tiny and can be sunk with some judiciously placed .50 cal. The sub adds long dwell time, rilly big firepower, independence from the oiler's apron string and stealth; the other units add more information and situational awareness and firepower and continuous comms. Both work better when plugged in to the bubbas in Lemonier for the land based work, and perhaps an operator or two in the ports (since what's less exciting but more profitable is attacking the ships in port). But you won't kill this stuff off completely with anarchy on land; all you can do is make it painful enough for most of the thieves to go elsewhere.
Coasties are made for this antipirate stuff, by the way. Many countries' navies are also their Coast Guard. Thus it's also excellent coalition fodder--especially if they can be fueled by someone like Mount Whitney sitting off of HOA.
11/13/2005 8:40 PM
Back in the early '90s we had an SSN heading into the Gulf of Thailand at night on the surface take fire from a potential pirate. He got close enough to realize that the close running lights he too to be a small boy was really one of Uncle's finest and turned tail back to the coast.
After that we started specifying having an M203 on the bridge for surface transits in certain waters.
11/14/2005 2:53 PM
I'm pretty sure that was USS Gurnard; they were on deployment the same time as we were on Topeka; but I thought it was in the South China Sea. (If I remember right, they had a really crappy deployment -- ran aground, got a CO fired when a drill went south, and then the pirate attack.) Word on the street was that the OOD on the bridge was calling down for them to send up an M-16, and the CO was telling him to keep his fool head down. I also heard they tried to call in an air strike from the ARG cruising about 20 miles to seaward...
11/14/2005 9:20 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home