Doing numbers makes this seem less simple.
About 2,000 ships transit the horn every day.
You can’t put 2 people on a ship, you want
rotating shifts 4 on 4 off. so figure 2-3 shifts.
So figure 3 shifts to be conservative.
So you are looking at around 12,000 people to do this.
now pick up and drop off takes some time.
maybe an hour to get a team on, so figure 4,000 hours
of ship or chopper time to get these teams on
say 6 small boats per ship, so 144 pick ups per mother ship so figure on needing 25 mother ships to be
picking up teams and dropping them off.
non-trivial task force.
figure 250Million per month to make this work.
cheaper to train the crews on medium weapons.
Jack,
you’re kidding right? If they put teams on just a few ships and take out a few pirates, they’ll shy away from ALL the ships. The word will get out quickly.
Just knowing there is a possibility of getting caught, or jailed and executed, is deterrent enough for most people to act right. That works worldwide, regardless of race, creed, color or nationality.
Just knowing there is a possibility of getting caught, or jailed and executed, is deterrent enough for most people to act right.
Deterrence needs to be credible to work. So it can’t be “a few” ships. It’s got to be a lot. I don’t know how many “a lot” would be – it depends on how hard up the pirates are. Let’s say 25% of the total shipping.
Also, most of the pirates fired on are not going to be killed. (Hitting a small boat from a moving ship is non-trivial.) So the pirates may change tactics. (Night attacks, vs. the current trend of daylight ops, for example.)
Don’t get me wrong – it’s a real good start, but not the world-beater solution advertised.
Well, for starters, ISTR reading elsewhere that most or all ships successfully boarded had a low freeboard and low top speed. Focus on those, first.
Or we could get rid of the ridiculous gun control laws preventing merchant vessels from defending themselves. Merchant ships used to have cannons for this very purpose. What threat could a couple rifles for the crew possibly pose?
t’s an economic problem.
The shipping lines and the insurance companies could work it out.
There could be good business in a pilot boat leasing guns outside of a harbor.
Jack Lee, what the hell is wrong with your brain? It’s an economic problem?? Really?
It’s “economic” when merchant vessels are forbidden by law from packing the means of their self defense?
It’s “economic” when the British Navy is warned to not engage the pirates for fear of asylum requests?
Piracy (like all theft) is a law & order problem.
The Solutions are economic in nature.
If the cost of piracy becomes too high, Shipping lines will arm and train their crews.
If the cost of not having arms becomes too high, shippers will stop going into ports that prohibit weapons.
I’m kind of surprised the NRA types aren’t insisting that US Flagged ships carry a complement on light and medium weapons and require all crew members to be trained on their use.
coast guard requires US Ships have safety equipment and regular training, it seems like this could be a required piece of safety gear.
I’m kind of surprised the NRA types aren’t insisting that US Flagged ships carry a complement on light and medium weapons and require all crew members to be trained on their use.
You haven’t been paying attention.
The shippers will need to add some crew, probably about 6
AB Seamen or equivalent and 2 racks of M-16’s say 20 rifles,
a brace of 9 mm Pistols and perhaps 6 LAW Rockets, and an M-60 MG.
It’s a days worth of training to run the men through the course, add a CPO or Retired Marine E-6 and you’d have enough firepower to deter all but
a raiding party on an armored PT Boat.
Now given there are only 100 US Flagged vessels, that’s a pretty small cost function. You could even use Navy Reserve sailors to staff the force.
You would use up 10,000 Reservists over a year, but, if they volunteered to go active, you could probably do with less, maybe 2,000 men.
Now, what’s a ticklish issue is having ships quarters for say 7 men,
but, that’s probably not the biggest problem, you might even be able to set up a tent on deck for them.
Doing numbers makes this seem less simple.
About 2,000 ships transit the horn every day.
You can’t put 2 people on a ship, you want
rotating shifts 4 on 4 off. so figure 2-3 shifts.
So figure 3 shifts to be conservative.
So you are looking at around 12,000 people to do this.
now pick up and drop off takes some time.
maybe an hour to get a team on, so figure 4,000 hours
of ship or chopper time to get these teams on
say 6 small boats per ship, so 144 pick ups per mother ship so figure on needing 25 mother ships to be
picking up teams and dropping them off.
non-trivial task force.
figure 250Million per month to make this work.
cheaper to train the crews on medium weapons.
Jack,
you’re kidding right? If they put teams on just a few ships and take out a few pirates, they’ll shy away from ALL the ships. The word will get out quickly.
Just knowing there is a possibility of getting caught, or jailed and executed, is deterrent enough for most people to act right. That works worldwide, regardless of race, creed, color or nationality.
Just knowing there is a possibility of getting caught, or jailed and executed, is deterrent enough for most people to act right.
Deterrence needs to be credible to work. So it can’t be “a few” ships. It’s got to be a lot. I don’t know how many “a lot” would be – it depends on how hard up the pirates are. Let’s say 25% of the total shipping.
Also, most of the pirates fired on are not going to be killed. (Hitting a small boat from a moving ship is non-trivial.) So the pirates may change tactics. (Night attacks, vs. the current trend of daylight ops, for example.)
Don’t get me wrong – it’s a real good start, but not the world-beater solution advertised.
Well, for starters, ISTR reading elsewhere that most or all ships successfully boarded had a low freeboard and low top speed. Focus on those, first.
Or we could get rid of the ridiculous gun control laws preventing merchant vessels from defending themselves. Merchant ships used to have cannons for this very purpose. What threat could a couple rifles for the crew possibly pose?
t’s an economic problem.
The shipping lines and the insurance companies could work it out.
There could be good business in a pilot boat leasing guns outside of a harbor.
Me, I kinda want to take this “Cruise”.
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2009/05/somali-coast-cruise-package.html
Jack Lee, what the hell is wrong with your brain? It’s an economic problem?? Really?
It’s “economic” when merchant vessels are forbidden by law from packing the means of their self defense?
It’s “economic” when the British Navy is warned to not engage the pirates for fear of asylum requests?
Piracy (like all theft) is a law & order problem.
The Solutions are economic in nature.
If the cost of piracy becomes too high, Shipping lines will arm and train their crews.
If the cost of not having arms becomes too high, shippers will stop going into ports that prohibit weapons.
I’m kind of surprised the NRA types aren’t insisting that US Flagged ships carry a complement on light and medium weapons and require all crew members to be trained on their use.
coast guard requires US Ships have safety equipment and regular training, it seems like this could be a required piece of safety gear.
You haven’t been paying attention.
The shippers will need to add some crew, probably about 6
AB Seamen or equivalent and 2 racks of M-16’s say 20 rifles,
a brace of 9 mm Pistols and perhaps 6 LAW Rockets, and an M-60 MG.
It’s a days worth of training to run the men through the course, add a CPO or Retired Marine E-6 and you’d have enough firepower to deter all but
a raiding party on an armored PT Boat.
Now given there are only 100 US Flagged vessels, that’s a pretty small cost function. You could even use Navy Reserve sailors to staff the force.
You would use up 10,000 Reservists over a year, but, if they volunteered to go active, you could probably do with less, maybe 2,000 men.
Now, what’s a ticklish issue is having ships quarters for say 7 men,
but, that’s probably not the biggest problem, you might even be able to set up a tent on deck for them.