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They have additional hard points around the ship for 50 cal type machine guns for close in work. They also have two 20mm guns amidships. Lot's of ways of fucking pirates up.



One of two 50 cal rounds through the outboard motor on the raft and it's likely everything else can be done at leisure.

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I'm pissed the international community doesn't get tough with these guys. Fuck up a few instead of interrogating and letting them go.



France actually isn't a problem here: France has been one of the aggressive ones on this. As for the rest: whatever happened to their NATO obligations, "an attack on one is an attack on all"?

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Blow up the mother ship, [...]. Do that four or five times and the number of attempted seizures goes to zero


This is the only workable strategy I think. Pirates and rafts are dime-a-dozen it seems - sink one and five more scurry out.

But deep-sea fishing vessels, capable of towing the pirates 200 miles into the ocean, are much less common, and harder for the Somali fisherman to replace. Once you start confiscating fishing boats associated with pirate activity the piracy falls off as the boat owners either quit giving tows or all the deep-sea boats are confiscated.

The worst thing thing is that this points out how woeful US sea-surveillance is. Does anyone think the Iranians haven't noticed this? Time to quit pretending satellite surveillance is The Answer and develop some high-altitude UAVs that can stay up for long periods and are cheap enough to buy by the dozens with the goal of *continuous* watch over a big patch of water.
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"If they can't picture me with a knife, forcing them to strip in an alley, I don't want any part of it. It's humiliating." - windsock