The recent events of piracy off Somalia raises the question of how do we deal with these attacks?

One solution might be to take Pompey’s tactics from history.

How the Roman's dealt with pirates.

However, to simply arm the Red Sea up to the hilt with military vessels wouldn’t be cost effective bearing in mind the fraction of vessels that are actually apprehended and the level of ransom’s sought. Bear in mind that the Pirates make sure there are no warships in sight before they seize the ship and they are careful to avoid unnecessary confrontation that may lead to deaths. They see it as a purely economic exercise. Moreover, no doubt Pompey had rather more discretion in his choice of action than we have today.

Another option might be to strike at the Pirates bases, however this means a land attack, something the US will be reluctant to undertake after their previous experience in Somalia.

Perhaps the merchant vessels themselves could be armed? However, with Oil tankers in particular this could be a dangerous option.

How about arming just a fraction of the vessels with hidden ‘Special Forces’ so the pirates don’t know which vessels they can safely apprehend? It would give them something to think about. Probably there would be too few interceptions.

All you'd really need is about six guys with automatic rifles and machine guns on the deck. Size of the security crew depending on the size of the ship.

As in all things, intelligence not brute force, will hold the key. We must get to know our enemies.

I can't see them arming merchant ships, I think it's a good idea, but I can't see it. Daylight attacks could easily be fought off, but at night would be a whole new story, especially if they adopted wolf pack tactics mounting multi pronged attacks.

Or pretend to negotiate and take advantage of their distraction

An unnamed US official told the Associated Press news agency that Capt Phillips was freed in what appeared to be a swift firefight.
Reports say he jumped overboard for a second time, and the pirates were shot and killed before they could take action to get him back.
US forces apparently took advantage of the fact one of the pirates was negotiating on the USS Bainbridge when the incident happened.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7996087.stm

Good for Phillips!

He's free now, but there will come a time when someone will die, maybe many. The free world must start putting something into place to make piracy a very high risk venture for the pirates.

Here in Australia we detect refugees and drug smugglers approaching Australia along more than 3000 miles of largely uninhabited coast, surely similar technology could be used to detect the mother ships, and then once identified as carrying armed persons, they could be sunk.

I'm sure that after a few pirate crews disappeared without trace, the pirates would start to get the message.

Its risky to force the hand of hostage takers, we got lucky this time, but next time the pirates might decide to shoot the hostages before they are overpowered.

On the other hand, the pirates now know that while piracy can lead to huge profits their are also some very real risks. Its no longer the cakewalk it once was. What must be conveyed to the world is to stop paying the bribes. If the pirates risk so much for no return they will find something else to do to make money.

Yeah but then we'd be launching unprovoked attacks against people who have every right to be at sea as we do </sarcasm>

I think the SEALs had most of the bases covered at that point and were only looking for a reason to pull the trigger. Also I think the Captain who was held hostage kept his cool and that saved his life too. I think he jumped into the water so the pirates wouldn't have a clear shot at him.

Hats off to the SEALs & Capt Phillips. Storming a lifeboat can't have been an easy proposition, but they were ready. Capt Phillips for keeping his head and his offensive spirit. If he took advantage of another lapse good, even better that the SEALs were alert & ready to respond.

For the longer term cure of piracy - solve poverty! But seriously perhaps we should be looking to Q ships. There are enough ships around the globe that are being laid up due to the economic crisis, rent a few of 'em. Crew 'em up, add some weapons, give 'em cargo and let rock.

The piracy in the Malacca Straits was solved by swift action by the govt, with the assistance of an international body. In this situation, Somalia has no govt worth speaking of & I think that the international forces are wary of getting drawn in to a fight that could end up on land & suck them in, so they're sticking to the seas.

In this I agree with Senjokips, use our strengths, gather the intelligence and then use it, couple this with Q ships & we could get some results. Although piracy will only sping up somewhere else, I'm thinking the Niger Delta, West Coast of Africa & probably Portsmouth, England, because we aren't able to tackle poverty and who realistically would not risk their life for a fortune (whatever that means to you), to set your family up for life?

My idea of how to deal with piracy hails back to the time of wooden ships and iron men. Whenever a pirate is captured while attacking (or in possession of a ship which was attacked), a "drum-head" hearing is held, and then the pirate is hanged from the nearest tree or yardarm, til 'dead dead dead'.

It wouldn't take very long for pirates to decide there was a safer means of making a living .. one that would allow them to live a long and full life.

BTW - POLITICAL CORRECTNESS SUCKS AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED. POVERTY IS NOT AN EXCUSE FOR PIRACY .. NO MATTER HOW POOR THEY ARE.

The only thing that a pirate deserves, is thirteen turns (Hangman's Noose).