Thursday, April 01, 2010

You mess with the bull

...and you get the horns.
The small gang of Somali pirates fired on an approaching ship, hoping their midnight attack would bring them millions in ransom. The ragtag bandits, though, had taken on far more than they could handle: a U.S. warship.

The USS Nicholas, a guided missile frigate, was tracking the pirates when they opened fire early Thursday in Indian Ocean waters, the U.S. military said. The Nicholas, which saw combat in the first Gulf War, returned fire and disabled the skiff.

Navy personnel later boarded and detained three suspects. The Americans found two more bandits on a nearby mothership and later sank the skiff.
Rinse, repeat.

20 comments:

DeltaBravo said...

Epic fail!  All about the pirate failboat!

DeltaBravo said...

Epic fail!  All aboard the pirate failboat!

DeltaBravo said...

Satellite imagery revealed the reason for the pirates' error....

John said...

What sort of Charlie Sierra ROEs require a U.S. warship that is fired on to cease firing before the attackers are DESTROYED-  i.e.- dead and sunk?

We should be a global force with good marksmanship and the determination to forcibly eradicate pirates when they attack.

If Obama wants to do arrests and trial type crap in response to armed attacks on our warships, then turn the fracking fleet over to Eric Holder's Justice Department and send our sailors back home and quit pretending that they are a "military" force.

Did we not develop any resolve after the Pueblo or Liberty incidents when our ships were attacked?

If you let the pirates get away with this crap, then AQ and tin horn dictators will be encouraged to give it a shot as well.

Fire on a U.S. warship and the shooter's death should be certain and near instantaneous.  Plan to fire on a U.S. warship and the same results should ensure, even before they get off a round.

It's a WARship, not "LOVEboat."  Or at least it was in the pre-Obama Navy.

ewok40k said...

@ John
Well, there is something called rescuing the survivors - after ship is sunk collecting prisoners is standard procedure if situation allows... Of course if enemy surrenders ship, this is preferable to having a fight, too.
I certainly prefer enemies who do that.
Plus dead pirates dont tell in which home in which city is the man who hired them and financed whole operation, (not that it has something to do with the house suffering unexpected explosion soon later) nor where are held the hostages and how strong is their guarding force...

And Soviets were planning, training and building to fire on US warships for a whole 40 years (and vice versa), be glad no one used your ROE (on either side).

Last but not least unless you are willing to spend fortune on lawyers, expect to be charged of shooting unarmed men - which would be technically true since pirates either were swimming around unarmed after their skiff sank, or have dropped weapons and surrendered. I think if they have been a little more in the spirit of warrior as Japanese in the WW2 were, effects would be more to your liking, but having ships and weapons out is in my book 2/3 full glass :)

C-dore 14 said...

Ewok, Based on my understanding the loss of boats and weapons is a minor inconvenience for the guys who fund these operations.  (Or the loss of teenage morons who want to be pirates for that matter).

C-dore 14 said...

John, Using the force necessary to control the situation was the standard ROE in situations like this long before Obama became President.  I'm more interested if we're going to bring them before a court somewhere or if we're going to participate in the "catch and release" program that some of our NATO allies use.

ewok40k said...

heard Kenya is possible a place for a trial - certainly few years in african prison is better than catch and release

ewok40k said...

sadly the problem is the enormous wealth of the ransoms, you can buy hundreds of prate wannabes and equipement for them easily from one captured and ransomed merchant liner...

Therapist1 said...

Some 3 hour tour.

bullnav said...

And the FARRAGUT just engaged some more.  They burned one skiff and then set 11 pirates adrift in another. 

C-dore 14 said...

I would hope that Kenya is not an option.  Their attack was on sovereign U.S. territory and they should be tried here. 

DeltaBravo said...

Kenya has announced they're not trying any more pirates.

Andrewdb said...

Odd.  I thought the Perry's had yardarms.

Byron said...

Actually, they do!

UltimaRatioRegis said...

Perhaps a celebration is in order!

Tom Mowry said...

Another Perry class saves the day.

Tom Mowry said...

During my time which was way before Obama we never had weapons Red and Free to the degree you are suggesting, I agree wtih C-dore, use the amount of force necessary to control the situation, it's not a Steven Segal movie or Tom Clancy book out there

Tom Mowry said...

Another Perry class saves the day. Bad timing doing it at Mid Rats, I would have been some ticked if I missed my chili mac man, and the 2000-2359 watch must have been ticked too, sailors don't like GQ at midnight, silly pirates

pk said...

Nah EW it just means that the glass is one and a half times bigger than it needs to be.

C