Bring back the swift boats to attack pirates

Scotsman:

REAR-ADMIRAL Giovanni Gumiero is going on a pirate hunt. From the deck of an Italian destroyer cruising the pirate- infested waters off Somalia, he has all the modern tools at his fingertips – radar, sonar, infrared cameras, helicopters, a cannon that can sink a ship ten miles away – to take on a centuries-old problem that harks back to the days of men o' war and eye patches.

"Our presence will deter them," he said confidently.

More than a dozen warships from Italy, Greece, Turkey, India, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, France, Russia, Britain, Malaysia and the United States have joined the hunt. But the pirates do not seem especially deterred. In the two months since the patrols started, they have attacked more than 30 vessels – two more were taken yesterday – eluding the navy ships, going farther out to sea and seeking bigger, more lucrative game, including a cruise ship and a 1,000ft Saudi oil tanker.

The pirates are recalibrating their tactics, attacking ships in swarms of 20 to 30 skiffs, and threatening to choke off one of the busiest shipping arteries in the world, at the mouth of the Red Sea.

The pirates are totally outgunned. They cruise around in fibreglass boats with assault rifles and, at best, a few rocket-propelled grenades. One Italian officer said going after them in the 485ft destroyer Durand de la Penne, bristling with surface-to-air missiles and torpedoes, was like "going after someone on a bicycle with a truck".

But the pirates are unfazed. "They can't stop us," said Jama Ali, one of the outlaws aboard a Ukrainian freighter packed with weapons that was hijacked in September.

He explained how he and his men hid out on a rock near the narrow mouth of the Red Sea and waited for the big grey ships with guns to pass before pouncing on slow-moving tankers. Even if foreign navies seize some members of his crew, Jama is not worried. He said his men would probably get no more punishment than a free ride back to the beach, which has happened several times. "We know international law," he said.

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I think swift boats with 50 caliber machine guns and some grenade launchers could probably do the trick and would have no trouble running down the pirate small boats. My preferred alternative is still to destroy their base. That is the quickest and cheapest way to deal with them.