[BretLudwig]

Sounds like it!

"Hi Jerry,

The lessons learned from the USA's very early dealings with the Barbary
pirates is instructive - paying them off did not work. Destroying them
did. That lesson has yet to be learned by modern day ship owners and
insurance companies, I fear. It's time to take it out of their hands
before the problem gets worse.

However, some of your correspondents have suggested arming the boats.
That's really not useful - if a boat is captured, the boat's arms will be
the pirates, and not the crews arms to bear. Other forms of negative
reinforcement are needed, not small arms - which are a valuable black
market commodity in their own right.

From first principles, pirates need four things to run a profitable
crime:

a) Means to find and reach the vessel at sea b) Small arms for boarding
the vessel and keeping the captured crew under control c) Capturing the
ship and its cargo for the ransom (or indeed its value on the black
market) d) Holding the crew hostage, as many nations will not deliberately
sink ships with innocents on them

There has to be several prongs to a partial generic solution:

Obviously, increased patrols by huge navy ships are not currently making
much head way against small fishing vessels and speed boats. There needs
to be more aerial surveillance and quick response to likely threats.
Australia has skills in this area - patrolling more than 20,000 km of
coast line for a couple of decades now. They're not perfect at it, but
it's better than most. Australia also sinks every single ship seized in
illegal migration, reducing the total number of ships available for this
purpose. I'm sure such skills and ideas can be adapted.

Reducing small arms availability is basically like flapping arms at
windmills, especially as the USA exports most of them and has been
decidedly against curtailing their sale when everyone else on the planet
is against this scourge. There's now so many weapons floating out there, I
doubt much can be changed in the short term, but if the USA banned the
export and sale of all small arms to non-military purchasers would be a
great first step.

Reduce or eliminate the likelihood of being paid - Legally prevent
insurance companies and ship owners paying off the pirates. Don't let
payout be an option. We've already learnt this lesson, and we should not
repeat the mistakes made the last time.

Reduce the likelihood of boarding - Technology to detect and avoid
approaching objects. I'm sure someone can come up with infrared or other
technology to scan the nearby area whilst at sea to highlight approaching
vessels, and take evasive action such as turning into them and speeding
up. This would give crew a chance to take other actions against the
approaching vessel(s), raise the alarm and declare an emergency, or at
least wake up if they're asleep literally at the wheel. Realistically,
ships are still going to be boarded regardless if you know the pirates are
there or not, so the next stage is to deny the pirates the ransom, boat,
and crew as much as possible.

Reduce the likelihood of capturing the vessel in a useful form. Physically
stop the ships getting to (pirate) port. This requires a few extra routines
in the ship's navigation software. All large and many medium size ships
have auto pilot and have computer control of the engine, rudder and other
directional devices. If the crew has time, they should be able to trigger
an irreversible "Emergency - pirates" mode. In case the crew don't have
time, the mode should also be triggerable remotely by the boat's owners.
In anti-pirate mode, whilst the engines run and the rudder is under the
control of the software, the ship will automatically make full steam to
the nearest known safe haven where navy boats will be, preferably in a
jurisdiction known to prosecute pirates properly.

If the pirates try to disable the software, rudder, or engine(s), the ship
should automatically deploy its sea anchors, and set the rudder to a safe
turning radius so the ship goes in circles in a fixed location, all the
while triggering emergency beacons so the ship can be located as a ship in
distress by emergency services and the various navies. This then becomes a
stand off / siege, where the pirates are at a considerable disadvantage as
proven by the Indian navy last week.

Obviously, this shifts the issue to more vulnerable smaller vessels, but
this also reduces potential booty for the pirates, and may make the entire
thing unprofitable / too risky for the pirates.

Arming pirates is a dumb idea which will not work. Any long term
resolution to this particular bout of piracy has to involve getting
Somalia back on its feet, eliminating the profit and denying them the
cargo, capturing more pirates, and prosecuting them to the full extent of
the law. There will always be piracy, but it hasn't been this bad for a
long time because we've not learnt the lessons from history"

http://www.jerrypournelle.com/mail/2...47.html#convex

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