Let's all clear the air on the definition of 'warship'. I'm no 'rear admiral', heh, so I'd just adopt the Google standard - 'a government ship that is available for waging war'.
Gunboats vary in definition too - a small 5-man patrol boat armed with a .50 that plied the Mekong Delta during Nam was considered a gunboat. According to Wiki - 'A gunboat is literally a boat carrying one or more guns.' Strictly following that defintion, the battleship Yamato can also be called a gunboat.
Somalian pirates, or modern pirates, nowadays captain skiffs as their main vessel, and usually follow these tactics :
1) Identify target, follow, and stay below horizon line/detection.
2) Night(usually) quick approach of intended target within fast assault craft (short-range open sea dinghys) strike range.
3) Launch of multiple fast assault craft with boarding crew armed with light automatic weapons.
4) Shock and board target from multiple points.
5) Skiff to approach and complete takeover of ship, then retract to safe distance with holding crew on board ship, and hostages split up.
The most damaging steps are #3 and #4, where the target is boarded on multiple fronts by small assault teams. Most lives are lost here, and this is precisely where the international task force hope to intervene.
1) Fast assault craft spotted by lookout(s)/radar. Friend-or-Foe protocol.
2) Ship captain radio broadcast of impending assault to friendlies in area.
3) Proximity friendlies launch fast air-response group to assist and defend.
4) Proximity friendlies launch response crews in fast assault craft to assist, board, and secure.
5) Proximity friendlies co-ordinate hunt-and-converge patterns on commanding pirate skiff(s).
Looking at the strategy, priorities are to 1) defend against the first wave of boarding crew via fast air response, 2) send marines to secure and defend the ship and its crew, and 3) co-ordinate naval forces to hunt and capture the master/commanding pirate vessel.
It might be the Wild West to the Somalians in that open sea, but to the international task force, they are not there to invade Somalia and openly slaughter Somalian pirates, they are there to provide a deterrent force, while the bigwigs try to resolve Somalia's key problems - poverty, easy access to arms, and piracy recruitment.
Again, the international task force's role is not to blow up anything on the waters that moves and have little black figures onboard, it is to deter and defend against piracy attempts, capture perpetrators, and eliminate the root of the problem.
Gunboats vary in definition too - a small 5-man patrol boat armed with a .50 that plied the Mekong Delta during Nam was considered a gunboat. According to Wiki - 'A gunboat is literally a boat carrying one or more guns.' Strictly following that defintion, the battleship Yamato can also be called a gunboat.
Somalian pirates, or modern pirates, nowadays captain skiffs as their main vessel, and usually follow these tactics :
1) Identify target, follow, and stay below horizon line/detection.
2) Night(usually) quick approach of intended target within fast assault craft (short-range open sea dinghys) strike range.
3) Launch of multiple fast assault craft with boarding crew armed with light automatic weapons.
4) Shock and board target from multiple points.
5) Skiff to approach and complete takeover of ship, then retract to safe distance with holding crew on board ship, and hostages split up.
The most damaging steps are #3 and #4, where the target is boarded on multiple fronts by small assault teams. Most lives are lost here, and this is precisely where the international task force hope to intervene.
1) Fast assault craft spotted by lookout(s)/radar. Friend-or-Foe protocol.
2) Ship captain radio broadcast of impending assault to friendlies in area.
3) Proximity friendlies launch fast air-response group to assist and defend.
4) Proximity friendlies launch response crews in fast assault craft to assist, board, and secure.
5) Proximity friendlies co-ordinate hunt-and-converge patterns on commanding pirate skiff(s).
Looking at the strategy, priorities are to 1) defend against the first wave of boarding crew via fast air response, 2) send marines to secure and defend the ship and its crew, and 3) co-ordinate naval forces to hunt and capture the master/commanding pirate vessel.
It might be the Wild West to the Somalians in that open sea, but to the international task force, they are not there to invade Somalia and openly slaughter Somalian pirates, they are there to provide a deterrent force, while the bigwigs try to resolve Somalia's key problems - poverty, easy access to arms, and piracy recruitment.
Again, the international task force's role is not to blow up anything on the waters that moves and have little black figures onboard, it is to deter and defend against piracy attempts, capture perpetrators, and eliminate the root of the problem.
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