"Apparently, they don't know about the SAS/SBS" Topic

Seems a rather daft thing to do, given the overall efficiency of the SAS/SBS, and their role in that little Falklands dustup a while back.

It appears the pirates haven't read history, and don't know how badly it ended when British soldiers were taken a few decades ago by the Argentinians:

link

I'm sure more info will be forthcoming shortly.

In the interim, it might be good fodder for a scenario or two.

No doubt the real troops are running through a number of them as well, or will be shortly.

Not just the British – the French and Americans have proved to be rather capable at rescuing hostages as well.

Q ships. We need Q ships.

Yes, I would think that blowing the snot out of them as they try to board would be a much better deterent than past history… People like that just believe they can beat the odds…

There's only so much you can do when you've got a pump-action shotgun and the boarders have automatic weapons and RPGs.

I expect some ugliness to happen to those pirates when the SBS (or some French Marines, or SEALs) catch up with them.

It can't happen soon enough – they need showing that they can't carry on doing this with impunity, or the problem is only going to get worse, and probably spread to other places as well. Time to put a shot across their bows (sorry – well, not very sorry at all actually – about the pun), or, better still, right between their eyes.

And yes, Q Ships would be a bloomin' good idea – that'd give 'em a proper shock.

Maybe that would help. Until the pirates find other ways to prey upon shipping. They might just spread out further or find another "creative" solution.
I think, the problem can only be solved by improving the situation in Somalia for the people. Sure we need to protect our assets/ships/people. But you need to "pull the root out" i.e. fight poverty and develop some kind of stable government to end it for good. That is my opinion at least, though I would enjoy some pirate-busting tabletop-games myself.

problem is "to many people for the land to feed", you cant fix something like that, unless you stop sending them food money and selling them weapons and ammo.

One thing you can do is decide which ports are being used then simply blast every vessel using that port. Do this a couple of times and the pirates will lose their bases. Granted, they would start spreading their boats into isolated coves, etc – but the home ports would still be known.

Zero tolerance is the only answer. Instead of trying to take them alive, just blast them out of the water.

problem is "to many people for the land to feed", you cant fix something like that, unless you stop sending them food money and selling them weapons and ammo.

But with weapons I can make sure no-one takes food away from me. [/devils advocate mode]

There's only so much you can do when the people don't want to help themselves, and are content killing each other instead of feeding themselves.

There's only so much you can do when the people don't want to help themselves, and are content killing each other instead of feeding themselves.<q/>

that is why we all need to stop sending them food money and selling them weapons and ammo. in two or three years most of the dumb ones will be dead and the smart ones will be growing food. then the county can start over.

Or the smart ones band together (and maybe influence other, less smart people) and use these weapons we sent them to go and kill you and me?
I guess it is not to intelligent to give a smart and desperate person access to a gun and amunition…

You can't kill everyone who is greedy or desperate enough to hijack a ship (though it might be fun to try).

Stop paying ransoms and piracy will stop instantly.

Why not run convoys?