"We need... privateers?" Topic

The United States should issue letters of marque to fight Chinese aggression at sea.

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It's a pretty good idea.

Inasmuch as privateers are authorized agents of the United States government, any attack they make on a foreign vessel would be an act of war. So this is really a dumb idea.

A marginally less dumb idea is to use deniable assets to commit real piracy. Then at least it doesn't come right to bite us.

Letters of marque to interdict the waterborne drug trade are discussed now and again, too.

I think you'd want two levels of play: ship combat and boarding actions. For ship combat, you could get away with paper counters, but for boarding actions, I'd want 25mm figures and a ship of the same scale.

Do it in 15mm, only 1/4 of the space required for deck plans :) I've done similar for counter piracy games, they ended up feeling very much like Traveller RPG boarding actions :)

And I agree, the original suggestion isn't all that sensible. But then neither are 'deniabke assets'sinxe in most cases everyone involved knows EXACTLY who tasked those assets – deniability only really plays out in the world's press and in diplomatic circles. And the other side have way many more options in the 'deniable'assets they could engage in response

It's a really bad idea. It will pointlessly raise the risk of war while achieving trivial results, and it will increase actual piracy when the privateers decide to pad their profits with a little work on the side. Just as they did historically. There are a number of good reasons why maritime privateering fell out of favor with governments.

It is basically a declaration of war. And what if the Chinrse and Russians start doing the same? Bye bye international trade.

So this is really a dumb idea.

Nigeria is trying that with multiple contracts on Private Marine security ,they have over 200 small boats in their PMC fleet to stop Niger river pirates and in the Gulf of Guinea.and they haven't really done the trick…outside of costing a lot of money.

jurgernation except Nigeria isn't using privateers to take out other nations sovereign assets.

If the USA wants to unleash privateers on Chinese ships it should expect the Chinese Russians, Norks Iranians etc o do the same.

Chinese are already in this game using paramilitary militias including their fishing fleets on SC Sea. Most Chinese fishermen are technically in a militia and the government provides them with large steel hulled ships to take out smaller opponents.

Their massive ship building industry and ruthlessness would allow them to churn out far more effective and brutal privateers of their own.

I suspect the US would lose in the end.

Also what the stupid authors don't get is the US order is based on a rules based order. Unleashing pirates to take out Chinese trade assets destroys that concept. The US basically drops any assertion of morality or legality.

To be honest there have been too many mercernaries (PMCs) already introduced globally. They destroy transparancy and accountability which are key to success of democracies.

They contribute to fueling the 1984 style forever wars which serve no purpose save to keep PMCs and defence contractors in a job.

I think they should be banned. We don't need more dogs of war and money driven armed thugs.

Ideas from 1812 about using legalised bandits should not even be considered in 2020.

David Manley wrote:

Do it in 15mm, only 1/4 of the space required for deck plans :) I've done similar for counter piracy games, they ended up feeling very much like Traveller RPG boarding actions :)

That would not be a bad result!

Isn't there an international agreement that Letters of Marque are no longer legal?

Isn't there an international agreement that Letters of Marque are no longer legal?

Well, there goes my new career…

*hangs up cutlass and jaunty feathered hat*

When others don't play by the rules, why should we???

See the most recent SCS sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat by the Chinese, using bumper boat tactics.

We need to bring back the olde WWII battleships, or make some new ones, just for situations like this. Let them try to play "bumper boats" with one of those.

Just because they're no longer legal doesn't mean they won't and/or can't be used. You just need a signature to change that.

Unmarked submarines, torpedoes, and naval mines are the real answer here though, especially if they are unmanned, drone subs built for shallow, littoral waters.

;-)

With those, it's pretty easy to come up with "implausible deniability".