Showing posts with label pirates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pirates. Show all posts

Russian Navy On How to Deal with Pirates...


This is how you do it:  nab the perps, tie 'em up, put them back on their own boat, then set the whole kit and kaboodle on fire and.... pooof, no more pirates.

The video below shows Russian Navy commandos on a Somali pirate ship shortly after the pirates had captured a Russian oil tanker. A number of commands directed at the prisoners are heard from from an English-speaking Russian, i.e. when the commandos find a weapons stash: "WTF is that?" and "Why do you lie to me? This is not a fishing boat!"

The soldiers immediately freed their compatriots and the Russian oil tanker. They moved the pirates back to their own skiff, searched the boat for weapons and explosives...then left and blew it up it with all remaining pirates hand-cuffed to it.

No court proceedings, lawyers etc- they simply employed the common sense anti-piracy laws of the 18th and 19th centuries, where the captain of the rescuing ship has the right to decide what to do with the pirates. In most circumstances... they were hung on the spot. This time they were vaporized,  so what's the diff... dealer's choice!

Russian ships can now enjoy a substantial deterrent effect.... one other countries like ours could too, if they just allowed the people in their military to do their jobs without asking a bunch of totally unnecessary questions about the methods. They were caught red-handed, that's all anyone really needs to know.

And what the enemy off the coast of Somalia -who would kill you for $50- needs to know is that they will die quickly, painfully, and still dirt poor if they even look at American ships the wrong way... the Kremlin obviously understands the concept:



h/t Speedunque

The Navy's New Pirate Vaporizer


The USS Independence:
A triple-hulled monster,
brimming with weaponry...
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The Independence is the prototype for a new class of littoral combat ship, the design competitor produced by the General Dynamics consortium.

The ship has recently completed sea-trials, and is intended as a small assault transport with a variety of capabilities dependent upon the mission module installed. In addition to cargo or other container-sized modules, the bay can carry four lanes of multiple Strykers and/or armored Humvees, along with their crews.

Propelled by gas-turbine jets, it's officially capable of over 40 knots (46 mph) -even rumored to be able to attain speeds approaching 60 knots- and on-schedule for initial delivery to the US Navy at the end of this year.

Independence can move huge weapons around faster than any ship in the Navy. Ironic that with all that high-tech and high-speed capability, she reminds one of the Merrimac and Monitor ironclads of the US Civil War era in appearance.


Littoral denotes "close to shore", and that's where it will operate, not in blue-water but rather tailor-made for launching helicopters and armored vehicles, sweeping mines and firing all manner of torpedoes, missiles and machine guns.

Pirates would be well-advised to surrender promptly upon initial radio contact- lol.

These ships were designed to be relatively inexpensive at $208 million ... and the navy plans to build 55 of them. The tri-maran Independence-class is the first of a new fire-breathing breed of ship... think of it as a speedy and heavily-armed aircraft carrier for helicopters.



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US Military Deterrent in Free-Fall


Sensing weakness and a gaping window of opportunity, our foes and/or rivals in Tehran, Pyongyang, Moscow, Beijing, and now even crumbling Mogadishu are treating the Obama administration with open contempt... and it appears that they've already exposed him to be as unqualified and misguided as so many suspected.  It's surely not for lack of ability, as America still enjoys largely unchallenged military supremacy (and the US Navy is The Law on the world's oceans)- it's Obama's stubbornly pacifist foreign policy based in appeasement, coupled to an odd personal agenda against some traditional American allies, i.e. Britain and Israel.  That, while  "reaching out" to repulsive, untrustworthy, and morally-bankrupt regimes such as Syria and Iran... including $800M for the medieval savages of Hamas (who recently legalized crucifixion in Gaza as punishment for "insulting Islam"). 


Our allies can't trust him to deliver American power nor moral/strategic clarity, while our enemies have spit in his "open hand" without exception. Obama was caught 100% asleep-at-the-wheel while the Russians nabbed our Krgyzstani air-base vital to supplying Afghan operations, and he issued confused and weak statements when the Russian Army raped Georgia last year- so after humiliation by skinny Somali thugs in some ratty boat with an outboard motor, what's to keep the Kremlin from saying "Yes We Can invade Ukraine- so what are you going to do about it?"  An America lacking a credible deterrent based on the will and sense of when to act -not just the military capacity- makes for a surely more perilous world.  And if you don't like America as the "world cop", just wait and see how the Chinese or Russians take care of everyone. History provides ample lessons that support Reagan's "Peace Through Strength" philosophy- as The Gipper had said "Of the four wars of my lifetime, none came about because the US was too strong."

Compare Obama's dithering, negotiating with Islamic terrorist pirates, and orders not to fire on the Somalis  (wasting a precious opportunity when the Captain swam-for-it) to Ronald Reagan's stating that "we don't negotiate with terrorists"- then promptly sending F-14 Tomcats to intercept the Egyptian 737 carrying escaping PLO thugs from the Achille Lauro highjacking- you know, the one where psychopathic PLO mercenary Abu Nidal shot an senior citizen in his wheelchair? Of course, Nidal escaped capture and ended up running a terrorist training operation in Iraq, under Saddam's protection- but he was killed in 2002, most likely to keep him quiet. Yeah, Saddam didn't have anything to do with terrorism, of course not, lol.

What's truly amazing is how so many Obama supporters inexplicably anticipate different results from the same M.O. as serial-failure Jimmy Carter simply because they wish it to be so... an infantile world-view steeped in fantasy and ignoring all historical precedent. The truth is, there will always be an endless stream of those looking to oppose US interests, often simply as a political platform- and most of them are not very nice people.  Some of them will do anything to kill or rob Americans, or to thwart US interests of any kind-and actions necessary to counter this will often be controversial.  But fighting terrorists and their supporters is a mean, nasty business, one not well-suited to the misguided and inexperienced -yet arrogant- Obama's supposedly "intellectual" views.

Earlier today, the French took unilateral military action against Somali pirates with a commando raid while Barack sits out-back in the White House garden, orders-up another pepperoni-and-green olive from that pizza chef he flew in... and plans next Wednesday's lavish party. And as Sarkozy is taking care of business, Obama won't even answer the press' legitimate questions about the crisis... or bother to mention he's concerned for the heroic Captain Phillips and crew (perhaps the captain's brave actions were too "cowboy" and independent-minded for his taste). 


In Somalia, we know where the pirates' bases are... we know where many of the pirates are... and we know where their boats are. All of these things should be vaporized by Navy pilots tomorrow- this would have a substantial deterrent effect. 

But that's not going to happen with this president- and it's approaching the point where one has to question his motivations and loyalties, really. Like when he snubbed the British -our closest ally for decades- because of some weird personal grudge re. what they did in Kenya 50 years ago. Perhaps he sees legitimacy in the Somali pirates' "struggle", who knows- and hey, they're only stealing from "the rich" anyway, just the kind of class-warfare that was permanently-glamorized in Barack's eyes by Saul Alinsky and his Marxist-professor mentors.

The sooner an incremental 20% of our electorate comes out of the ether and starts to (finally) ask the strategically/economically clueless and habitually dishonest Obama some hard questions about just what the hell he thinks he's doing, the better. Maybe then the wind can be taken out of our pompous saviour's sails, so as to moderate his behavior until America delivers a proper attitude adjustment in congressional mid-terms- just 18 months from now.  

In the meantime.... pray for our country.