Pirates?

Funny this should pop up this morning . Kula Lumpur has issued a Piracy warning for the south malaca straits and the Eastern side of peninsular malaysia after a coal barge travelling from Singapore to Thailand was robbed of basic stuff and mobile telephones.

The down turn in the economy is blamed.

 

Co-incidental - I noticed an inclination towards piracy in this forum too and was wondering if it may slide into a global phenomenon - I was particularly thinking of the waters around New York and other affluent effluent cities stockmarket bourses....

To maintain the nautical theme of this forum, the impact for cruising yachtsmen must also be considered....

 

In another form? . . . http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/12/03/2436860.htm

a case of Ooops, sorry. . . . . http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/26/2430713.htm

The land based pirates? . . . http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/18/2422427.htm

even the Chinese were victims . . http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/14/2420499.htm

 

Oh dear, another piracy event reportedly here http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/op...-we-think-about-climate-change-21390-102.html

 

It bloody needs it. At last after 100 pages they got to agreeing that the info is paid for and could possibly be a bit iffy.

 

Well we know that the British Royal Navy has made a comeback to fight piracy on the 7 seas but an Admiral in the RN had suggested the idea that Armed Merchant Cruisers be brought back into active service as a way of fight off pirates.

also Germany has improved there U212 class U-Boote to which could be used in the fight against these pirates, with the new DM24A Mod 4 Torpedo in its arsenal as well as AA missiles and ballastic missiles that fit inside torpedo tubes this new silent hunter would be a key ingredient in the battle against piracy also they (German Navy) have also brought back the use of Wolf Pack tactics to which they used so effectively during WWII that could put a stanglehold on places such as Somalia etc.

Maybe submarines could be employed in this type of operations as ther aren't seen by the mother ships to which is best used instead of surface ships.

 

Just saw a demo on TV about a company called Steel Rain. One of their products was a 40mm electronic machine gun with multiple barrals and no moving parts needed for firing. It fired 40mm gernade shells 2,000 yards
at a rate of 440,000 per minute. Yes that's correct 440,000 rounds per minute.
Swarm tactics would not work very against that and piracy would not stand a chance. Just Info. Stan Forgot, no jams and if there is a misfire the next round just pushes it out of the preloaded tubes.

 

I like the submarine Idea. This would mean the the submarine does'nt really need to be there just the possability will have the fear and effect.

Like there being no film in 90% of speeding cameras.

If its a surface ship they can see and dodge it, or not bother today.

Good idea subs.

I cant guess at what a 40mm automatic would weight in at but not a pocket gun.

Eeer if one 40mm round weighs 250g ( guess) then at 440,000 per minute that would be 110 tons of ammo per minute.

Definately not a pocket gun.

 

A standard 40mm round as for bofors 40mm anti-aircraft use was nearer 2 pounds close to 1kg of HE grenade equivalent and near 2 mile range at 2750ft/sec? (same as NATO 7.62mm bullet)... delivering about 240 rounds / minute? - retired in mid 60's with the introduction of different technology...

The rasorinc weapon of choice must be different as the round would not have left the barrel before the next was on the way too...? a pic of this 400 ton/minute delivery system may be interesting....

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/12/11/2444308.htm?section=justin

Two more boats seized as world mulls anti-piracy strategy

Pirates dodged foreign navies and hijacked another two boats even as an international conference in Kenya explored securing one of the world's busiest shipping routes off Somalia.

On the second day of an international conference in Nairobi, a clearer global strategy was expected to emerge on how to curb pirate attacks which are threatening world trade.

Somali pirates on Wednesday hijacked two Yemeni fishing boats near the port of Aden, maritime officials said, adding that seven fishermen had managed to escape on a smaller boat.

The latest attack brought to at least 17 the number of ships currently being held by Somali pirates, including an arms-laden Ukrainian cargo and a Saudi-owned super-tanker carrying two million barrels of crude oil.

In his opening remarks, the UN's top envoy for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, called for tough measures against pirates and their backers, and urged greater international commitment to stabilising the country.

"The growing reality of piracy is threatening the lifeline of global commerce," he said, addressing 140 delegates from 45 countries, including ministers and ambassadors.

Legal obstacles

According to the UN envoy, pirates have raked in an estimated $A181 million in ransom money.

With the most vital shipping lane to Europe under threat, Western powers have deployed more warships to the area but have so far been outwitted by the pirates and their speedboats.

Gathered in Nairobi under the aegis of the Kenyan government and the United Nations, representatives of flag, port and coastal states also explored ways of removing some legal obstacles to tougher anti-piracy action.

Piracy "poses an enormous challenge to the international legal system", UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia Mark Bowden said at the opening of the conference.

Technical experts gathered Wednesday discussed a document drafted by the Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to enlist the support of Somalia's neighbours in arresting, transferring and prosecuting pirates.

The $1.96 million program will boost the criminal justice and law enforcement systems of Kenya, Djibouti, Yemen and Tanzania, over a six-month period to prepare them to try the pirates.

No quick fixes

The European Union this week launched its first-ever naval mission - dubbed Atalanta - and its ships are joining an already existing US-led coalition, but experts argue the area is too large to cover for a few dozen naval vessels.

Speaking to the conference, Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula however warned against quick fixes.

"Don't engage us simply because you want to offload the pirates," he said, stressing that his country and others in the region were the most exposed to the economic impact of piracy.

As the crucial corridor in the Gulf of Aden where 16,000 ships bottle-neck into the Red Sea each year was increasingly patrolled, pirates have shifted the goalposts on foreign armadas.

One of the latest attacks took place far off the coast of Tanzania.

Some participants argued that the cost the EU's naval force - estimated at $496 million - amounted to four or five years of the EU's aid budget for Somalia and could be best spent on rebuilding Somalia's institutions and creating alternative livelihoods.

- AFP

Tags: law-crime-and-justice, international-law, sea-transport, kenya, somalia, tanzania, yemen

 

pirates

I saw this on the US military channel (steel Rain) The 40mm shell/gernade I saw did not look like the average 40mm round we are used to seeing. Pre-loaded barrels are stacked in a box like a case of beer bottles. Several boxes can be placed in a rack which can move back and forth, up and down and they are all fired by remote control. No one needs to be present. They said depending on caliber they can put a round every square foot in a football stadium or put a gernad every square yard in same. I will back off a bit on the max range as I did not make notes on that but it is long range.
They showed a work-up of many boxes in the belly of a plane and I just shuttered at the thought of that weapon over me. What ever the popellent is
it does not effect the instant firing of the next round. A barrel seemed to discharge all it's rounds in the blinlk of an eye. Also, I did not see any recoil.
It was fascinating to see. Stan this is not exactly what I saw but illustrates the speed 1,000,000 rounds per minute
http://www.spike.com/video/36-barrel-prototype/2676608

 

Ahhh now I now to what you are referring - it is another Australian invention.... quite impressive wall of lead or whatever the projectiles are....

 

what I saw had many individual steel barrels but fired all their rounds in a poof...stan

 

That is it !!!!! eminently scalable where the "ammunition can be electronically triggered - His initial demo was using 9mm handgun ammunition and he demonstrated after military assistance this scalability using 40mm 'bofors' A/A ammunition I think.... bloody awesome...

I thought "bloody hell need a fleet of freighters to carry the ammo for even a small engagement..."

 

NO your wrong. After a small engagement You have lots of time to have ammo delivered because no one will come near you and the pirates are blown into food parts. Fastest gun I have ever seen and they can do it with air burst grenades. God help anyone under that. 100 boxes would end swarm tatics because when 100 boats disappear under 20mm pooof rounds they will all flee.