I had to go back and look, I'm off by a year - '89 sir. I like your last ones better though, greatest swing-wing ever made.
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The Great Pirates off the Somali Coast thread
- Thread starter Beefalo
- Start date
You can thank Ward Carroll (and Sony Betacam) for ushering in the Fling Video era beginning in '89!
In an effort to further derail this thread... Who paid for that? That was a $40K+ piece of hardware back in then, and that doesn't include the camera (or the deck if you're talking about the camera).
H20man
Drill baby drill!
Oil tanker hijacked
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7734733.stm
450 miles offshore and a ULCC... This is getting ridiculous.
That far out I doubt the ship even had its security measures in place, which for merchant ships are very minimal...as in lock the doors.
Being a tanker it's not a very hard target... very slow and a low freeboard (water to deck distance) when fully laden.
Speculation & Opinion zone:
With an attack this far out of the usual zone for hijackings I wonder if this is a result of other attacks being successful giving the pirates more money for tech and and weapons (AIS, radar, GPS).
Hopefully this will get the international community moving and maybe wake up the UN and the IMO especially when commodities like oil start getting hijacked.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7734733.stm
450 miles offshore and a ULCC... This is getting ridiculous.
That far out I doubt the ship even had its security measures in place, which for merchant ships are very minimal...as in lock the doors.
Being a tanker it's not a very hard target... very slow and a low freeboard (water to deck distance) when fully laden.
Speculation & Opinion zone:
With an attack this far out of the usual zone for hijackings I wonder if this is a result of other attacks being successful giving the pirates more money for tech and and weapons (AIS, radar, GPS).
Hopefully this will get the international community moving and maybe wake up the UN and the IMO especially when commodities like oil start getting hijacked.
For a fraction of the ransom money....say $200,000...I'd be game to build a team and ride a ship over there heavily armed and take care of business if the skiff came calling.
Why aren't they arming the ships at least with private security dets? Can't cost that much and the ROI on a one time effective use of the team is tremendous.
Why aren't they arming the ships at least with private security dets? Can't cost that much and the ROI on a one time effective use of the team is tremendous.
From what I understand, there are private security firms that provide such service. However, transiting through territorial waters with assault weapons can cause major problems with some countries if they are caught. Very unfortunate...
I am certain some companies are. Blackwater is already ahead of you anyways, they are branching out into that area.
http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/23/bl...stics-cx_wp_1023blackwater.html?feed=rss_news
CWJones411
IRR
Well there goes my excuse to buy more guns...
There's nothing wrong with some healthy competition.
Well there goes my excuse to buy more guns...
The election is not enough of one?
Plus, now that you are a retired old fogie you could sign up with Blackwater and go hunting pirates!
mtsupilot09
"We lookin fo you. We gon find you!"
This incident seems completely ridiculous to me. I know the maritime laws regarding guns, etc, but come on. If that ship were in my fleet, carrying $100m worth of crude and 25 rag tag crew members, you better believe there would be an equal number of well trained, well paid mercs aboard. Not only that, but my captain and I would have a very clear understanding that if lethal force is necessary, use it. A concealed weapon on the captain would be the norm. I mean if I were a pirate, I'd be looking for the next oil tanker heading south from Saudi since I know they don't have any security.
I am pretty much positive you would not want to pull anything that you can conceal on a group of 25-30 pirates with SMGs/MGs/RPGs/etc. You won't come out on the winning end of that one.
Sounds like a good opportunity for a carrier to park and get some practice plugging moving targets for the airwing.
You don't need that many, a squad-sized detachment would be sufficient. And as Shakey pointed out already, having mercenaries on your ship can cause problems where the ships are coming from and going to. Many countries cast a wary eye on mercenaries, rightly so, and would not take kindly to them hitching rides on ships in their harbors.