BAE's Lasers Blind High Seas Pirates

Gee, it's a good thing pirates don't own mirrors.

Especially if they don't configure them like the corner of a cube, as in a radar retroreflector that returns to the source, even if off angle.

Ho hum...groan..another system that no one will have the balls to operate.
AFAIK the only force who actually had a go at the pirates was the Russians.
Maybe we should send some counsellors to talk to them?
It's another illustration of how all the hi tech weaponry isn't even of deterent value if it's not in the right place at the right time and you don't have the authority/balls to use it.
The best deterent to pirates would be to have blown the previous lot out of the water (in a caring environmentally friendly way)
Del

Yeah, what's wrong with a lethal deterent?

Seems like it would be much more effective.

Yeah Del, let's kill all the starving bastards. It's a lot cheaper than putting back their Euro raped and pillaged fisheries.

^{_{(I can't believe you wrote that)}}

I agree Europe has indeed done much to despoil Africa (I dunno about Fisheries).
However most of their ongoing problems are exacerbated by ethnic, tribal and religious conflicts. (Before you say it, yes I realise most of the national boundaries are artificial constructs of European powers which didn't take into account the tribal regions).
Of course climate issues are devastating too, then factor in the endemic corruption.

So... I'm not necessarilly criticising the Pirate's lifestyle choice, but I expect they are organised by some of the above mentioned factions, who then spend their money on arms or self glorification rather than on helping the local population.
Maybe a decent deterent or punitive action on the high seas would cause them to re-think.

Mind, they are hardly any different from our banking community, except maybe the pirates have a certain honest risk asociated with their endeavours and are doubtless not paid big bonuses when they havn't performed.
Del <rant mode off>

The continent of Africa will be looking back on European colonization and exploitation as the good old days by the time the Chinese get done with them.

I recently read an article telling how the Chinese are buying up, not land per se, but rights to virtually every natural resource they have, across the entire continent. They are spending relatively tiny amounts of money throwing up some schools, roads, etc. in exchange for drilling and mining rights that extend 30-35 years into the future. By the time they are done, Africa will be picked clean.

This may sound cold, but hasn't the entire course of humanity been marked by the strong taking from the weak? I don't really understand all of the sudden guilt that's associated with our violent past. The internal fighting, killing, etc. that's going on right now is just more of the same, they would be killing each other with or without external influence. Much like the tribal warfare in the middle east will go on until the end of time.

As far as the pirates go, if I was a ship owner, I'd get bigger guns than they have, and kill them before they kill me and my crew. To hell with shining a light in their eyes to try to deter them. We're talking about people that don't leave any survivors if they gain the upper hand.

"I dunno about Fisheries" - ok;

The Somali "pirates" were fishermen and input quite a large part of the nations protein.

Their 'primitive' methods were quite self sustaining. So much so, that this was a 'rich fishing ground' compared to the devastated national fisheries in the region.

They lacked a Navy, but had a primitive 'coast guard' to defend their waters.

Eyes were on these 'riches' - so at the first sign of 'political instability', Somali waters got clean trawled virtually overnight. It's attributed mostly to French and Russians, but everyone had a go.

It's a bit like seeing two people arguing and while they are distracted, cleaning out their pantry and bank account - then wondering why they take up "holding to ransom" to feed themselves.

So for Somalians, it's still 'fishing for food', or 'ship-napping', not piracy. And ransoming, rather than having to feed, or murder the crew, is part of their income.

Hence in a sudden attack of "morality" the 'clean trawlers' are looking for a non fatal deterrent - rather than a remedy for the starvation their lust, greed and theft caused - as the "Somali ship-fishers" are not your 'no witnesses' true Pirate.

That's an eye opener. I wasn't aware of any of that.

You certainly don't here about any of that on the nightly news, only about ruthless pirates.

I think the "nightly news" is a device designed to prevent questioning 'cause', it's just about 'todays effect'.

But your comment makes me aware I was a bit hard on Del, if 'nightly news' is the 'prevailing picture'.

Maybe I was a little hard on the pirates.

My assumption was that the pirates were an extension of the Somali war lords.

Although I do believe that massive corruption, tribal and political infighting are also a huge problem over there. There is plenty of death and strife coming from within.

Maybe I'm just jaded, but regardless of the reason for the piracy, if I was running transport ships over there, or any other vessel for that matter, I would take whatever steps necessary to protect my people, including killing the pirates.

Back to the blog...........If I were a pirate, and someone was shining blinding light in my eyes, I'd throw on a cheap pair of welding goggles and shoot at the point of light until it was disabled.

"Somali war lords" interestingly emotive term

Rather than be 'jaded', how about some 'background' on the 'inns and outs of maritime 'catch 22's'. Like all blogs, few are right, but the 'comments' gives you an idea of the international issues.

And back to the topic; it's quite difficult to identify distant ships from a small boat. The valuable ones shining a light at you would be a great help.

I'd go for the flip down oxy goggles shooting wise, but maybe the tiller guy can have so we're not reliant on those 'first world' nasty batteries.I.e the target powers up the protection automatically!

They just found a Danish cargo ship that had been taken by pirates. None of the six crew members are anywhere to be found.

I don't know if jaded is the right word, but I was in the US Navy on the way home from 8 months in the Mediterranean when the US marine barracks was blown up in Lebanon in 1983. We spent a lot of time around Beirut. Before that we were screwing around in Libya's self proclaimed waters, that actually extended far into international waters, and had daily close flyovers by Libyan war planes. I also worked in the same forward engine room, on another ship, as the one that got blown up on the USS Cole.

I'm not going to say that some governments haven't played a role in provoking these attacks, that would be naive. My proclivity however, based on my experience, whether it's right or wrong, and whether it's terrorists or pirates, is to kill the bastards.

Fair enough - if it comes to that.

My preferred approach is to neutralize the people who create the pirates, and/or terrorists, which involves finding out how/why it happened.

That would be nice too.

I don't think it's right for outside influences to put populations of people into such an impoverished state that crime becomes a necessity out of desperation, like the fishing off the coast of Somalia.

On the other hand, there are plenty of terrorists, that are terrorists, strictly based on their religious edicts. And I'm sure there are plenty of pirates, that are pirates, because of the realization that stealing is far easier and more lucrative than working for a living. It's never one size fits all, unfortunately. Some are victims of other's treachery, doing what they have to, to survive. Others are just bad guys. Out on the open sea it's impossible to tell them apart, and both will kill you if given the chance.