Comments on The Belmont Club,"How should the crew have responded?"

While I do believe that merchant vessels should have an arms locker with shotguns and handguns it is also true that we can expect the pirates to respond by carrying RPGs that could cause real damage if they are repelled. US merchants are trained to use water hoses on boarders and outrunning the small craft is usually a successful tactic. Eventually we will have to carry the fight to the enemy. That means stating clearly that Somali civilians do not have a right to engage in traditional pursuits such as fishing if their doing so provides cover for pirates attacking our traditional right to engage in commerce on the high seas. We need to shut down the Somali coast and begin bombarding the ports ubtil the threat of piracy ends. The Littoral Combat Ship was designed for just this mission so the Navy can not be accused of having ignored the threat.

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LarryD (who pointed out the pirates intercept ships far from shore),
The purpose of the LCS is to do as its name says. It will control piracy by blockading harbors, intercepting small boats and support ships and shelling port facilities as needed. It is not designed to be a convoy escort, that being the role of the frigates. Some time ago Wretchard had a classic post that began with a passage from Joseph Conrad in which a tumbledown hull Western ship is shelling a jungle. He was perspicacious, we now need low cost floating gunfire platforms. With luck we get back to the habit of sending our busybodies off to the jungle to assume missionary positions while the gentlemen's reward for a full day of commerce or justice or bashing the unseen will include Singapore Slings. The bad news will be a return of savage land wars and really complicated female undergarments.