Watchdog warns India, Somali pirates nearing India

[Lankan Ranger]

Watchdog warns India, Somali pirates nearing India

The dreaded Somali pirates have extended their operations from the Gulf of Aden waters to the west coast of India, openly using previously hijacked vessels as mother ships, a piracy watchdog body said here.

"The pirates are now rampant in the west coast of India and Maldives, their favourite haunt sued to be the Gulf of Aden in the Arabian Sea," Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre, said. "They are now using previously hijacked vessels as their mother ship in open waters," he said here.

He said though there had been instances of pirates attacking off the coast of India the frequency had increased lately and attributed this partly to the end of the monsoon season in September.

He urged vessels plying the international waters to maintain vigil and radar watch and try and steer clear of small boats which looked "out of place" in the open sea, the New Straits Times said. Last week, a ship owned by a Penang-based company was hijacked by somali pirates after sailing around the Seychelles, a distant 900 nautical miles east of the Somali coast.

The ship with 23 crew from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Iran was headed to Mombasa, Kenya from Jebel Ali in the UAE. The hijackers have reportedly not asked for ransom yet. Malaysia says it is taking steps to secure the release of cargo ship.

Watchdog warns India, Somali pirates nearing India - Hindustan Times

 

[jha]

Piracy has become a headache for whole world....Whole world will have to contribute its armed force in order to eradicate this menace..

 

[SpArK]

Some naval base especially for maritime security has to be setup in "Yemen" to protect the cago ships in the Gulf of Aden region.

 

[KS]

A golden chance for the Indian Navy to establish its supremacy in the IOR region after the USN.

Will our strategists pick that up ?

 

[jha]

^^^ We need more Frigates and LPD/LHDs operating in the IOR to effectively combat Piracy...

 

[CaptainJackSparrow]

Ha Ha! I'm gonna take over the whole world baby!

Savvy?

 

[GORKHALI]

Can we shift our missile testing near goa ?? And i wish something goes wrong in navigation during testing and it drifted to somali pirates hiding heaven.

 

[KS]

^^^ We need more Frigates and LPD/LHDs operating in the IOR to effectively combat Piracy...

Jha ji, I dont know why LPDs should be used in anti-piracy operations.

We need more Missile boats/Corvettes which are smaller than frigates/destroyers yet pack almost the same punch.

Should we use a jackhammer (frigates/destroyers)to mash a mosquito ?

I sincerely hope this is one of the ploy by the Navy to get the Govt sanction more warships.

 

[Nalwa]

Use of force, by India or any other regional power can only do so much. What is required is a solution to the Somali civil-war problem. For more than 2 decades now the country has been embroiled in a civil-war. The civil-war leaves no big center of power and fighter drift towards different camps. Piracy on the high-seas provides a lucrative means to a livelihood in such a scenario. A recent article in the Economist provided details on how piracy sustains a the whole economy on the Somali coast. There are money-lender, rest-houses, ammo dumps and gun-bazaars especially catering to the piracy 'industry'. What we need is UN intervention to restore some sense of normalcy in the country providing them an alternate means of livelihood.

 

[somebozo]

Call Indian navy to the rescue....

 

[sancho]

^^^ We need more Frigates and LPD/LHDs operating in the IOR to effectively combat Piracy...

I stated the same, but mainly for LHDs, because they can carry more helicopters to cover a greater area and are often faster than LPDs. That's why I still hope we will not go for limited roles LPDs, but get something LHDs that can be used in multiple roles.

Jha ji, I dont know why LPDs should be used in anti-piracy operations.

We need more Missile boats/Corvettes which are smaller than frigates/destroyers yet pack almost the same punch.

Should we use a jackhammer (frigates/destroyers)to mash a mosquito ?

I sincerely hope this is one of the ploy by the Navy to get the Govt sanction more warships.

Hi Kartic, the key in the anti piracy roles are not the vessels itself, but the helicopters and comando forces! A missile boat don't have helicopters normally and corvettes often don't have the range and endurance for these patrols, unlike frigats.

An LHD instead has much space for comandos, not to mention also to imprison the pirats, but as I mentioned above to carry much more helicopters and cover a greater area.
For NATO it might not be important, or cost-effective to send such a big vessel in these areas to fight pirats, but if IN wants to be the major navy in the Indian Ocean, we should give a clear sign.

 

[SQ8]

Under international maritime law... the IN may be used against these pirates if they attack Indian registered vessels and/or Indian personnel..IF in international waters..
and the IN is allowed to act in support of a distress call from a vessel belonging to any nation.

 

[SacredFire]

Will be good for target practice!

 

[jha]

Jha ji, I dont know why LPDs should be used in anti-piracy operations.

We need more Missile boats/Corvettes which are smaller than frigates/destroyers yet pack almost the same punch.

Should we use a jackhammer (frigates/destroyers)to mash a mosquito ?

I sincerely hope this is one of the ploy by the Navy to get the Govt sanction more warships.

I meant LHDs. But since we are going for LPDs i had to write it...
LHDs can cover much more area than a Frigate/Destroyer..

 

[BackStabber]

Ha Ha! I'm gonna take over the whole world baby!

Savvy?

The black pearl is now my ******, savvy ?