As everyone with a TV and a heartbeat now knows, a US flagged cargo ship was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Demonstrating an amazing amount of courage, the unarmed crew members managed to retake the vessel, losing their captain to the attackers as a result. The captain, now held with four pirates in a lifeboat, is being ransomed by the pirates who are negotiating with the US Navy.
The US Navy arrived at the scene with the USS Bainbridge, an Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer. According to reports, the destroyer has maintained a good distance to keep out of range of the Somalis who wield small arms and potentially rocket propelled grenades. In fact, this distance may have prevented the ship from saving the hostage when he jumped from the life raft in an attempt to swim away from his captors.
It may seem stupid for a 9200-ton destroyer to be worried about a dingy with four lightly armed pirates, but the Bainbridge is a sophisticated air defense destroyer with powerful, but fragile electronic equipment. Even a few well placed AK-47 rounds could cause millions of dollars worth of damage to the sophisticated AN/SPY-1D radar system. The Burke class destroyers were designed to escort carriers and amphibious assault ships and protect them from air threats, not chase down pirates in a dingy.
The USS Halyburton has arrived on scene, an Oliver Hazard Perry class guided missile frigate. These ships were originally designed as relatively cheap frigates destined for convoy duty in the event that WWIII erupted between the Soviet Union and NATO. When the Soviet Union collapsed, many of the weapon systems on these ships were removed, with the main remaining weapon being the on board helicopters. Essentially, these ships have become tiny helicopter carriers capable of rapid deployment. While better suited to chasing pirates than the Burke destroyers, these platforms still are not ideal for the given task.
The best platforms the Navy currently owns for the overall anti-piracy mission is the amphibious assault ships, loaded with helicopters that can quickly be dispatched to aid ships in distress. In fact, the USS Boxer is reported to be nearing the hostage scene and will be able to support the Halyburton and the Bainbridge with her helicopters shortly (if they aren’t already in range). Ideally, instead of being backed-up by billion dollar missile cruisers, each amphibious assault ship would be backed-up with 3-4 small, heavily armed gunboats capable of taking down even the most brave pirate ship. Unfortunately, the Navy only has 10 of these small ships in it’s current fleet structure, not enough to provide both security in the Persian Gulf and to blanket the Gulf of Aden for anti-piracy missions. The Navy is currently investing billions of dollars in the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), but for reasons outside the scope of this article, these ships are also poorly suited to the anti-piracy role.
What I mean to illustrate above is that while the US Navy is not well suited for the anti-piracy mission, by virtue of its focus on the high-end of the threat spectrum, it is by no means helpless. There is enough firepower on hand to sink every ship in the threat region and the pirates know it. So why the lack of respect?
The roots of this stretch back to the Bush administration. By the time piracy really become a big issue and started grabbing headlines, the Bush administration was under withering criticism for both Iraq and Afghanistan and was in no mood to deal with another foreign crisis. Additionally, the ships being hijacked were not American vessels and the total dollar value of the ransoms per year was on order of 120 million dollars a year. While 120 million dollars may seem astronomical, remember that a concerted military effort to thwart piracy would cost tens of billions of dollars. These factors coalesced and Bush essentially punted the problem to the next administration.
While I don’t hold Obama responsible for the conditions that have lead to the current hostage situation, his handling thus far has been very weak. As Steve commented on earlier, he was more concerned with housing than with the hostage standoff. Seriously, the commander and chief of the US military was more concerned with housing than with saving the lives of Americans held captive overseas. As Ace points out, he is doing nothing except to distance himself from the situation. The administration is not reassuring the hostages family, he is not threatening action, he is acting as if nothing is happening.
The world is a dangerous place, but it becomes markedly more dangerous when the US president decides it is no longer his job to safeguard the lives of Americans or protect the commercial interests of the nation. When the mighty French protect their interest with more gusto and political bravery than the US, you know there is a real problem in US leadership.
Update: Apparently, negotiations have broken down between the Navy and the pirates. The FBI is now treating the previously captured ship as a “crime scene”
Mr. Reinhart also noted that the crew was not allowed to leave the ship because the F.B.I. — whose New York office has been charged with investigating the seizure — considered the vessel a crime scene.
Additionally, the FBI is considering Federal charges against the pirates, if they are apprehended.
To quote Powerline:
This is what happens, I suppose, when you have lawyers running everything. National defense becomes just another type of litigation. Let’s hope this isn’t a harbinger of the Obama administration’s approach to the problem of piracy.
Update 2: The Somali pirates fired on the US Navy, turning US sailors back to their ship:
The gunfire forced the sailors, who did not return fire, back to the guided missile destroyer USS Bainbridge, the official said.
As DrewM puts it over at Ace’s:
Obama. He’s Jimmy Carter without the muscular foreign policy.
Posted by cardeehokie 
