The Firearm Blog

Stupidity and poor intel knows no limits. The Sydney Morning Herald reports ...

Somali pirates attempted to storm the French navy's 18,000-tonne flagship in the Indian Ocean after mistaking it for a cargo vessel, the French military says.

The crew of La Somme, a 160-metre command vessel and fuel tanker, easily saw off the brazen night-time assault by lightly armed fighters on two lightweight skiffs and captured five pirates, a spokesman said.

"The pirates, who because of the darkness took the French ship for a commercial vessel, were on board two vessels and opened fire with Kalashnikovs," Admiral Christophe Prazuck said in Paris.

A friendly word of advice from The Firearm Blog.

Last Friday the Portuguese frigate Corte Real (not be be confused with the ex-USS McCoy Reynolds, which had the same name when it was in Portuguese service) was called to the aid of an oil tanker being attacked by Somali pirates. After foiling the attack, which probably took no more than one burst of their Oerlikon 20mm auto-cannon, they launched a helicopter which followed the small boats back to the mother ship, a fishing boat. The mother ship was boarded and 19 pirates were captured.

These photos from NATO show the weapons captured (click to expand).

Chinese Type 56-2 (AK-47 clone), bunch of other AKs and a Chinese Type 69 RPG


Bored looking guy babysitting rifles


Raise your hands in the air like you just don’t care!

Just the kind of weapons you would expect the pirates to be carrying. Rust prevention does not appear to be a major concern. I would hate to see what condition the bores are in!

Soon after the capture the pirates were released on shore. Under international law pirates can be prosecuted in any country. Unfortunately a “live fire” training opportunity is one thing, but few countries or politician want the expense of pirate filled prisions.

DOD Buzz has some thoughts on the weapon platform used by the SEAL Snipers who took out the pirates:

And let’s not get carried away with the sea state, says DT contributor Joe Buff. A multi-thousand ton destroyer is a pretty stable platform in any but the most tumultuous sea states and makes dialing in a shot on an admittedly tossing life raft more doable — a smart platform for the Team to operate from.

Well sure a big ship is a more stable platform, but that does not make it any less of a feat of marksmanship. Missing could have meant the difference between the American captain surviving and being executed by the frightened pirates.

We also have some information — unconfirmed, though we’re working on it — about how the shots were taken and what was used. Our firearms expert Eric Poole who writes for Tactical-Life posits that the snipers were using the MK-11 .308 sniper system manufactured by Knights Armament Co. This weapon is awesome, by the way (I’ve shot it a few times myself) and, if this is indeed what the shooters used, would mark a major, high-profile departure from legacy thinking about sniping which holds bolt-action rifles as the Gold Standard or marksmanship.

I also said that I though the Mk 11 was the likely weapons system.

Bolt actions and semi-auto’s can both be made accurate enough. Bolt actions can be made more accurate cheaper, but semi-autos give a much better rate of fire. The Army is sticking with the M24 Sniper Weapons System, based on the Remington 700 bolt action, for now because of cost.

Poole figures the DevGru frogmen removed the “overpowered” standard-issue Leupold scopes and opted for the Aimpoint CCO augmented by the PVS-14 night vision monocular. Though the SEAL version of the MK-11 Mod 0 is issued with suppressors, it’s unclear whether the operators used them, but I’d bet a million bucks they did.

Good point about scopes. The range was relatively close, so I don’t think the sound suppression of a suppressor would make a huge difference to the situation, but the decrease in recoil would be advantageous when making followup shots at a moving target. I think it is safe to assume these guys know now their weapons performs when suppressed (unlike video games, in real life suppressors make no change to the external ballistics of the projectile, but it does change the weight balance of the firearm)

One other question (among many) remains open…were there three shots or four? Poole reasons, and Allen and I agree, that someone had to shoot through the lifeboat window first, then fire the kill shots. My limited knowledge of ballistics leads me to believe the snipers could not rely on the effectiveness of the one window shot to actually strike the target where it was aimed based in the potential deflection of hitting that probably plastic (glass) window.

There are a lot of things we do not know.

Thanks to Paul for the link.

The captain held in a lifeboat by pirates off the coast of Somalia has been rescued by the US Navy after snipers took out his captors. CNN reports:

U.S. Navy snipers fatally shot three pirates holding an American cargo-ship captain hostage after seeing that one of the pirates “had an AK-47 leveled at the captain’s back,” a military official said Sunday.

…

The three pirates, who were armed with AK-47 rifles, were killed by shooters who were aboard the Bainbridge, Gortney said.

The on-scene commander gave the shooters approval to open fire after seeing that “one of the pirates had an AK-47 leveled at the captain’s back,” Gortney said.

That is some incredible shooting!

Earlier this year a team of Marine Scout Snipers were deployed to the region for counter piracy work. They are armed with the SR-25 (Mk 11) 7.62×51mm semi-automatic, an AR-10 style rifle. They may well have been the men that were deployed to take out the pirates.

A scout sniper fires an MK-11 rifle from a HH-60H Sea Hawk helicopter

Hat Tip: Snow Flakes in Hell

The Ukrainian ship captured last year that was carrying tanks, RPGs and other small arms has been abandoned by the pirates after they received a $3.2 million ransom. Kenya Broadcasting Corporation reports:

Pirates had initially demanded a ransom of $20m, but reports suggest that a figure of $3.2m (£2.2m) was agreed.

The US navy said that a ransom appeared to have been dispatched on Wednesday and Mikhail Voitenko, said to be a spokesman for ship owner Vadim Alperin, later said that the pirates were “counting the haul”.

Early on Thursday groups of pirates began leaving the vessel, reports from Haradhere said. Representatives of the pirates then told journalists that the ship had been freed.

I wonder how much of its cargo has already made it into the hands of rebels and insurgents across the continent. The real tragedy is that the criminals now know that despite a naval presence in the area representing just about all the worlds navel powers, ransoms will be paid. Great precedent.

The Marines are back doing what they do best – kicking pirates ass. Marine Scout Snipers are being deployed to provide protection for counter-piracy teams in and around the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and Red Sea. Navy.mil reports:

The nine-member sniper team brings multiple capabilities to CTF 151, including its ability to operate from an aerial platform with a variety of different weapons systems. The scout snipers use a Mk-11, which is the 762 sniper rifle; a 50-caliber M107 special application scoped rifle (SASR); and several different sets of optics to aid them in carrying out their mission.

“We have the ability to stand off of a target, visually see what is on the target and report that information to the VBSS teams so they understand — before they’re boarding — the number of personnel, if there are any weapons on board, if there are any type of foulings on the deck, if their hook point is obtainable, and, basically, give them a warm and fuzzy feeling that they’re not out alone out here, that they have snipers watching over them 100 percent of the time,” explained Benkie.

Emphases mine. That must be a good feeling

More here.

The Royal Navy HMS Cumberland (Type 22 frigate) took on a pirate dhow on the high seas. No prize for guessing who won that fight!

The Times has the story

Pirates caught redhanded by one of Her Majesty’s warships after trying to hijack a cargo ship off Somalia made the grave mistake of opening fire on two Royal Navy assault craft packed with commandos armed with machineguns and SA80 rifles.

In the ensuing gunfight, two Somali pirates in a Yemeni-registered fishing dhow were killed, and a third pirate, believed to be a Yemeni, suffered injuries and subsequently died. It was the first time the Royal Navy had been engaged in a fatal shoot-out on the high seas in living memory.

By the time the Royal Marines boarded the pirates’ vessel, the enemy had lost the will to fight and surrendered quietly. The Royal Navy described the boarding as “compliant”.

The last time a Type 22 frigate was in “action” was that incident when the the Iranian Revolutionary Guards captured some sailors in the Gulf.

Sebastian linked to this very interesting article about gun laws at sea.

Is it lawful to carry firearms?

This depends of several factors.

· Flag State your yacht is registered with.
· Area you are likely to operate in.
· Type of firearm.

If I were sailing around the world I would probably want to carry a pump action shotgun in 12 gauge and a bolt action rifle in a non military caliber such as 7mm-08 Rem., .260 Rem. or .270 Win.

Why?

Semi automatics are illegal or have various arbitrary restrictions in most of the world for civilians. At best it could be confiscated, at worst you could be fined or arrested.

Bolt actions are used all over the world and most countries will allow hunters or competition shooters to bring them into the country for sporting purposes. Military calibers are banned in some countries. Better to stick with something nobody is going to object to.

A removable magazine would be a plus and so would a stainless steel action and barrel. The Savage Weather Warrior Series Model 16FCSS in 7mm-08 would be my choice. It has a four round detachable magazine. I would be surprised if any countries has a problem with a four round magazine in a bolt action.

Some type of illuminated scope with quick detachable mounts and open sights would be a must.

Savage Model 16FCSS

Next up, a shotgun. A semi-automatic would be out for the same reason as the rifle. I am pretty sure pump actions are illegal in the UK, so if I were stopping by there then that would not be an option. The alternatives such as a double barrel, bolt action or lever action shotgun do not seem to me to be a credible threat to a ship full of pirates.

I would go with the Mossberg Mariner. At most I would install a magazine extension. Pimping it out withe pistol grips, fore grip and detachable magazines would not be a good idea.

Mossberg Mariner: A good idea.

Mossberg Mariner: A bad idea.

Lastly a replica RPG might not be a bad idea! Many years ago I was watching something on TV about super yachts and there was a brief clip of police somewhere in world showing off a cache of weapons they confiscated from super yachts including what looked like an M72 LAW. I am sure the LAW was not real.

Orange tipped replica.

My experience at sea is limited. I think the above would be good enough on small yacht. The aim really is to make it hard for pirates to come close while out maneuvering them.

I have traveled on very large cargo ships and defending them from pirates would be no different from defending a building.

What do you think about my ideas? Realistically what would you carry on the high seas?

The LA Times reports that 16 year old Zac Sunderland, who is currently attempting to sail around the world alone, came across a suspicious ship while on his way to the Cocos Islands. What did he do? After calling his parents on the sat phone he pulled out a gun.

Why security firms are not being contracted to protect shipping in Somalia with arms, I will never know. The Somali government is in talks with a French private security contractor after negotiations failed with a shady US firm but if I were insuring these ships I would demand armed personal onboard or an armed escort.

Thanks to Charlie for the link.