War Shot Loaded - The Next Torpedo Shoot?

According to very frequent updates this month by Eagle1 over at EagleSpeak, there is a growing piracy menace in the world, much of it off Somalia’s shores.

But Eagle1 reports shipping companies have turned to private navies to combat pirates in the Malacca Strait (between Malaysia and Indonesia). It seems the Strait is so dangerous, Lloyd’s classifies it a warzone. Five companies, including three British and an American security firm, are serving the area. The price for each cargo protection run starts at $50,000.

Alex Duperouzel, managing director of Background Asia Risk Solutions, the first naval security firm in Singapore, told the Sunday Herald: If you are attacked by pirates on the ocean, it can be hours before help arrives, and an attack might be over in 20 minutes. We can protect a ship, or do whatever it takes to recover a ship or crew. Duperouzel has been operating for about a year, and says pirates are already well armed, often better than the security firms, who are prohibited from using heavy machine guns.

Molten Eagle suspects that use of private security escorts offers a legal avenue for special ops resources of unnamed countries to go after troublesome pirates in large vessels under the guise of rendering assistance or training. A few Mk-37 torpedoes (newer types would be much too costly) could take out the larger pirates ships. Several countries stock the Mk-37s.