Posted on 05/01/2010 1:20:08 PM PDT by csvset
EU NAVFOR warship FS Tonnerre located and boarded two pirate ships early this morning, 1st May, 450 nautical miles east of Somalia. Evidence was secured, weapons and a ladder, and 11 suspected pirates were taken on board the Tonnerre.
On Friday evening an EU NAVFOR maritime patrol aircraft from Sweden detected a pirate action group (PAG) of one mother ship and two skiffs. The Force Commander, Rear Admiral Jan Thörnqvist, ordered the nearest EU NAVFOR vessel, the French warship Tonnerre, to interdict the PAG.
Early this morning Tonnerre located the PAG and deployed her helicopter. When the suspected pirates realised that anti piracy forces were closing in, they started to throw some weapons and the ladder overboard which was recorded by the helicopter crew.
A boarding party went over from Tonnerre and secured the remaining evidence as well as taking the suspected pirates on board the frigate. The mother ship, a Whaler was destroyed and the two skiffs taken aboard FS Tonnerre.
This successful disruption continues to show EU NAVFOR more agressive strategy is working.
EU NAVFOR Somalia Operation ATALANTAs main tasks are to escort merchant vessels carrying humanitarian aid of the World Food Programme (WFP) and vessels of African Unions Mission for Somalia, AMISOM and to protect vulnerable vessels in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean and to deter and disrupt piracy. EU NAVFOR also monitors fishing activity off the coast ofSomalia.
NavFor?
Aaaahhh... sort of like the USS WASP.
Let’s hope the Pirates or as the EU calls the ‘Private Action Group’ were all still on board the Mother-Ship when it was sent to Davy Jones’ Locker.
.
I was wondering about “Pirate Action Group”.
Sounds like they have unit patches to sew onto their....er...garb.
That does sound a bit, um, off.
Finally! We've been playing catch and release way too long.
The Mother Ship and the other two should all have been sunk. There should have been no survivors from those vessals. Unfortunate, but s*#t happens.
No tials necessary. No negotiations. Just free food for some fish and safer waters for all legitimate shipping.
Oh! I almost forgot. This is a teachable moment. Everybody can learn something here.
Failing complete destruction of all pirate vessels and the pirates themselves, EU NAVFOR bump.
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Let’s say you have 10 pirates. Shoot nine of them in the knees and elbows and toss them overboard for the sharks. Send the other one home to tell the tale.
The headline should read....(if done right)
‘Pirate mother ship sunk with all hands aboard.’
Mother ship sold separately.
touché
NAValFORce
F.S. is what we say. It just stands for “French Ship”.
The French navy do not use prefixes like “USS”, “HMS”, “HMCS” and so on...
Ours just stands for United States Ship, like unto French Ship.
UK vessels are “Her Majesty’s Ship”, I think.
HMS = Her(his)Majesties ship and USS = United States Ship.
The point is that the French do not use such prefixes. Other NATO nations use the appellation FS (French Ship) in order to distinguish them, but the French themselves do not use the prefix. If the French were to use such a thing, they wouldn’t have it in English. It would be something like Bateau de Francais (BDF).
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