Posted on 05/07/2009 10:35:54 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Suspected pirates failed in an effort to attack a U.S. Navy ship off the eastern coast of Somalia. the Navy said Thursday.
Two skiffs, assumed to be pirate vessels, chased the Lewis and Clark, a dry cargo and ammunition ship supporting the Navy's Fifth Fleet, for more than an hour Wednesday before giving up, CNN reported.
During the pursuit, the skiffs fired small arms at the Lewis and Clark and got within one nautical mile before the ship used evasive maneuvers and pulled out of range.
I'm curious why it had no combat escort.
I damned sure don’t like the idea of a US Navy vessel running from the bastards! This is absolutely disgusting!
See post 19. Ships of this class are run by the Military Sealift Command—they’re considered civilian vessels and are manned by mostly-civilian crews, with any military onboard in a support capacity. I have no clue what kind of small arms the military contingent might have onboard, but the ships themselves have no weapons.
}:-)4
Understood and thanks for the explanation. They should go armed if in that area. Especially a munitions ship.....I would think.
Why, now that is a better question. The short version is that they can, in general, travel safely alone and unescorted. Actual countries (not Somali pirates, clearly) respect the sovereignty of vessels at sea, visual contact with another vessel is rare at sea, they don't carry the really fun ammunition, and most people in their right mind really don't want to piss off the U.S. Navy.
Do they carry ammunition, as indicated by a previous poster?
When the range of the weapons you and the pirates have is roughly the same, the smart move is to stay out of range, and requisition a 5” deck gun be installed for your next passage. :)
This is NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT a combat vessel.
It is a cargo ship maintained by the MSC, owned by the government.
It’s designation is USNS, not USS.
No weapons to speak of...
Trust me, a combat vessel would have made matchsticks of the cute little pirate skiffs.
And yes, there is something wrong with that.
When, before 0bama, was a US Naval Ship (you do know what that means, right?) fired upon by pirates?
Take your racist claptrap back to DU, or whatever the heck sewer you crawled out of.
Mind your own business.
Pay attention and you won’t ask such silly questions.
You people that are all upset are relying on the UPI to give you facts and you are reacting like a bunch of liberal voters - i.e. you react to the first thing you hear with emotion instead of making sure of the facts before you form an opinion.
- People reacting on emotion in the absence of supporting facts from unreliable liberal media outlets is how we got our current President.
Have a nice day.
They are, or they have an escort. Either this was political, or the Cap’n just wanted to have some fun and show off his skills.
But he should have then taken aggressive action, IMO.
upi UnAmerican Political Indoctrination.
The USNS Sacagawea (the second in the line of Lewis and Clark class ships) is armed with 2 to 6 12.7 mm or 7.62 machine guns.
Don’t see any armament listed for the USNS Lewis and Clark.
Correcting a design flaw maybe with the Sacagawea?
Very neighborly of us to be sending over ships with ammo like that...
It is my business when people insult the United States Navy without knowing the facts.
You reacted - saying “What have we been reduced to?” - assuming incorrectly that this was a warship somehow capable of engaging an armed enemy.
Your outrage is misplaced in this instance. Trust me, President Obama and his lackeys will give you plenty to be upset about over the next couple of years - save your energy for the right time. This simply isn’t it.
Have a nice day.
Very small military contingent - guns require maintenance - that means Gunners Mates and that means more military crew and that means more expense. The whole point of the USNS fleet is to provide logistical support to the combat fleet at a lesser cost than using regular Navy ships. Also, the USS fleet is limited in their deployment lengths - the USNS fleet has fewer restrictions on op-tempo.
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