[golfhobo]

Originally Posted by Bumper

One each 2LT, SSG and two squads of fine American Infantrymen on every US flagged vessel, be it tanker, cargo or cruise ship.

End of problem on our ships.

Beats sitting in the hot sand of Iraq....

Heard today that many "commercial" ports will not allow ships into their docks if they are armed.

Not to mention that there are about 300 times more merchant ships than military ships. We can't possibly meet that staffing requirement. Also... only about 1% of all merchant ships IN THAT AREA are attacked by pirates.

My numbers aren't meant to be exact, but the rationale is right off FOXnews. It's just not practical. Sorry.

[kc0iv]

Originally Posted by Skywalker

Good points, good questions..... I'm not an authority on air warfare, but I can't help but wonder if the A-10's could be carrier based.... I know A-4's were.... so I would think a carrier at each end could do the trick.... maybe putting a couple of boomers in the water thereabouts might do the trick, but then again, maybe turning Somalia into a sea of glass might be the better option....

What most people don't seem to understand is the size or this area. The coastline of Somalia is over 1900 miles. About the lenght of the east coast seaboard.

Using an aircraft carrier wouldn't be cost affective. Remember when a carrier is used their is around 20 ships involved.

To my knowledge no A-10 was ever built for carrier operation.

kc0iv