Brief: Somali Pirate Mother Ship Sunk By NATO
Stratfor, US independent intelligence analyst website
March 1, 2010
A Danish NATO warship scuttled a pirate mother ship off the horn of Africa on Feb. 28, according to a statement issued by NATO March 1.
According to the statement, specialist teams were deployed by the NATO counterpiracy mission flagship, the HDMS Absalon, to intercept and sink the mother ship. Somalia-based pirates use mother ships (which are larger boats — usually fishing trawlers — capable of carrying large crews for many days) to transport smaller attack boats, crews and supplies farther off-shore to increase their range and shorten their response time.
These mother ships, then, are an important (and vulnerable) node in the pirates’ operational network. What is most notable about this incident is that the mother ship does not appear to have been involved in an attack when it was scuttled, but instead was purposefully targeted by NATO troops as a pre-emptive measure to prevent future attacks. This marks an unusually (but not unprecedented) aggressive move on the part of NATO that warrants close monitoring.