From Foreign Policy:
Over a month since the United States launched its own counter-piracy effort, details of the operations are emerging. The U.S. coalition is deploying technological and legal creativity to get the job done.
The first tactic: drones. After a report surfaced last week that U.S. unmanned aircraft vehicles were watching the Somali skies, I wrote to Navy Lt. Nate Christensen, who replied: "I can confirm that UAVs are being used aboard U.S. Navy ships to conduct counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden. They bring the ability to stay airborne for long periods and cover hundreds of square miles of ocean during the course of one mission." The resulting intelligence is shared among allies. A good start to tackling the surveillance conundrum of patrolling miles and miles of high seas.
Read more ....
My Comment: Spending tens of millions of dollars, and using critical assets to protect shipping that is vital to that part of the world .... and these pirates (who are nothing more but starving and poor fisherman) are still successful in hijacking ships.
But the money quote from this article is the following:
Most countries have been nervous about touching the pirates, let alone keeping them in custody. Britain, for example, instructed its patrols not to pick up any of them.
What is the point of having a navy when you will not use it.
No wonder the pirates are successful .... their opponents are just paper bags.