I recently noted our private air transport squadrons. This article about beating back the pirates of the Horn of Africa got me to thinking about the privatization angle.
The article states:
The fight against Somali pirates has been so effective that they haven't been able to mount a successful hijacking in nearly a year, the chair of the global group trying to combat the pirates said on Thursday.
US diplomat Donna Leigh Hopkins credits the combined efforts of international naval forces and stepped-up security on ships including the use of armed guards.
Part of the success against the private naval forces that practiced piracy was private security on board merchant ships transiting the area. With the threat reduced, countries will want to redeploy the naval units that have contributed to the success. We are always struggling with hull numbers to meet commitments around the globe.
Why not hire private naval units to patrol the region and keep the pirates down? Surely, some company could put together corvette-sized armed ships and even larger vessels that could use helicopters to replace the grey navy hulls that have had such success in reducing the pirate threat. Then we could use our Navy ships elsewhere.
Heck, maybe my modularized auxiliary cruiser idea would have an application used this way.
I'm just thinking that with success, fleets will dwindle away for higher priority tasks. Which will allow the pirates to return to their past glories. Why not bring in a private naval force to keep the pirates down?
