Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Indian warship sinks pirate ship

The Indian Navy, obviously regular readers of the Brain, fearing that me 'n Fixer might actually show up out there in the IO and destabilize the entire region, took some good action.

AFP

An Indian warship destroyed a pirate "mother vessel" in the Gulf of Aden, the navy said Wednesday, as bandits demanded a ransom for a Saudi super-tanker seized in the most daring sea raid yet.

"The INS Tabar closed in on the mother vessel and asked her to stop for investigation," the New Delhi navy spokesman said.

"But on repeated calls, the vessel's threatening response was that she would blow up the naval warship if it approached," he added.

An exchange of fire ensued, causing explosions and the Indian navy ship then used heavy guns. "From what we see in photographs the pirate vessel is completely destroyed," a senior officer said on condition he not be named.

It was the first time a mother ship had been destroyed, in the most significant blow to pirates to date.

Go see this Tabar site. She's a beautiful, modern, armed-to-the-teeth Russian-built frigate. I got no idea what kind of ship the pirates were using to haul their assault boats, but I think they must have been chewing waaaay too much khat if they thought they could take her on! I can just imagine a grinning Indian skipper when threatened: "Oh yes, blow us up, very nice! Watch this, pirates, please...". Heh.

Tabar has been busy. Last week she prevented two hijackings.

Zeenews on 11-11:

INS Tabar intervened to thwart two near-simultaneous attacks by pirates on an Indian cargo vessel MV Jag Arnav and a Saudi flag carrier MV NCC Thihama within 25 nautical miles of each other this morning.

Good on yer, Mates!

Seems kinda odd to me that with half the mighty U.S. Navy in the region that it falls to one Indian man o' war to do all the work. I guess all our smaller warships are for is to protect our aircraft carriers from the Iranian submarine.

Gee, F-Man, if you an' me had one of those Talwar-class jobs we could sweep the seas clean from Chennai to Mombasa. I bet we could pick up girls with it too...

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