Somalia Pirates Strike Quickly

The pirates operating from Somalia are back in action, with two ships attacked in two days. While there was some hope the French actions last week might deter piracy in the region to some degree, it appears more work will need to be done.

Eagle1 has both stories, the first a Spanish Tune Fishing boat with a crew of 26 which has been hijacked, the other a 150,000 ton empty tanker was hit with all kinds of weapons but was able to escape.

The news today is that Spain has dispatched a frigate to Somalia. The ship is probably the SPS Mendez Nunez (F104) that deployed with the Orion 08 British Task Force. The dispatch of a single ship doesn't imply Spain has any intentions to take action, and France had a much better logistical situation than Spain does in dealing with the problem.

However, it should be noted the Spanish had a major exercise a few weeks ago called Gruflex 08, that involved a rather large Spanish Naval force including SPS Principe de Asturias (R11), SPS Galicia (L51), SPS Pizarro (L42), SPS Victoria (F62), SPS Numancia (F83), SPS Navarra (F85), SPS Patino (A14), SPS Segura (M31), and SPS Tambre (M33). Given a mandate, Spain could wipe out the Somalia pirates involved with that kind of naval power.

It will be interesting what happens, because with only one exception, pirate activity usually ends with ransom money paid. Unless something changes, we fully expect that to be how this incident concludes as well.