Eisboch wrote:

"HK" wrote in message
...



We always have at least one carrier group in the Indian Ocean, by the
way.


The Indian Ocean is about 20 million square miles in area. Granted, a
small portion of the area is subject to prirate attacks, but it's still
a huge area. A carrier group typically consists of about 5-6 ships,
one of which is a tanker/supply ship. There's usually a cruiser and a
couple of destroyers or frigates and a sub. The role of the frigates
and destroyers are primarily to protect the carrier, so they don't go
off steaming around by themselves.

Even with jet fighters and helicopters, that's a big area to "patrol".
Over the horizon radar helps, and we have technology to identify the
type, name and position of an enemy combatant as well as large merchant
ships, but you have to keep in mind that there are literally hundreds if
not thousands of small boats running around that we can't identify
without a visual look-see. Which ones are the pirates?

Sounds good in theory, but just won't work out very well in practice.

Eisboch




I didn't state we could go it alone. A couple of carriers, a lot of
patrol boats, satellites, et cetera.


--
Palin & Bachmann in 2012 -
All Stupidity All the Time