Both GH and Reaper operate at 50-60 thousand feet. Currently Hellfire missiles are used on Reaper, and the target acquisition, tracking and guidance capabilities are well-proven, even against moving targets such as a speedboat.

There is merit in tracking these pirates to and from their ports, and to use their tracks to disrupt their planned attacks, and to attack the lairs themselves.

Second is killing the pirates and their vessels, and to do this in a timely manner. Carriers and patrol vessels are far too expensive and slow in response, except in close-range situations. So there are two interesting alternatives:
1) Arm the vessels and provide a trained squad of
men to operate the weapons. My suggestion was for twin 50 cal MGs and antitank missiles such as Tow.

2) Use GH or Reaper to launch Hellfire missiles at the pirate vessel, yes, from 50-60 thousand feet. There is adequate resolution from the sensors aboard GH or RE to acquire and track the ships and motorboats from that altitude. Terminal guidance would ensure a hit.

GH is currently unarmed, but it can carry the load of 6 or 8 Hellfires. Reaper is well armed, but it has far less range and endurance than GH.
So, my preference is for a new-production GH with the Reaper weapons capability added.

I will leave it up to the powers that be to decide the relative worth of these assets in their roles in the GWOT versus their role in international antipirate interdiction. At the rate these events are occuring today and their probable increase, diversion might win.

These guys know only one thing: force. If we do not apply it, they continue. If we apply it, they stop.

How to apply it? There is no real functioning govt, so we apply it to the pirate's villages.

I know it sounds crude, but we have to ask ourselves a question: do we want to be effective, and stop this behavior, or do we want to just play new age nicey nice.

Do the latter and the pirating doesn't stop. Wake up, Tempest, we're not in Kansas anymore.

If only they had multiple Hellfire missile capability on Hawks: one for the trawler, and four for the speedboats, plus one spare, just in case...

Tell me again why these vessels are not well-armed and capable of fighting off the speedboats. A few twin 50 cal mounts, say four on each side, and a few Tow missiles or the like would do a bangup job. Put a few trained men on board to man the weapons. Reclassify the ship as a combat vessel if needed to get around any sea laws in the way.

Hammer them (their home bases) hard - take the short term PR hit. The Somali's will "get it," like magic. Otherwise, I'm not interested in the detail. Same old. (Oh, by the way, while we withheld action.....tell the Saudis "thanks for your support recently." Snicker.)

I'm not holding my breath folks - sing after me: "no balls at all, no balls at all, the lady had no balls at all..."

It should be widely supported, from the people needing the oil, from the people selling the oil, from the environmentalists who hate the oil spills the attacks cause.