Pirates And the Indian Navy

And so I got his weekly call a little earlier than usual. Like a little kid who had just realized that his christmas present was the latest enviable gizmo gadget, he was excited and jabbered something about witnessing history, pirates and the Gulf of Aden….."You must have read it in the newspaper today!!...and I saw it happen through my own binoculars.."…for a person whom newspaper = comics + crosswords + the occasional light doses of news encapsulated with coloured pictures and snazzy illustrations…and of course the random headline, it all seemed Greek to me….so I did the next best thing and googled it…and boy!!...I have to admit I was a tad surprised. The Indian navy has not always appealed to me as a "knight in shining armour"…what with the constant media depiction of its ageing naval fleet, obsolete equipment and dwindling underwater combat fleet. Statements issued by the Comptroller and Auditor General like: "The Navy is now left with more than 50% of its submarines having completed 75% of their operational life. Some have already outlived their maximum service life."...and the occasional scandal did nothing but help tarnish its image in my mind….HOWEVER!!...thanks to the fact that there was an overwhelming need for blog entries I now have a much MUCH better opinion of our naval defence.The Gulf of Aden figures high in the world economy as it acts as the vital waterway for shipping. Approximately 11 percent of the world's seaborne petroleum passes through it to reach the Suez Canal or regional refineries on the coast…a mentionable fact being that the other route via the Cape of Good Hope is longer and economically not viable….it doesn't take brains to figure out why this region is associated with a lot of piracy!!....from all my childhood experiences I can definitely vouch for the fact that pirate attacks are not as glamorous as portrayed…unlike the pirates, merchant ships have no way of defending themselves from their ammunition laden enemies and thus resort to (what I used to call) " hose pipe" defence. Cadets and officers take shifts to watch potential 'pirate entry points' armed with nothing but a hose pipe. A powerful jet of water is all that prevents the ship from being hijacked!!Getting back to our Indian Navy…it's the worlds fifth largest navy!!..its battle won is seen as a long awaited response to the increasingly bold pirate attacks. This is the first reported encounter between a naval ship and a pirate 'mother ship'. The INS Tabar encounter (if I may call it that) has now encouraged India to send more of its naval ships to patrol the region….a sign of power and achievement….whether or not you may feel positive about our Defence, this is truly a proud moment for each and every Indian…And as for what really happened on the 18th of November, these little smudges of conversation say it all: "We were monitoring the conversation on the VHF between the pirates & the Navy Commander….he gave them a lot of caution & warnings….though they spoke in pidgin, when things started heating up well surprise!!-- the pidgin pirate spoke the queens english!!....now that's no illiterate somali, but someone educated & probably well organised…...the fellows had arms and explosives and made the mistake of taking shots at our navy frigate who in the end boomed on his guns…earlier to this,we had info from a coalition helicopter about the location of the pirate craft on our path & adjusted our course to steer about 5 nautical miles off……. I believe, with one pirate mother ship blown up, they have a setback and this is the 1st time that a pirate craft has been challenged and made to taste their own medicine………..news will travel fast and we hope that with more Naval patrolsthat the scourge may be wiped out!!!"