[tabcdyop]

Convoys! Good luck trying to convince the merchants for hundreds of coutries to submit to Western let alone US authority. Thats half the problem as I said, many merchants aren't interested in cooperating and insist on doing their own thing.

PLus although the Indian ocean is large, the Somalian coast (north or east) isn't that much so couldn't a couple of nations deploy some vessles-- heck wouldn't a half dozen small coast guard style vessles (with the backing of ONE helicopter equipped vessel) Pretty much eliminate this problem. Assume anything going into or out of Somalia is pirate and act accordingly Somalia has 3,025km of coastline, the majority of which is along the more remote Indian Ocean. The pirates have been known to go over 100nm out to get to vessels. On top of that, we are forbiden from entering Somali territorial waters (12nm), and they know this. In order to monitor all of that in real time you would need several dozen full scale warships with extensive air support. It is important to appreciate the shear area we are talking about here.

As for how they get the ships, they just roll up in speed boats and point an RPG at the bridge/waterline. You stop and let them on, or they kill/sink/cripple you.