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THE CREW of a US cargo and ammunition ship has been praised for the way it took evasive action to prevent a successful attack from pirates off the eastern coast of Somalia.
While transiting north to provide logistics support for coalition ships operating in the area, two pirate skiffs pursued the USNS Lewis and Clark for more than an hour.
Shots were fired during the high-seas drama as the bandits hoped to capture their most audacious prize to date and cause the US government huge embarrassment.
However, once shipboard lookouts spotted the two suspected pirate skiffs, Lewis and Clark conducted evasive manoeuvres and increased speed to elude the pirates.
The ship's embarked security team also used a long range acoustical device (LRAD) to issue verbal warnings to the approaching skiffs.
The pirates then fired small arms weapons toward Lewis and Clark, which fell well short of the ship's stern. Lewis and Clark continued to increase speed and the skiffs ceased their pursuit of the US ship.
"The actions taken by Lewis and Clark were exactly what the US Navy has been recommending to prevent piracy attacks - for both commercial and military vessels," said Captain Steve Kelley, Commander of Bahrain-based Task Force 53, to which Lewis and Clark is operationally assigned.
"Merchant mariners can and should use Lewis and Clark's actions as an unequivocal example of how to prevent a successful attack from occurring."
More than 30,000 vessels transit the Gulf of Aden annually. In 2009, there have been 97 attempted attacks on merchant vessels, 27 of which have been successful.
And, the US Navy will soon be giving chase to the pirates with a special weapon. It has unveiled a new hi-tech ship it says can chase down pirates off the coast of Somalia faster and more aggressively than previous vessels could.
The USS Freedom is one of the fastest ships in the navy to date, its commander said. "It's more than an evolutionary step forward, it's a revolutionary step forward," Cmdr Michael Doran said. "It's highly automated and it's fast. For a piracy mission, we can go out there and cover more water with fewer ships."
The USS Freedom has a modular design and requires 40 crew members, and can travel up to 45 mph.
"What we can do is we can go out there and cover more water with fewer ships because of the sprint speed of the ship," Cmdr Doran told Fox TV News. "We can tailor the ship to perform that counter-piracy mission."
Some are calling it the Navy's Corvette. "It is kind of like driving a sports car around," Cmdr. Doran said. "All of my friends have told me, 'drive it like you stole it, drive it like you stole it!'"
