In todays Mail on Sunday there is an article about the inability of the RFA Wave Knight to prevent the rescue of the Chandlers. Read the article first before continuing
Details of the extraordinary stand-off on day six of the hostage crisis as the pirates attempted to transfer the pair from their yacht to their mother ship were disclosed by a member of the crew furious at the impotence of naval commanders.Further on
The 31,500-ton Wave Knight sighted the Kota Wajar on the evening of October 28 and immediately tried to intimidate her by closing to less than 100 yards. At this point the Lynn Rival was not in sight so there were no hostages on board the pirate ship.
At this time the Wave Knight was not a threat to the wellbeing of the Hostages.
In an earlier statement to the press, the MOD had tried to assert that the civilian manned Wave Knight did not have the expertise to attempt force on the pirates. That statement is a load of utter Bollocks.
I left the sister ship, the Wave Ruler, in July, our last mission before setting of back to the UK, was those very same piracy patrols.
The ship's weaponry consisted of 2 x 30mm quick firing cannons, rate of fire 100 rounds per minute, 2 x mark 8 miniguns firing rate 3000 rounds per minute, and 5 x general purpose machine guns, firing at 200 rounds per minute. If Wave knight had the same weaponry, and I'm sure she did, she could have stopped that mother ship dead.
Much is made of the Wave Knight having a civilian crew, and gives the impression that the crew are amateurs with weapons. I beg to differ with that premise. On the Wave Ruler we were constantly exercising our weapons crews, including one live shoot per week. Incidentally we had a young stewardess who was not only highly proffesional with weapon firing procedure but was also superb at target destruction. (I know, as I have done the Royal Naval weapons maintainer course)
The truth I suspect is that even though there are clear rules of engagement, due to satellite communications, those back in the UK would have had their fingers in the till regarding the decision making at all times. In my opinion the Captain of the Wave Knight would have had his hands tied behind his back.
In an earlier statement to the press, the MOD had tried to assert that the civilian manned Wave Knight did not have the expertise to attempt force on the pirates. That statement is a load of utter Bollocks.
I left the sister ship, the Wave Ruler, in July, our last mission before setting of back to the UK, was those very same piracy patrols.
The ship's weaponry consisted of 2 x 30mm quick firing cannons, rate of fire 100 rounds per minute, 2 x mark 8 miniguns firing rate 3000 rounds per minute, and 5 x general purpose machine guns, firing at 200 rounds per minute. If Wave knight had the same weaponry, and I'm sure she did, she could have stopped that mother ship dead.
Much is made of the Wave Knight having a civilian crew, and gives the impression that the crew are amateurs with weapons. I beg to differ with that premise. On the Wave Ruler we were constantly exercising our weapons crews, including one live shoot per week. Incidentally we had a young stewardess who was not only highly proffesional with weapon firing procedure but was also superb at target destruction. (I know, as I have done the Royal Naval weapons maintainer course)
The truth I suspect is that even though there are clear rules of engagement, due to satellite communications, those back in the UK would have had their fingers in the till regarding the decision making at all times. In my opinion the Captain of the Wave Knight would have had his hands tied behind his back.
Yes but the mother ship was manned by hostages who would not have fared well if WK had opened up with a broadside.
ReplyDeleteThe real problem was that the SBS who along with their army counterparts are the only people with a chance of resolving hostage situations, were delayed.