After Action Report and Video: French Pirate Raid

This video is very good, what we have all been wanting to see regarding the French actions taken against pirates in Somalia. Thoughts after the fold, this is can't miss video though.

Eagle1 has the BBC video at his place and some good pictures and links. This CNN video might be the best one I've seen though, the extra film footage at the end is nice.

Obviously the French were being honest about the incident from the beginning. I read on several French blogs there was some frustration with the way the government handled this episode in the media because some Somalian official came out and claimed the French had killed a bunch of people. Clearly the rule that first reports are usually wrong was forgotten in France. The official line that the car was stopped by a sniper shot appears accurate based on the video, where you can plainly see the people who were supposed to be dead had in fact run and been caught near the vehicle. This was very clearly an outstanding operation.

Now that we see the video, one question is whether this hurt OPSEC. Look at all that nothing around the shot car. How exactly did the helicopters arrive at such a deserted location at the right place at the right time? What the video reveals is what isn't seen. UAVs.

What UAVs does the French Navy use on the ships involved in this incident? Do the French have any UAVs in the region? It is hard to look at this and miss how well scouted they had everything. A brilliant bit of intelligence involved here, but was it all French? I want to offer a greater point for discussion.

Piracy has emerged in the 21st century as an international problem. If the US was involved, we shouldn't proclaim it, but the question is whether it is wise for either the US or France to conceal any international cooperation efforts in this instance. If cooperation is the new rule set, is concealing cooperation really the right thing to do? The Lede has a brilliant piece that describes how piracy damaged local economies in the Malacca Strait due to high insurance premiums. The solution was maritime security cooperation between Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. The coordination of the three nations, and eventually Thailand as well, has reduced what was a hot bd of piracy to no attacks to date in 2008. The nations did not conceal their coordination or cooperation in security operations. Did the public acknowledgment of cooperation contribute to the drop in piracy? I think the answer is relevant in this case if the French had help from the US, or others.