Small-craft protection will be critical not only for self-defense but as escort capability for navies wishing to operate near 'hot' coastlines. Providing more evidence of this, Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers attacked two freighters with 'suicide boats' on Wednesday, according to Reuters:
The navy said it fired on three LTTE boats that tried ram the freighters Nimalawa and Ruhuna. Two rebel boats exploded, the third capsized and six Tigers were killed, the navy said.
The ability to swarm combatants and other ships with small boats means that whatever weapon system used to combat them must be able to put out volume fires cheaply without incurring too large a logistics penalty for reconstitution - in other words, full-up VLS rounds are out. As Galrahn and others have said here, crewed small mounts (and regular training) are probably the cheapest and quickest answer to this problem. Dedicated CIWS modes are another. If we have to have electromagnetic weapons, it would be interesting to see if one can be devised that interferes with small, cheap electronic ignitions like those used in compact outboard motors. (File photo of LTTE boat from Sri Lankan MOD via lankalibrary.com)
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