Why Germany is Worth Watching

EagleOne has long been the best source for Somali piracy online. He comes through today with this article, a very interesting peek into German military activity in the Horn of Africa region.

The German soldiers aboard the remote naval reconnaissance plane (top speed of 745 km/h, range of 9,000 km) must not do more than making films and taking photographs. The only weapon that they can use in line with current laws is the camera. However, if they were permitted, they could also fire with precision, because Orion is heavily armed. It carries, warheads, missiles, tube artillery, torpedoes, mines, and bombs.

"Over the past two months we have been able to film four pirate attacks on merchant ships," says Commander Michael Potthoff (42), who commands the 65-men German Orion contingent in Djibouti. "Eight attacks were prevented because of our presence."

This raises two questions. What is the point of Germany sending a huge number of troops to Somalia to fight piracy if the current laws only allow camera's to be the weapon? Can one of our German readers explain either via email or the comments the events taking place over there regarding the governments effort to open up the RoE for the German Navy, because I think that would be an interesting discussion. If the government changes the RoE for piracy, how does that effect German military RoE in Afghanistan?

Seems to me that if Germany adjusts its laws for piracy, there could be some downstream benefit in Afghanistan. That would be nice...

Second, what is the difference between the way the P-3C described here conducting its pirate fighting efforts and any scenario involving an unmanned aviation systems contribution? As this blog continues to point out, if you need a warfighter, build an unmanned system and arm it up.

If you need a peacemaker for piracy, and unmanned platform is a glorified camera. If you really want a peacemaker, send in the manpower of the Coast Guard, Navy, and Marines, and send them in armed for action.