I am of mixed views - what is clear is the EU/US navies in the area have their hands tied with legalities and nicities and are scared of escalating the violence to where the pirates actually start killing hostages. On the other hand, ship’s crews (MSC excepted) are not generally trained in small arms. Even on MSC ships, although the crews are trained in small arms, the “rules of engagement” are so restrictive that you can’t use the weapons until it’s too late (unless you have a Force Protection detachment aboard, in which case the rules are different)! I think, the bottom line is that the best solution is to untie the hands of the militaries so they can do their job, then turn them loose to root out the piracy! Sink the mother ships; sink the skiffs; some armed predator drones over the known pirate havens with “weapons free” authority. It won’t be easy, it won’t be pretty and people are going to die (including some innocent mariners) but I just don’t see any other effective answer. Failing that, I would like to see some sort of immunity from prosecution provision recognized by the UN before I advocate arming crews! I would remind you all that there are four US SEALS under courtmartial today because they gave a known terrorist a “bloody lip” when they captured him! Those are military personnel! What do you think they’d do to a civilian mariner? Food for thought.