Troperville Private Military Company

From here, where Barkey brought up that if he had the capital to do it, he'd start a PMC and sail the high seas and eradicate Somali pirates. I thought it was an interesting concept, and deserving of it's very own thread, so here it is.

So, Barkey got rich and has a butt-load of money to buy stuff, with the goal of ridding the world of Somali pirates.

Serious questions: What ship/ships should we use? Will we modify it? What sort of armamaent would we need? What sort of legal issues would we face as a PMC operating in international waters? Would we be able to operate in Somali territorial waters without legal concerns?

Fun questions: Who's up for a life on the high seas? And since we're picking on pirats, would we have a ninja theme or something?

edited 1st Dec '10 2:25:54 PM by pvtnum11

I'll deal with the aeronautical aspects!

Depending on the vessel, we would want either helicopters or fixed wing aircraft, preferably ones that are multi-role. Having multi-role aircraft means we take up less space with craft for every concievable task.

EDIT:

I'm ready for a life on the high seas, as a pilot, of course. Robot theme, anyone?

edited 1st Dec '10 2:30:54 PM by Flanker66

Elco PT boat.

Vintage yet effective.

Get me a zodiac and a SR-25 and I'm golden.

Have I mentioned the fact that i hate the water?

What's the pay like?

-gets turned down-

edited 1st Dec '10 2:37:58 PM by Shichibukai

^^ All the more reason why you would find yoruself at home on a larger ship, and not a zodiac.

You know, hot showers, pool table, mess deck, and a cot - as opposed to the smell of salt spray and inflated rubber. I'd pick the former. I'm not too fond of water myself, so I want some steel under my feet.

^ Heck if I know... Hopefully it's all under the table, though.

edited 1st Dec '10 2:38:41 PM by pvtnum11

So, how are we going to pay for all our junk? Charity drives?

"Please donate to the Troperville PMC fund. With your help, we can shoot the fuck out of random pirates out in the middle of nowhere."

The government provides us with equipment for free in exchange of getting rid of their "Problem"

Do you think they'd let us have any of their mothballed ships?

I'd imagine that Barkey woudl invest a chunk of his moutain of cash after buying the intial loadout.

And as a PMC, we'd probably get work like, guard this port, clean out this den of thieves, and other offers from nations that can't or won't do it themselves. Naturally, we can accept or reject offers that we don't like.

Barring an actual job, we'd dip into the investment returns for pay, upkeep and whatnot.

^ Good question. I think he was leaning for a yacht rather than a warship, but we could buy an old frigate or something and pretty it up. Battleship Gray gets old after awhile and we want the ship to look nice to potential clients who are looking to hire us, yes?

edited 1st Dec '10 2:47:47 PM by pvtnum11

Good point; I guess I could always settle for shooting people from a moving ship.

You know what else we need? Funny accents, a cool animal-inspired name, and some good 80's rock playing through the speakers.

Our airstrikes will employ contact-fuse detonating sheep.

Hm, can I get an old school Iowa class? Pull two of the turrets, replace one with a VLS and the other with a specialty loaded MLRS, mount some howitzers and other equipment on the sides, update the equipment and go cruising around. If nothing else, it'd be fun to just go run down the pirates as they try and plink away at the ship.

Will we ever conduct operations on land?

We'd have to buy Iowa herself. The other threee that were built are all museum ships now. the other two planned ships were never completed and were broken up for scrap.

The crew requirements on a ship that size would be pretty steep. And unless barkey landed a billion dollars, I doubt we could get something that awesome.

Old Cold War-era frigate? Those sell all the time, and have far less crew and consumable requirements.

Land ops? Hmmm, where's Tuefel when I need him?

Could. Or we could partner with another PMC (sub-contractor) and let them deal with any ground mission requrements we're contracted to do. We put them ashore, and pick them up when their mission objectives are complete.

edited 1st Dec '10 3:02:24 PM by pvtnum11

Awww man. I'm an Army brat, I'm naturally biased against ships and the Navy. Can we at least hire some Gurkhas for boarding actions?

I did time in the Army, I know how you feel. (I blame ten years as a navy contractor for my fascination with ships)

Maybe Tuefel can be our master-At-Arms and train us how to do amphib stuff.

And besides that, we'll need to pull security on our port when we do port calls for stuff.

Damn, I figured I'd get to whore it up and get tattoos. Would it be possible to doc a mini sub? Despite said bias against the Navy I'm a good swimmer and not claustrophobic; I see possibilities.

I can see the Iowa from my house. It's in the Bay Area.

I think we could get her cheap, since shes worthless to the military.

We could convert the aft turret into a helipad.

Can we have hovercrafts? It'll be a bit more effective a counter to Somalis in speedboats instead of an expensive and cumbersome flotilla.

I keep saying. Elco PT boats.

Various machine guns, high speed, ocean worthy, and 4 torpedos...

...Just incase.

Can I be the Inspector Javert to you guys? I promise I'll be not nearly as ruthless but twice as irritating

^ Only if you're the Executive Officer and take our your tendencies on the crew.

I think a fast and maneuverable PT-boat type of craft is useful, actually. Good for doing work in littoral and riverine environments. (green and brown-water navy) Not very comfy for extended periods out in the open ocean, though.

So, here's what I propose:

A large 400-500 foot frigate or destroyer, converted to a more yacht-like appearance. Mount a helo pad off of the aft of the superstructure. Very aft end of the boat, davits and crap to pick up/drop off a PT-boat. We leave it out of the water unless we want a second boat for fast work. And for going ashore to get all tatooed and drunk and crap. Bow of the ship mounts our main armament, either two Bofors 57mm Mark II's or 76mm Otobreda Super Rapid guns. Either choice should be more then enough to neutralize your average pirate craft or ship at range far beyond what they can engage us at.

Secondary armamaents would be a mix of 50.cal HMG's, 7.62mm GPMG's and whatever small arms we all choose to carry when an attack goes down.

The existing armor of whatever ship we end up acquiring should be sufficient to stop all small arms fire, although we can always augment the armor scheme as we see fit.

We probably won't be getting anything nuclear-powered, so we wil have to rely on buying fuel-oil from somewhere. Yemen (or anywhere in that area, really)should be a good place to buy fuel, as it's in our operating area.

I figure a crew complement of about sixty or higher, plus any ground force we decide to bring along or have stationed at our corporate office.

How's that for a start?

I'd sign up for that mission if I was supplied with an eyepatch. Since we'd be fighting pirates while mercs, wouldn't that make us privateers?

My knowledge of international law is pretty weak, but from my understanding the general rule is "Don't get caught."

edited 1st Dec '10 6:20:53 PM by thatguythere47