Hypothetical surface raider

[Jon K]

There's also the US Coast Guard.

I would guess, although without proper information about technical and, above all, bureaucratic difficulties, that a lot of USCG vessels could be used as motherships for mine clearing operations using various kinds of drones. Even quite small USCG ships seem to carry Prosecutor-RIB.

 

[Jon K]

My suggestion, which I reckon some pirates already use are Jet Ski's with M60's (or similar) and automatic grenade launchers that can be fired from the movement controls of the craft...

Like Stingray USV but with a pilot?

http://www.defense-update.com/products/s/stingray.htm

 

[Salty Dog]

I would guess, although without proper information about technical and, above all, bureaucratic difficulties, that a lot of USCG vessels could be used as motherships for mine clearing operations using various kinds of drones. Even quite small USCG ships seem to carry Prosecutor-RIB.

There are also a variety of civilian offshore support vessels (OSV) that work the various oilfields in the Gulf of Mexico (and other areas). Some of these OSV are (or may be) equiped for ROV operations which would be useful for mine hunting and clearing. Not to mention seismic survey vessels that may be useful for mine hunting.

For the USCG I was thinking more along the lines of patrol and law enforcement. With both surface and air assets, they are pretty good at patrolling. The USCG are the experts and have the authority for VBSS (visit, boarding, search, and seizure).

 

[chakos]

why a surface vessel to begin with? A large surface vessel would last exactly one engagement at most. It reflects radar, travels on the surface and is generally unarmored and would not have sufficient defences to stop an even half hearted attack.

Buy a Kilo sub off some dodgy Russian arms dealer, or even ask the Iranians if you could borrow one of theirs. With a competent crew you could last several engagements, and if you had a supply vessel or an out of the way base then you could probably last even longer

 

[kato]

Buy a Kilo sub off some dodgy Russian arms dealer, or even ask the Iranians if you could borrow one of theirs.

Why a Kilo? There's literally more than 100 Romeos somewhere in the world waiting for the scrapper.

 

[Salty Dog]

Why a Kilo? There's literally more than 100 Romeos somewhere in the world waiting for the scrapper.

Buy any new or used warship, be it a surface or submarine, "someone" will take notice.

A raider would be better off with non-descript vessels to blend in with the background noise.

 

[swerve]

Buy any new or used warship, be it a surface or submarine, "someone" will take notice.

A raider would be better off with non-descript vessels to blend in with the background noise.

Buy a job lot of old subs for scrapping, "lose" one or two in the process, & surreptitiously refurbish.

But I agree, nondescript merchant vessels would be better.

 

[Jon K]

There are also a variety of civilian offshore support vessels (OSV) that work the various oilfields in the Gulf of Mexico (and other areas). Some of these OSV are (or may be) equiped for ROV operations which would be useful for mine hunting and clearing. Not to mention seismic survey vessels that may be useful for mine hunting.

Fair point, some minehunting AUV's are sold also for oil industry as well, the examples include Norwegian HUGIN.

As a sidestep from this, might it be actually possible that via arrival of various modular options to armament one could fairly easily convert a suitable vessel, such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_handling_tug_supply_vessel
to an escort ship / mine warfare ship / small scale mothership? This would not obviously have capabilities of a purpose-built warship, but this kind of approach might be useful in some very unrealistic global war scenario.

EDIT: Or for a better example of a ship suitable for conversion:

http://www.solstad.no/web/internet.nsf/(docs)/2CBDFB530FF2CD60C12573060029CD56/$FILE/Progress.pdf

 

[Smythstar]

Some sort of commercial design would be the go.

Soviet trawler/spy ship/sub chaser with underwater torpedo tubes.

Some sort of RO/RO ferry or bulk carriers with bottom doors to allow unobserved laying of large quantities of timed activated influence mines that sit on the bottom until activated.
Choke points like the Suez Canal, Panama Canal, Straits of Malacca etc could all be pre mined to be activated at a certain time - to coincide with an invasion perhaps.

 

[Sea Toby]

Mining a choke point or a canal will most likely start WWIII. Back during WWII the Latin nations more or less told the Germans hands off of the Panama Canal, especially the Pacific nations of Central and South America. The last thing Panama wants is the US Navy to return for a long time defending the canal. They might not get it back. Its the old saying, once shame on you, twice shame on me.