I Wonder How the U.S. Navy Will Handle This

Up until this point, the Somali pirates have been attacking ships with non-American crews. I suspect that, even though the U.S. has ships in the Gulf of Aden, this is part of the reason we haven't heard much of any interdiction actions by our fleet. Most of the action, it seems, has been between the pirates and warships of other nations, such as Turkey or Russia.

All that may have just changed.

Yesterday the Maersk Alabama, based out of Norfolk, Virgina, was seized. It's carrying tons of food and other relief supplies and was heading to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. There are twenty Americans on board.

Here's a New York Times article that provides more information.

Norfolk, Virginia is home not only to many shipping terminals and drydocks, but also the Norfolk Naval Station, the world's largest naval base. It will be interesting to see how the Navy ships respond to that taking of a prize that has so many local connections...