One submarine and a few torpedoes that's all that is needed.

m wilson, bidache, France

LOL! Royal Navy? The same guys that got captured by the Iranians? Nelson wept

Scott Malensek, UNIONTOWN, USA

The Somalis will be looking forward to their shiny new RIBs. The RN will be able to pay good ransoms when their gutless crews are captured as well, it'll boost the Somali economy no end.

This is an Egyptian problem, threatening their core economy of ships transiting Suez. Let them deal with it.

JonB, Manchester, UK

We are drowning in laws that are made by lawmakers sitting in very comfortable desks in Washington, Whitehall etc etc.
The Royal Navy has a proud history of dealing with pirates. Give Captains the authority to act independently and use lethal force on any unregistered, armed ships.

Richard, london, England

Winston Churchill:" The responsibility of the goverment for defense is absolute and requires no mandate. As an island nation ths UK must maintain a large, effective fleet."

Those were the rules...when Britania ruled the waves.

Under NuLabour...Britania waives the rules.

God help Britain!

Garth Rex, Glendale Heights, USA

libby purves is right- our RN is already depleted due to landlocked Iraq, why is it up to us to sort out pirates now as well!

paul, wokingham,

"Royal Navy Warships"? Do they still have more than one then? Don't let the government know or they'll want to cut the numbers down, again. And again. And again. And again.

Chris, Derby,

Oh Dear, we are following the French in military matters, they having recently stood up to the pirates succesfully.
Let's hope that we do better than we did against the Iranians, or the pirates will be running around in Royal Navy captured vessels.

Edward Johns, Lannion , France

All the pirates have to do is plead asylum and guess which Country they will be heading for to bleed dry?

Roger, Surrey.,

Of course if the pirates - "suspected pirates," sorry - are rash enough to fire the first shot at the RN, then there's only one thing for it: TARGET PRACTICE!

Dennis, Portland OR, The American Colonies

A day late and a dollar short. And why on earth involve the Department of Transport. For goodness sake, get back to some pragmatic decision making and keep the damn bureaucrats and government people off to the side. Also, get a few more ships. There is hardly any navy left.

nt, New York, USA

"The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is talking to the Government of Somalia. " What government? What Somalia?

R. Douglas, Princes Risborough, UK

Stop talking about it and do it. Force is all these people understand and respect.

B J Deller, Marbella, Spain