Just for fun...homebrew warships

[Mgellis]

So...a bit of a thought experiment here...

Let's say it's ten years or so in the future and things are getting pretty bad. Fish stocks have collapsed around the world due to overfishing, global warming, etc., and people are getting desperate. Some fishermen are sneaking into EEZs to fish illegally. A few have even turned pirate on occasion, ambushing another fishing boat, killing the crew, and taking both catch and boat to a port where they can sell them.

More and more fishing boats are arming themselves.

So, what could you put on a fishing boat (the types in the database range from about 100 tons to 2,500 tons) that wasn't really meant to be armed, but is big enough to mount a couple of weapons. I'm thinking one option would be a couple of heavy machine guns or even 20 mm. automatic cannons amidship (fore and aft you would still have all the machinery associated with fishing, nets, etc.). You could probably mount 81-mm. mortars, too. And shoulder-launched rockets or even SAMs are another possibility. Mind you, these are NOT warships...they are fishing boats, but they are fishing boats where the captain assumes he might have to play rough sometimes to bring the catch home.

What else? Any other ideas? I imagine one limitation is that these ships were not originally meant to be armed, so you have to stick with fairly small weapons. But what is the well-armed fishing trawler wearing in 2025? Inquiring minds want to know.

[Blu3wolf]

well... for sneaking into EEZs... that already happens.

as for armaments, if they are big enough to fit 2 or 3 sea containers on board, they are big enough to mount large SAM systems. Russia has been messing around with a IADS that ships in shipping containers - so you can have SAMs on trains, trucks, ships, etc. ...

[RoryAndersonCDT]

I think the most effective weapons and easiest weapons to conceal would be MANPADS and MANPATS.

A fishing trawler with a 20mm cannon would be conspicuous!

[NakedWeasel]

I agree with Baloogan. Stingers, Javelin, RPG, Carl Gustav. Maybe a little Ma Deuce, or Mk19 40 Mike Mike for long range trawler suppression. Probably the upper limit of firepower for a boat that size might be a TOW launcher, and or a seven-round Hydra 70 rocket launcher. You might want to look at Iran's newest FAC's for inspiration.

[mikmykWS]

Did add the HJ-8 and a few of the types that have been showing up in Syria as well.

In this case I'd stick to machineguns and grenade launchers...all kinds.

Mike

[psycho0222]

Is it really practical to use SACLOS missile aboard ships? Wouldn't the swaying throw off the aim?

[navwarcol]

If you are thinking defensive, ie. AGAINST pirates, conspicuous is a weapon in itself. Muggers don't typically attack a bodybuilder-looking guy, they want the old lady.
Most of the weapons mentioned above require some training to use, so you start wandering away from being fishermen on the offense side of it, and become more pirates, concentrating on the separate skill set required for something like that. Therefore in the pirate case (offense) the fishing equipment becomes just part of your camouflage, and you could easily skimp on some of it in exchange for a larger weapon on the deck.

[DeltaIV]

I see russian AT(GM) weapons. RPG-7's - already tested by Somalian pirates. Perhaps older soviet MCLOS/SACLOS ATGM systems (Malyutka, Falanga, Fagot, etc.). Cheapest weapons available that could be easily (and also cheaply) bought in 2025. Maybe also outdated recoiless weapons (although these things age very gracefully). Weapons like Javelin are just too expensive for fishing boats (although probably very effective also in ASuW role). I don't see any major country giving up this currently state of the art technology to fishermen in next twenty years.

[jdkbph]

ORIGINAL: Mgellis

What else? Any other ideas? I imagine one limitation is that these ships were not originally meant to be armed, so you have to stick with fairly small weapons. But what is the well-armed fishing trawler wearing in 2025? Inquiring minds want to know.

You may have just come up with a good use for the LCS. Something it might actually be good at.

Armed fishing trawler.

JD

[NakedWeasel]

[:D] albeit an incredibly expensive armed fishing trawler. I tell you, I just know that Indy-class LCS would make a very fine frigate, if they'd just lengthen her like they did the Flight II Burks, and slap a 48-cell VLS in her midships, and add some sonar... But somehow I think that would raise her cost to over a billion a copy, and that would indeed be criminal to pay that much for an aviation-heavy FFG with a glass jaw.

Anyways, I'm drifting off station....