Vella Gulf familiar with

USS Vella Gulf Executive Officer Mark Young says the Somali pirates are likely young and desperate.

"Generally they're young men with no jobs, no prospects of income, so they've resorted to piracy," said Captain Young.

The guided missile cruiser encountered 16 such pirates in February.

LTJG Rich Laraway was part of the boarding team that responded to two merchant vessels under attack.

"We found what we started calling the pirate starter kit, they would always have AK47s, the price of AK47s is relatively cheap, they would have RPGs, some kind of global positioning device and were usually armed with cell phones as well," said LTJG Laraway.

The Vella Gulf was successful in its counter piracy missions, but Captain Young says since then, the landscape has changed.

"We were positioned in the right spots for the pirate activity at that time, but as you know now, the pirate activity has moved South and then further out to sea," said Captain Young.

Couple that with the shear enormity of the ocean.

"It's a very big challenge because square mileage in that area is well over a million square miles of ocean we have to cover," Captain Young continued.

The hard reality is that the US Navy can't be everywhere at all times, but with each successful mission, Sailors hope word will spread to other pirates.

"Hopefully they will understand that there's going to be consequences for their actions," said LTJG Laraway.

Source: WAVY.com