Lange,+Stewart+3

The United States military has deployed MQ 9 Reaper UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) to help counter somali pirates. The US started to use this when the Somali pirates started to attack ships farther and farther from home. The farthest attack happened some 1,000 nautical miles from Somali. These drones are remotely controled from an American base and can fly up to 18 hours before landing and can hold up to fourteen missiles. The drones have a camera that can veiw the ocean claerly at 50,000 feet above sea level. This means that the drones are able to see the pirates before they are able to hide their weapons. The idea to use the drones was brought up after the Somali pirates attacked an oil tanker. African countries were reluctant to host an American military base partly due to fears that the continent would be further militarised. The deployment of these remote controlled drones will be taken by some as evidence that Africom does not necessarily need a huge base in Africa to get its work done. The pirates may not be aware they are being watched as the drones fly high, are difficult to spot and we are told they essentially have no radar signature. This is supposed to be a breakthrough in countering piracy.

BBC: [] Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: []

The coverage between these two sites seemed to be about the same. BBC was a bit more informative about the drones though. CBC was a very informative article about ways to counter piracy. All in all both sites covered this article very well and were both very informative and written well.

I think that this will be a very good and effective way to counter the Somali pirates. Also this is useful because it will not endanger the lives of airmen who were flying the planes. These drones are controlled remotely therefore keeping the pilots safe.