Warships surround Somali pirates

Alas, the tanks and other weapons don't appear destined for defending a pirate fortress. This will probably end in blood and gunfire.

Pirate Tankers?

Pirates off the coast of Somalia recently seized a Ukrainian ship loaded with 33 T-72 tanks, other weapons, and “a substantial quantity of ammunition.”

Likely those ‘other weapons’ include machine guns that can be mounted on those tanks.

I wonder what they plan to do with those tanks. A pirate army equipped with Soviet era battle tanks could be formidable, even if they were used primarily to defend a stronghold.

Keeping those tanks would open a door to supply chain challenges: battle tanks are not simple machines to keep running, though I expect the simpler T-72’s are easier to keep going than the modern generation of U.S. tanks. Still, tanks need fuel (lots of fuel), and tanks need spare parts (lots of different spare parts). I would almost assume that some of those tanks would become ‘parts tanks.’

If they don’t drive them too much, and if they have a mechanic or four who can replace things as they break, (not to mention has access to the tools and equipment required) they can have a mighty armored company, at least compared with most other African militaries.

I have a hunch that they’ll sell those tanks to a small country somewhere who is better equipped to manage the resource requirements of an armored force.

Weekend Warcraft

Lately I've been trying to focus on group dungeon running. This is quite a trick, particularly as a fury spec'd warrior. Tanks and healers have a much easier time of finding groups, because they hold an awesome responsibility. Really tanks and healers are the engines that make group adventuring run in WoW.

Today, I wound up taking the Underbog. This is not what I'm good at. My character, Shadrachgrey, is designed to inflict lots of damage quickly. He is not designed to keep bad guys' attention and survive while doing it. Since Underbog is a bit below my level (68 at the time), and we couldn't find anyone else, I gave tanking a go. It worked out okay, I guess. It was pretty fun, and I don't think my inexperience caused too much trouble.

This was a non-guild pick-up group (PUG), and one of the group members apparently loves his guild too. He mentioned that they have a 'never leave the group' policy. After a particularly hair fight, which we all survived, he said that we were all invited into his guild, if we wanted. I don't think there were any takers. He was a very smug fellow, and I can't help but imagine a guild filled with guys like that. Thanks, but no thanks.

This experience did show me that tanking can be fun. I expect at some point I'll respec to 'prot' (in other words, redesign my character's abilities), for the series of big dungeons at the 'end' of the game.