US Navy saves Iranian sailors from pirates

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by DaTruth

So our navy aggressively goes after pirates, yet sea piracy remains a huge problem for merchant and pleasure vessels off the coast of Africa and the Sea of Hormuz? That doesn't say much about our navy, as well as the naval forces of other world powers, does it?

i think it's strait of hormuz, oman sea...at any rate, there's a lot of ocean out there. we don't have our fleet out there at all times; that would be impossible.
typically a ship does a six month cruise in a 3 year period. they have shorter times at sea at other times. but saltwater and time at sea is hard on a ship-they have to re-fit, perform maintenance, and of course you have to take the sailors into consideration.
so, take the number of ships and do the math to see how often a portion is at sea. also consider that a part of that number is assigned to a carrier to form a battle group-they sail when she sails. that group in turn is part of a fleet-the fifth in bahrain for example. and of course part of each fleet is submarines.
so, take that number, and then look at the sheer amount of water to be covered. it's a difficult task. we're spread thin, with plenty of places we have to patrol.