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The US Navy might be the most powerful, but it does not have the ship types for close in work against small fast boats. You can't effectively use attack submarines against those kinds of pirates. An Aircraft Carrier is a very large asset to use against small targets. Frigates, Destroyers, and Cruisers of today are not designed for gun fights in coastal waters, but to engage Soviet vessels at sea with missiles, or prevent missiles or submarines from hitting the carriers. You typically don't use a million dollar tomahawk cruise missile against a pirate speed boat. There are no battleships in service, and they too are too large of an asset to place against small targets. The LPD and Marines assets might be viable, but those are more for invading land than engaging pirates.
The idea of using Privateers is that the privateer would already have a small boat or ship that could be fitted with some guns and used either to patrol the coastal areas, hunt down pirate bases in territorial waters that the US Navy isn't suppose to enter. Or act as decoys to bring the pirates to them to be captured or killed. This would save funds and the Navy would not need to have new ships and boats built to deal with the situation, nor woud they need to expand naval spending to get more sailors.
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