In March 2009, the RAND Corporation convened a small group of experts from the U.S. government, allied partner nations, the maritime industry, and academic organizations to discuss piracy in the modern era. Participants concluded that mitigating the complex nature of maritime crime requires the input of all stakeholders--state, national, private, and nongovernmental--and must embrace measures beyond the reactive deployment of naval assets.

The authors evaluate the use of small ships in theater security cooperation (TSC). They provide the U.S. Navy with a concept of operation for small ships in TSC, necessary small ship characteristics, a survey of suitable ships, and recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of TSC operations conducted with a small vessel. The report concludes that, with a mothership, the PC-1 Cyclone Class would be fully capable for use in TSC.

Several key U.S. allies engage in security cooperation, albeit on a smaller scale than the United States. To see what the U.S. Air Force can learn from these efforts, the authors examined how and why three allies--Australia, France, and the United Kingdom--provide security cooperation and highlight three key areas that could benefit from further collaboration: staff talks, exercises, and training followed by exercises.

Some recent shipbuilding programs in the United States and Europe have involved multiple shipyards constructing major modules of each ship for final integration and testing at one shipyard. The Navy needs to decide what it wants from a shared-build strategy, then monitor and manage the program to ensure that it delivers the required outcome, as well as the vessels called for in the program.