Harley
glojo was saying why a submarine wasn't any use in the scenarios he was posting about.
I was thinking laterally. We have helicopters on the Falklands, one on HMS Dauntless and probably others on other warships, all with a range well past the 12 mile exclusion zone or wait until inside the 12 mile exclusion zone.
The RM who are more than capable of conducting a boarding party from the air or sea.
glojo
We both posted at the same time. Yes, I realise you are asking questions as well as providing answers, have no problem with that.
Re boarding civilian merchant ships, we had a situation here where a North Korean ship was "up to no good", the police from 2 states and customs tried to get it to stop and tried to board it but they couldn't / didn't have the expertise to do it so the Federal Gov't called in the Defence forces (Navy, SAS and Commandos) and the ship was boarded in very rough seas from the air and sea and controlled in a very short while. The North Koreans were armed.
If the Gov't thinks a ship is up to no good, they have a right to board and stop it.
(Australia has a (bad) habit of boarding Civilian registered merchant ships and doing things they shouldn't with them but the storm normally blows over after a few days or weeks. Taking over one Civilian registered merchant ship helped one Gov't get re elected !!!)