Marines Test Javelin Missile Teams In Rubber Rafts "Like Somali Pirates, But Better Armed"

Teams of Marines armed with Javelin anti-tank guided missiles riding in small inflatable boats trained to engage enemy naval forces for the first time as part of a major recent exercise on and around the Japanese island of Okinawa. The development of these waterborne tactics was influenced, in part, by lessons learned from responding to Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden in the past two decades or so. This follows a smaller exercise earlier this year, in which Marine Corps forces in that same region practiced employing Stinger shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, also known as Man-Portable Air Defense Systems, or MANPADS, from rubber rafts.