Somalia's expanding army of pirates are increasingly launching their attacks from large, already hijacked vessels that offer greater physical protection during boarding and whose kidnapped crews act as human shields.

Speaking to reporters in the Kenyan port of Mombasa where his NATO flagship was docked, Commodore Michiel Hijmans said few pirates were still using their rudimentary skiffs to board vessels.

"Pirates have gone high tech and few use speed boats. They have switched to usage of mother ships," said Hijmans, who currently commands NATO's Ocean Shield anti-piracy mission.

"We cannot attack mother ships without proper planning since most of them have hostages on board," said the Dutch navy commander.

Hijmans also explained that pirates operating on large hijacked vessels were able to extend their area of operation when on the prowl and were no longer confined to their coastal hideouts during monsoon seasons.

"The pirates can operate in the sea for long as they load the mother ships with enough food, fuel and militant weapons ready for a hijacking spree," he said.

"Pirates are getting smarter every hour... Pirates do not give up unless they cannot board or are threatened. I'm afraid that the war on piracy might not be won until there is a stable government in Somalia," he said.

Hijmans said Somali pirates were currently holding 28 ships and 654 crew members.

Ecoterra International, an environmental and human rights NGO monitoring maritime activity in the region, says at least 45 foreign vessels are hijacked and 800 seamen held hostage.

RiskIntelligence, a security consultancy firm based in Denmark and specialised in maritime threats, said the pirates adopted their game-changing "mother ship" tactics in November 2010.

While captured vessels had been used as floating service stations and temporary mother ships in the past, their use became more systematic with the first sortie of the MV Izumi, a Japanese ship captured in October.

"A number of captured merchant vessels were (since) pressed into pirate service on this model," said Dirk Steffen in a briefing for RiskIntelligence released last week.

He said the trend brought significant changes to the pirates' modus operandi and listed reduced dependency on seasons and weather conditions, increased range and higher transit speeds.

Steffen also pointed out that pirates would now be attacking their targets from ships of equal size, thus modifying the military rapport de force.

"When utilising a captured merchant vessel in an attack, pirates eliminate the small boat disadvantage," he said.

Pirates will be able to fire from bridge level, enjoy the same stable firing platform as their target's embarked security and use heavier weaponry, the analyst said.

While the increased use of mother ships is generally expected to make naval patrols and shipboard defence less effective, Steffen argued that anti-piracy monitoring would locate them more easily.

"It is generally known which mother ships are at sea at any given time... The merchant vessel-based pirate action groups will be impossible to miss for alert and well-briefed crews," he said.

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