Seems like building an armed escort vessel for an 80-120' yacht wouldn't be too hard (either something that is a full time escort vessel, or something which can station-keep weapons and other contraband in intl waters while the main boat goes into ports.)

The commercial-escort equivalent of this (a 0-10 man crew escort vessel which can take out drones, launch drones, etc.) would also be interesting; be able to run hundreds of them for convoy escort, SAR, etc. Way more cost effective than a frigate.

Prob excessive to put a 30x113mm or something on it, but that might be the cheapest way to take out drones, and it's overmatch to any non-specialty naval vessel, and just generally awesome. Combine that with some drones and...bubble of safety.

Downside of course is I can get drones; I can't easily get 30mm cannons. I guess I could make them, but getting EUCs for a private naval escort fleet would be tricky. Maybe find a friendly flag who want a navy and will let me run it as a commercial escort service.