Embarked Security Teams - Supplement or Supplant?

There is a fundamental misunderstanding regarding the role private security teams aboard ship. This article, Private Security Counters Pirates, is a good illustrations of these misunderstanding.

The role of private security teams is not to provide security, but to increase the level of security by supplementing the security all ready in place.

A ship at sea already has in place a chain of command, clearly defined responsibilities and duties, a trained crew, a watch schedule and a emergency response plan. The embarked security team must fit within this structure, not act independently from it.

The master of any ship which embarks a security team must ensure that an embarked security team team fully understands exactly what their role is aboard ship. Any action taken by the security team must be in accordance with the ship's security plan and be approved by the master. This is especially true in the case of a decision to use lethal force. Actions taken by the security team are just as much the responsibility of the master as actions taken by the ship's regular crew.

K.C.

Escorts for Group Transits

When I think convoy, the picture below is what comes to mind:

WWI Convoy However if you are transiting the Gulf of Aden using the Group Transit system what you see might look more like this:

Group Transit Escort (Photo by KC) Go ahead, zoom in, ain't nothing there.

Whats the deal? According to The Journal of Commerce article Facing Down Piracy:

The group transits,.......... are like convoys but are not escorted by naval ships, which remain “out of sight” over the horizon but still “handy” enough to reach the groups when the pirates hail them.

Ok, "out of sight" but "handy", fair enough, you can't see any ships but you know they are there, just out of sight. But here's the thing, how do I know someone is there?

During my transits of the Gulf of Aden I receive no information at all regarding military assets available for protection. In fact the response I get to my numerous reports is ....NOTHING, not even so much as an automatically generated email, something along the lines of "your call is important to us", I mean nothing, not a single message or email even acknowledging that I exist, let alone that I am transiting the GoA.

I am required to send in numerous messages and reports when I transit, expected arrival times at various points, 24 hr AMVER reports, 8 hr position reports to UKMTO, report to MARAD, noon reports to various parties with ETAs and ETDs to various points, time to enter IRTC (International Recognized Transit Corridor) time to leave, lists of intended waypoints, list of port calls with estimated arrival and departure times. I have to make various initial reports, updates, noon positions and final reports.

I find myself transiting the Gulf of Aden wondering if any one is even receiving my reports, let alone reading them.

It is discouraging to expend time and energy sorting though the voluminous memos, reports, navigation warnings and instructions in order to correctly (I hope) send the proper reports at the correct time and not receive any feedback. I am sometimes tempted to stop sending the required reports to see if I get a reaction.

In more practical terms, an important factor in my planned response to an attack is the expected response time for assistance. If I only need to hold out 30 minutes my response would differ if I need to hold our for a couple of hours or more. Expected response time at any given time during the transit or even in which direction from which I can expect help is something I would like to know. I often don't know if I am even within VHF range of assistance.

K.C.

Pirates hijack a VLCC

According to LLoyd List the U.S. Navy is reporting that a VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier) has been hijacked in the Red Sea S.E. of Kenya. That is not the Red Sea

This is going to be a wake-up call. There has been some discussion of the link between terrorism and piracy - here is a good article: Terrorism and Piracy: The Dual Threat to Maritime Shipping it from Global Terrorism Analysis

K.C.

UPDATE: Eagle 1 has this story covered at Somali Pirates Grab a Large Saudi Tanker

Arming merchant crew

In the comments over at gcaptain and Eagle Speak there is some suggestions to arm ship's crews to defend against pirates. Capt Kelly Sweeny makes a good argument at Professional Mariner.

Any proposals to arm crews would have to include plans to train crews in the use of firearms. The problem of declining standards of seamanship skills and overworked crews seems to have been overlooked.

Does it make sense to spend time and money training merchant crews in the use of lethal force? The reluctance to arm crews is not because of any squeamishness or some kind of misguided political correctness but practicality. I get ABs from time to time that can not be taught to steer. At safety meetings we still are trying to get the concept of wearing eye protection when using power tools across to the crew, with limited success. Where is the time to train and supervise crew armed with automatic weapons going to come from?

In practice arming ship's crew across the spectrum of shipping would be very difficult. Ship's crews will always be responsibly in large part for on board security but in areas where the threat is high, the Gulf of Aden for example, ships will require shore-side assistance. The required extra security will have to come from either to riding crews, naval forces or both.

At Marinelink is an article that discusses real world problems with arming merchant crews.

K.C.