Tag: anti piracy measures

Expats Ordered Out of Country, Bancroft May Take Over Project On Wednesday June 6th, the principals of Sterling Corporate Services (SCS) were summoned to a meeting in the UAE. The sponsors of the two-year-old program announced to SCS that funding was to cease and that all expatriates (expats) must be out of Somalia by the end of June. The move came as a surprise since not only had the program just reached its operational status but a series of lightening raids had sent pirates along the coast of Puntland into a chaotic retreat. The program was already in financial arrears and the short notice and slammed wallet caused a serious shortage of operational funds.The widely spread out group of around one hundred mostly African and South African expats and their approximately 800 Somali Marines of the Puntland Marine Police Force (PMPF) were left stranded with no cash for food, fuel or salaries.Back at the PMPF base, just west of Bosaso airport, there now sits millions of dollars in heavy construction equipment, fixed and rotary wing aircraft, ocean-going ships, RHIBs, heavy transport trucks and 4X4 vehicles that suddenly became idle. Pirates like Isse Yulux who had fled the PMPF with his ...

EU commander states The number of successful Somali pirate attacks has fallen but international navies must not drop their guard and keep up the pressure, the commander of the EU mission said Tuesday.British Rear Admiral Duncan Potts warned that the gains made against pirates off the Horn of Africa were reversible and that the fight against piracy would only succeed once governance and security improve in Somalia."Yes we have increased the pressure on the pirates but I think now that we are enjoying tactical success, the importance is increasing that pressure evermore," Potts told a news conference in Brussels.The European Union handed the admiral new powers this year to destroy pirate equipment stashed on beaches, a tactic he used only once so far last month when a helicopter gunship struck a stockpile of skiffs in central Galmudug region.The number of successful pirate actions began to fall last year.Pirates hijacked 28 vessels in the first half of 2011 and only three in the second half. They have successfully attacked five ships so far this year.Seven commercial ships and 213 sailors are in pirate hands compared to 20 vessels and 550 hostages a year ago.Meanwhile, 1,009 pirates are facing prosecution in 20 ...

The 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit conducted a visit, board, search and seizure exercise Tuesday to simulate the recapture of a civilian ship, akin to a real raid carried out by Marines last year against Somali pirates. Full Story: http://patch.com/A-kxJs

EU is looking to increase the pressure militarily The European Union is aiming to step up the pressure on the "business model" used by pirates hijacking ships off Somalia, be that in terms of their financial transactions, their procurement of assets, their seizing of ships, the negotiation process and the money they obtain from ransoms.Speaking at a press conference here June 19, British Rear Adm. Duncan Potts, commander of the EU Naval Force operating off Somalia, explained that the EU is looking to "increase the pressure militarily and to support the EU's special representative for the Horn of Africa to enhance governance and security and provide alternative livelihoods for Somalians."In March, the EU extended EU NAVFOR's mandate to 2014 and expanded the area of operations to include the Somalia coast as well as its territorial and internal waters, enabling it to disrupt pirate logistical dumps.Potts said he would disrupt such areas "when the conditions necessitate using it," and that care would be taken to ensure that innocent coastal communities are not affected."The beach is a critical capability . They must come from and go back to the beach," he said.In the first half of 2011, 28 ocean-going merchant ships were ...

$16.5 million project The Netherlands will boost its military contribution to the NATO force fighting piracy in Somali waters after the country's Parliament approved funding.The Dutch Parliament voted last week to spend $16.5 million to provide extra personnel, two Cougar helicopters and an unmanned aerial vehicle to join Operation Ocean Shield, in which NATO warships and aircraft have been patrolling the waters off the Horn of Africa.Also part of the new deployment will be an additional submarine to join the mission in the second half of 2012, Radio Netherlands reported.The Netherlands has committed two vessels to Operation Ocean Shield as part of the expansion of forces. They include the helicopter-carrying frigate Evertsen, which is on its way to the region, and the amphibious transport ship Rotterdam, which will carry the two Cougar helicopters as well as the drone, the national broadcaster said.Meanwhile, the multipurpose frigate Van Amstel, which has been deployed as part of the EU's Operation Atalanta, will return to the Netherlands this month.The mission of Operation Ocean Shield is to counter maritime piracy and build policing capacity with governments in the Horn of Africa region. It operates in conjunction with other naval forces including U.S.-led maritime forces, Operation ...

Senior Iranian official says A senior Iranian official says the country's naval forces are actively conducting anti-piracy patrols in the international waters and providing escort to Iranian as well as foreign cargo vessels.Director General of Maritime Affairs at Iran's Ports and Shipping Organization Ali Estiri said on Saturday that Iran will maintain its "powerful presence" in the high seas as long as piracy exists.Estiri further noted that the issue of piracy has been on the rise in the recent years, especially off the coast of Somalia and in the Indian Ocean. The phenomenon has various political and security aspects, and consensus and collective efforts by the international community are essential in an all-out fight against piracy, he said.On May 24, Iranian naval forces rescued a US commercial ship which came under attack by several pirate boats near the Sea of Oman.Iran's Permanent Representative to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Ali Akbar Marzban said on May 18 that Iran's Navy has conducted at least 85 anti-piracy missions in international waters over the past three years. He highlighted that more than 2,000 cargo vessels have also received Iranian naval escorts through the pirate-infested waters during the mentioned period.Iran's Navy has been multiplying ...

Coordinated naval patrols and escort of merchant vessels South Korea is now all set to join the India-China-Japan combine's coordinated naval patrols and escort of merchant vessels through the piracy-infested Gulf of Aden.Sources say South Korea is likely to join the "third cycle" of the "escort and convoy coordination" plan that will be set in motion in July. Under the tri-lateral arrangement worked out among India, China and Japan, their navies have been coordinating to strengthen anti-piracy efforts in the Gulf of Aden since January.Under the first cycle, the Chinese Navy was the "lead" or "reference" force for three months, with the Indian and Japanese navies chipping in to plug the gaps. In the second cycle launched in April, India is currently the primary naval force in the tri-lateral arrangement in the Gulf of Aden under which stealth frigate INS Tabar is leading from the front.In all, since October 2008, Indian warships have ensured the safe passage of close to 2,000 vessels from around 50 countries through the strategic trade-route of the Gulf of Aden. With the pirates now also operating around 1,100 nautical miles away from Somalia's coast in the Arabian Sea, the Navy and Coast Guard have actively ...

Provided by Applied Satellite Engineering (ASE) and Beam Communications A range of new anti-piracy systems from providers Applied Satellite Engineering (ASE) and Beam Communications, utilising either the Iridium or Inmarsat satellite networks, have been launched.ASE has introduced an enhanced version of its Iridium-enabled safe room 'citadel' solution for ships with remote polling technology.Using the Iridium network, remote polling enables ship owners on shore to remotely obtain ships' positions. In the event of pirate attacks or other emergencies where communications may be interrupted, this will allow shipping offices to take control of location reporting to direct naval rescue forces.The remote polling feature can be configured to automatically capture location information at set time intervals, which ASE says can prove useful when ships are sailing outside of other satellite providers' coverage zones, or when the crew makes the decision to turn off the ship's Automatic Identification System (AIS) in pirate-infested waters.In addition, the position of the ship can become 'lost' if the standard reporting systems are inoperable for periods of time as it switches regions, communications services or experiences a malfunction.The remote polling features have been added to ASE's current safe room communications system, which uses the Iridium network to provide telephony ...

Boasting 36 ships with anti-piracy measures worth of nearly $3 billion The government-owned Oman Shipping Company (OSC) has invested in a number of measures to secure its expanding fleet of ships against piracy attacks, an official of a subsidiary entity said here yesterday. Capt Andrew Boyce, Senior Manager - Safety & Marine, Oman Ship Management Company, said the measures - although expensive - are a necessity to ensure the security of the country's national fleet, now boasting 36 ships worth nearly $3 billion. Equally important, he said, is the need to safeguard the company's Omani and multinational crew, some 600 of whom are at sea at any given time."We spend a lot of money training our people. We use external consultants and have them sail on our vessels. We run through mock drills and mock attacks, provide citadels (safe rooms) on our ships, bulletproof film on the windows, body armour, razor wire, communications, and so on. This involves a big expense, but there is no alternative," Capt Boyce told delegates on the second day of the TransOman Conference at the Grand Hyatt Muscat.In addition, the company spends significant sums on the deployment of private armed security guards on its vessels ...

Bill to combat Piracy on Cyprus ships On 31 May 2012, the House of Representatives approved the relevant Bill to combat Piracy on Cyprus ships. With the approval of this pioneering Bill, an innovative and detailed legislative framework is established for lawfully using armed escorts by specially trained and certified guards.The Chamber, as the official representative of the Cyprus Shipping Industry, cooperated very closely with the Cyprus Maritime Administration and especially with the Department of Merchant Shipping, during the preparatory stages of this important Bill, the approval of which renders Cyprus as the first country in the European Union, and possiblyinternationally, which regulates in such detail this burning issue for International Shipping.The Cyprus Shipping Chamber believes that, this pioneering Bill can further enhance the maritime infrastructure of Cyprus and its image held today as a reliable and constantly developing Maritime Centre, as well as form the basis as a reference tool, for the preparation of a comprehensive legislative and regulatory framework, both at European and international level, towards the resolution of the serious problem of Piracy.Source: Cyprus Shipping Chamber