Effective and Enduring Solution to Piracy

Caption: Another overcrowded (fishing) skiff about to be inspected on the high sea for weapons

Operating in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden under the NATO sanctioned Operation Ocean Shield. OOS is due to finish at the end of 2014 and this leaves very little time to come up with another less costly solution to the Somalia piracy problem. If no satisfactory solution is found and ‘the shield’ is lifted then piracy will expand in this major global shipping area.

Participating navies call on long range military reconnaissance aircraft to locate a pirate skiff that is just a tiny dot on hundreds of thousands of square miles of Open Ocean. Once discovered the aircraft passes on the position of the skiff to the nearest warship that then proceeds at maximum speed to the suspected pirate’s location. If there is a chance the pirate skiff might suspect they have been discovered and might head for home the warship would send off a helicopter to ‘corral’ the skiff until they arrive on the scene to apprehend 5 to 10 pirates in a little skiff

A more cost effective solution would be to stop the pirates at the coast while they are still inside their own Territorial Waters BEFORE they get lost in the expanse of the open ocean. But NATO warships cannot violate a country’s Territorial Waters and can’t operate close enough to the coast to observe coastal activity.

Piracy begins at HOME and is best dealt with at home by a countries home Navy, Coast Guard or Maritime Police.

Many countries cannot afford to purchase vessels to prevent piracy so an International Fund should be created to purchase small High Speed Patrol Boats. Vessels could be ‘provided, leased or loaned’ to the countries affected by piracy and their crews trained on the best practices and techniques to capture pirates. Providing each country with the tools they need to patrol their Territorial Waters is the first step in preventing piracy coming from their shores. The same vessels could be used to tackle other maritime criminal activities including foreign trawlers poaching billions of dollars’ worth of fish a year which is money that would help to bolster their own fishing industry improving the country’s economy.

Sounds simplistic and it should be; this is the simplest, most cost effective LONG TERM solution to counteract global piracy. It would require a lot of small Patrol Boats and effective long term patrolling to locate the areas that pirates operate from and then to shut them down. The cost to purchase Patrol Boats can be kept reasonable by using small ‘purpose designed’ 20m moulded carbon  

Carbon fibre is five times stronger than steel and less than half the weight of aluminium. The HSPPBs performance is enhanced by a carbon fibre hydro-foil system which lifts two thirds of the hull up out of the water reducing drag. The combined features result in a 75% lower fuel burn, lower greenhouse gas emissions, a higher speed and better performance than any similar size metal Navy Patrol Boat.

Foam core construction and built in void areas make these boats UNSINKABLE boats don’t get any safer than this.

HSPPBs are available in four sizes 20m & 26m x 9m and 30m & 35m x 10.6m. The HSPPB20 has a range of over 2,500 nautical miles at 35 knots with 83 hours endurance. The HSPPB35 has a range of over 4,500 nautical miles at 40 knots with 118 hours endurance allowing for 5 days non-stop patrolling.  We are presently negotiating to series manufacture these vessels with help from a large composite manufacturing company experienced in manufacturing large carbon fibre components for the US Navy.        

An HSPPB does not carry mounted weapons but they can be fitted as an option. Its mission is to carry out littoral patrolling to locate and prevent pirates from leaving the coastline and heading out to sea. Unlike large steel warship patrol boats the HSPPBs are not intended to fight other warships or aircraft, but it is expected that the trained crew onboard would carry hand held weapons to counter pirates with similar weapons.

The root causes of maritime piracy

The current global expansion of piracy is due in part to International TV News being available in almost every country in the world. Piracy is a hot topic for news media and the successful hijacking of a large ship being taken by a few pirates in a small skiff and held for millions of dollars in ransom receives a lot of coverage.

To the many unemployed youths and young men in emerging countries with no foreseeable form of employment that see the TV coverage of a successful hijack and the millions of dollars asked for its release could start  them talking to their friends about this being a possibility. If the idea of pirating a ship and earning a lot of money becomes very appealing to them they would then seek out people in their community who they know would provide them with weapons and money for large outboard motors and gasoline for a share of the ransom money.

Coopting a fisherman to use his skiff or stealing one would then get them mobile. After leaving the beach they would continue further offshore until they reach a safe distance near the shipping lanes where they would wait for an easy ship to board.

Addressing the root causes of maritime piracy

Preventing young men from turning to piracy depends on the stability of the government and the employment opportunities. This is assessed by the international community accepting it as a safe place to invest and do business. If it is not accepted due to geo-political infighting, corruption and crime then these internal issues must be addressed before piracy can be totally prevented.

The stop gap measure is for the Maritime Authority to be entrusted to operate “loaned HSPPB’s” to locate and contain pirates on the beaches. Their performance will be judged by the decline of piracy coming from areas within their region.

Each country and each area in each country may have different reasons that lead youth to take up piracy.

Finding or creating meaningful paid work for this vulnerable group of young men must be the highest priority as this will prevent them from turning to piracy.

by Captain Graham Pfister, President, CEO and Lead Designer at Trawlercat Marine Designs & Workboats