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Mogadishu, Somalia, November 14, 2009 — SOMALI pirates this week
launched their longest- range hijack attempt yet, firing on a big Hong
Kong-flagged oil tanker 1,852km east of Mogadishu.
The bid failed, but it made clear the seaborne gangs' ambition to outwit
naval forces arrayed against them and to defeat a more determined
defense by their civilian prey.
Their solution: Master high-tech global positioning system- aided
navigational aids and the logistical challenges of refueling and
resupplying their craft in remote waters, so that they can strike
farther afield.
In taking on bigger challenges, the pirates are also seeking bigger
vessels, such as oil tankers, as this ensures a bigger ransom. One
analyst explained: "The payment structure is built on a percentage
basis."
Mr Martin Murphy, an expert on maritime irregular warfare at
Washington's Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said that
such moves reveal adaptive opponents who have "shown their competence at
greater and greater distances".
"At each stage, the pirates have gone to the previously assumed limit of
their range, (where they know) they will find ships to attack," he
added.
Ironically, security improvements aboard ships are partly to blame.
Crews are now trained to take a wide variety of measures to resist
boarders, buying time so that help can arrive. Steps include installing
barbed-wire coils, using fire hoses, sailing in a zigzag pattern and
speeding up.
Yet, such steps in remote waters are almost useless. Foreign navies are
deployed mainly in the Gulf of Aden.
As tech-savvy, logistically advanced pirates range farther afield,
experts stress that it will be impossible for navies to police the whole
western half of the Indian Ocean. v Fresh thinking is needed.
Source: Reuters, Nov 12, 2009
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