The NATO warship HNLMS DE ZEVEN PROVINCÏEN, working in conjunction with a Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force (JMSDF) helicopter disrupted a single skiff pirate attack on MV ANANGAL INNOVATION. MV ANANGAL INNOVATION, a Greek-flagged ship, reported being approached by a small skiff while transiting eastbound in the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC) in the Gulf [...]
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Finmeccanica Will Guarantee Security in Panama
Finmeccanica has been awarded contracts worth approximately EUR 180 million from Ministerio delle Seguridad Publica of Panama. Under the agreement, Finmeccanica companies will develop a national security and surveillance system involving the implementation of a coastal monitoring and control system by SELEX Sistemi Integrati and the supply of six AgustaWestland AW139 helicopters in various configurations [...]
NATO Maritime Group 1 prevents pirate attack in Gulf of Aden
USS KAUFFMAN’s helicopter prevented a pirate attack on MV ICE EXPLORER transiting the Gulf of Aden in the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC). Kauffman was conducting routine air and surface searches for suspect vessels in the area when the merchant ship Ice Explorer called in a pirate attack. USS KAUFFMAN immediately redirected their helicopter to [...]
Debate on Piracy Definition
The government is scheduled to make its case that six Somali nationals accused in an attack on a U.S. Navy ship committed piracy. That is a central point to be argued Thursday before a judge in Norfolk, Virginia. Several other defense motions will also be heard. The six defendants are accused in the April 10 [...]
Italy Navy Launches EU Operations Command Center
The Italian Navy has launched a new land-based command facility that will be offered for use controlling European Union naval operations. Established at the Navy’s fleet command center at Santa Rosa, north of Rome, the new center has reached initial operating capability and will be fully operational in the first half of 2011, officials said. [...]
Anti-piracy efforts treat symptom, not disease
Navies can intercept Somali pirate skiffs and foil hijackings but fighting waves of attacks at sea will not solve the problem, which is rooted in instability on land in Somalia, naval leaders say. Anti-piracy efforts “will not actually resolve the base problem of why piracy is occurring … That solution lies in the stabilisation” of [...]
Russian marines free tanker, capture pirates
Russian marines stormed a hijacked Russian oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden in a daring early morning raid, killing one of the Somali pirates aboard and capturing another 10. The oil tanker’s crew of 23 escaped unharmed after the marines from the Marshal Shaposhnikov sped in small boats to the Moscow University oil tanker [...]
French navy (EU NAVAL FORCE) captures six pirates
Six pirates have been arrested after they launched an attack on a French military supply ship by mistake off the coast of Somalia, the EU’s naval force said Wednesday. Pirates in two skiffs attacked the Somme ship overnight on Monday, about 300 kilometres off the coast of Somalia. The French fired back and the speedboats [...]
Arming Commercial Vessels to Combat Piracy ?
Navy Adm. Mark P. Fitzgerald, commander of U.S. naval forces in Europe and Africa and of NATO’s Allied Joint Task Force Command Naples, told Pentagon reporters that the scope of the piracy problem is too great to be policed by military vessels alone and suggested that commercial vessels should arm themselves when traveling through pirate-infested [...]
USS Ashland Captures Pirates
Three events over the past ten days have allowed the U.S. Navy to capture a total of 21 suspected pirates At approximately 5:00 a.m. local time, the USS Ashland (LSD 48), was fired upon by a skiff manned by suspected pirates in the Gulf of Aden, approximately 330 nautical miles off the coast of Djibouti. [...]
Danish tanker escaped a pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden
A Danish tanker escaped a pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden after a French patrolling aircraft forced the Somali attackers to flee, the multi-national anti-piracy force said Monday. The tanker MV Torm Ragnhild sent a distress call after pirates on two skiffs fired rifles and rocket-propelled grenades at it along an “internationally recommended transit [...]
Sierra Leone-flagged tanker under attack by Somali Pirates
During the attack, the pirates fired rifles and aimed rocket propelled grenades at the vessel in an attempt to force it to stop. The Flagship of Combined Task Force (CTF) 151, USS Farragut (DDG 99), intercepted suspected pirates in the Somali Basin yesterday. The Sierra Leone-flagged tanker MV Evita came under attack 500 km north-west [...]
Private Guards Kill Somali Pirate
In what was said to be the first incident of its kind, private security guards aboard a merchant ship plying the pirate-infested waters off Somalia shot dead one of several attackers trying to seize the vessel, the European Naval Force in the area said on Wednesday. The death comes amid fears that increasingly aggressive pirates [...]
Pirates Hit Spanish Fishing Ship With RPG
Somali pirates hit a Spanish fishing boat off the coast of Kenya with a rocket-propelled grenade Thursday as private security on board returned fire at the would-be hijackers. The successful defense of the fishing vessel Albacan illustrates two trends driving up the stakes for sailors and pirates off the Horn of Africa: Better trained and [...]
Somali pirates hijack Panamanian carrier with 26 crew
Pirates captured a Panamanian-flagged ship with 26 crew off the East Africa coast on Thursday and fired rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons at an Italian ship, which escaped. The bulk carrier Al Khaliq was hijacked when pirates boarded and overpowered the mostly Indian crew in waters between Somalia and the Seychelles, the joint European Union-NATO [...]
IT Coast Guard VADM Pollastrini: “Implementing Integrated Maritime Policy in the European Union
In conjunction with Italian Embassy in Washington, SELEX Sistemi Integrati has organized an event in line with the recent declarations of DHS Secretary, Janet Napolitano, looking for an “international approach to the security” recommending potential practical responses. The event involved prominent representatives of Italian and U.S. Government organizations, Department of Homeland Security, US and Italian [...]