International forces combat pirates

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Mar 13, 2009 | by Gregory Viscusi Bloomberg News

When nine Somali pirates attacked a German-operated cargo freighter in the Gulf of Aden last week, they were in for a high- tech surprise.

An international force of three vessels and two helicopters responded, using sophisticated communications methods that included GPS navigation and even an Internet chat room. Less than three hours later, the buccaneers were in the brig.

The successful operation by U.S. and European Union anti-pirate forces showed how progress is being made in freeing the Indian Ocean of pirates.

"It's a huge zone and no matter how many ships we had, we could never totally control it," said Commodore Antonios Papaioannou, force commander of Atalanta, a five-ship EU fleet, on the Greek frigate HS Psara. "But my sense is that we have successfully deterred pirates and brought down the number of attacks."

Somali pirates assaulted 165 ships last year, seizing 43 of them for ransom. About three-quarters were in the Gulf of Aden, an unavoidable route for any ship taking the Suez Canal, which handles one-tenth of world trade and one-third of Europe's crude oil supply.

This year, pirates have attacked 30 ships and seized four, according to the French navy. And the rate of takeovers has fallen: In February, 11 boats were hit and one was taken. In their record month in November, pirates took 10 of the 37 ships they assaulted. Pirates haven't seized any ships this month.

The high-tech communication is designed to mesh differing missions and agendas. While Atalanta's goals are geared toward ship escort, the U.S.-led Task Force 151, with U.S., British and Danish warships, tracks pirates. On Wednesday, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said it would send a seven-vessel fleet to Somali waters, reviving a mission ended last December when the EU fleet was created.

"When I arrived here in December we exchanged a daily intention message with the Americans, but that was about it," said Papaioannou, 51. "Then one day we had two helicopters patrolling the same area, which is a waste. I sent three of my officers to the U.S. command ship and we worked it out."

In the command room of the Psara, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Greek officers watched a computer screen updating the positions of 17 warships. Another computer showed the location of 300 merchant ships, potential prey spread over 3,000 miles.

The tracking is done with a mix of Global Positioning System navigation and Centrix, a military-communication system developed by NATO, as well as a Web site specially developed for the mission on which commercial ships enter their positions.

Since late January, Papaioannou also has had a new tool: a third computer in the command room carries an Internet chat channel. On a recent visit, sailors from the Psara, two U.S. warships and the Spanish frigate SPS Victoria were exchanging instant messages in English about their positions and about unconfirmed reports of a fire on board a boat in Somalia's Mogadishu harbor.

In a corner of the room, which bristled with radar and radio equipment, hung a Jolly Roger flag. Black-and-white photos of suspected pirate ships were tacked to the wall.

The EU formed the Atalanta mission after Somali pirates in September seized a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks and, in November, a Saudi tanker carrying fuel. Task Force 151 will grow to six this month with the arrival of frigates from Singapore and Turkey.

The coordination paid off on March 3, when the freighter MV Courier, operated by German shipping company Gebrueder Winter, sent a distress signal at 10:12 a.m. local time as it came under grenade fire from a skiff.

Warning Shots

The closest naval vessel, German frigate Rheinland-Pfalz, was 50 miles away, too far to help. A helicopter from the cruiser USS Monterey, patrolling nearby, fired warning shots at the Somalis, who turned toward Yemeni territorial waters.

The Rheinland-Pfalz rushed toward the zone and its chopper relieved the U.S. helicopter, which was running low on fuel.

Fire from the German helicopter forced the pirates to stop their skiff. Two-and-a-half hours after the initial signal, German marines arrested the nine pirates. They have been turned over to Kenya for prosecution.

"It's like zone defense in sports, you know where you have to go to fill the gaps," Lieutenant Nate Christensen, a U.S. Navy spokesman, said in a telephone interview from Bahrain.

Chinese and other independent ships are increasingly joining the chat room, Papaioannou said. By escorting up to 12 ships at a time, they reduce the load for the multinational fleets. As many as 70 commercial ships a day transit the gulf.

Bigger Boats

Somalia has lacked a central government since 1991. Initially, pirates extorted small sums from coastal trade vessels. As they reinvested their earnings into speedboats and weapons last year, they started seizing merchant ships hundreds of miles from shore.

Pirates still hold six ships and 160 seamen. At the peak last year, they held 15 boats and 380 sailors. A ransom was paid for all the released boats, according to the U.S. Navy. Except for one rescue of a French yacht by French commandos in September, foreign forces don't storm hijacked boats, to avoid risking the crews' lives.