This is a great little primer, as to the state of the Private Naval Company/Private Security Company industry. Recent kidnapping and hostage events off the coast of Somalia, have brought this issue out in the open again, and it begs this question. Where is the PNC/PSC industry heading, and who are the players? -Head Jundi
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ISN Security Watch
7 April 2008
Private security takes to the sea
With violent maritime piracy and the risk of waterborne terrorism on the
rise, states and non-state actors turn to private security, Patrick Cullen
writes for ISN Security Watch.
By Patrick Cullen in New York for ISN Security Watch (04/04/08)
Piracy, once generally perceived to have been eliminated as a security
threat, has re-emerged as a significant problem for state and non-state
actors alike. Though the number of pirate attacks had waned during the last
few years, new International Maritime Bureau statistics have shown that
piracy is again on the upswing worldwide. This upsurge in piracy – and the
market created for countering this threat – can be conceptualized along
three distinct lines.
Mapping the maritime private security market
Within the private sector, shipping, oil and insurance firms have been
impacted by a significant and long-term increase in pirate attacks mounted
against off-shore oil platforms, tankers and cargo vessels traveling
throughout the world’s shipping lanes.
In strategic “choke points” like the Malacca Straits, large, slow-moving
container ships and tug-pulled drilling rigs are easily approached and
boarded by the much smaller, agile and quicker boats used by today’s
pirates.
These attacks, measured in terms of ship and cargo losses as well as
increased insurance premiums, have amounted to losses of up to US$16 billion
annually.
The second market driver is the inability of weak and failed states to
effectively patrol their territorial waters, leading to an increase in
piracy as both a crime of opportunity as well as a form of organized crime.
Today, brazen, violent and technologically sophisticated pirate
syndicates-for-hire are using areas of non-existent or weak government as
bases for their criminal activities. Armed with RPGs and AK-47s and using
GPS devices, pirates operating over 100 miles off of the coast of the Horn
of Africa are boarding vessels and holding the crews hostage for ransom
demands.
At the same time, illegal and sometimes violent fishing operations trawl up
and down the unpoliced coastlines of these weak states, occasionally using
physical force to intimidate and steal from their competitors.
One retired US Coast Guard officer, who is currently working for a private
security firm, told ISN Security Watch that there were an estimated 700-900
“pirate” fishermen operating off of the coast of Somalia alone.
The third market driver for maritime security has been the perception of a
terrorist threat.
Since 11 September 2001, this vulnerability of international shipping to
piracy has been redefined by the US and other states as a terrorist threat.
Fears that al-Qaida or another terrorist organization may sink a large
tanker to block a major shipping lane or use a hijacked liquid natural gas
container ship to mount a large-scale spectacular terrorist attack against a
major port have become a serious concern.
While the state and non-state actors affected by these developments can be
distinguished by the different threats they face from piracy and maritime
terrorism, today they can also be aggregated by their choice of security
solution: both states and the private sector are turning to private security
companies (PSCs) to help meet their maritime security needs.
Maritime private security services
Perhaps it is unsurprising considering its reliance on private security in
Iraq that the US has taken the lead in the state use of maritime security
firms. They have done so in a number of areas.
At the federal level, both the Department of Homeland Security and the US
Coast Guard have solicited advice from PSCs on matters of maritime security.
For example, after the 9/11 attacks, a number of British firms – including
Marine Underwater Security Consultants and Hart Security – were invited to
participate in a committee drafting of the US Coast Guard’s ISPS Code
submission to the International Maritime Organisation.
After the bombing of the USS Cole, the PSC Blackwater was awarded a contract
to train over 50,000 US sailors in the use of small arms to defend their
ships from terrorist attacks.
This US public-private interface has not been limited to merely an advisory
or training role. At the local government level, the US has launched a
number of pilot programs using the firm Seawolf Marine Patrol to provide
manned guarding services for a US ports. Overseas, the US navy has relied
upon the PSC Glenn Defense Marine Asia to provide security – complete with
armed ghurkhas – for its naval vessels while in port.
Though the US is a significant state client of these nautical private
security services, it is far from the only one.
Middle Eastern and Asian states have hired PSCs like Britam to provide
training for their own maritime security forces to protect state-owned
high-risk maritime assets. In the wake of the 2002 assault on the Limburg
tanker in Yemeni coastal waters, for example, Hart Security was hired to
train the Yemeni Navy in waterborne anti-terrorist tactics.
African states have turned to PSCs in an even more proactive capacity. Both
the self-declared State of Puntland and Sierra Leone have hired armed PSCs
to police their coastlines.
In some cases, these “private navies” have been used to combat illegal
fishing and enforce their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) fishing rights
granted under the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
regime. In other instances they have been used to deter or eliminate pirate
networks that were targeting local coastal trading communities.
The private sector is also a growth market for maritime private security
firms.
Traditionally, various members of the maritime industry more broadly have
hired PSCs in risk mitigation roles. For example, the marine insurance
industry utilizes PSCs in various political risk advisory, due diligence,
asset recovery and maritime kidnap and ransom (k&r) services associated with
piracy and terrorism.
More provocatively, large shipping and oil companies sensitive to
increasingly violent pirate attacks against their oil tankers and drilling
rigs have turned to PSCs like Background Asia Risk Solutions to provide
armed personnel and armored escort vessels to “ride shotgun” while escorting
these expensive assets through some of the world’s most dangerous waterways.
Future prospects for maritime security
This latter development has caused some consternation amongst the
governments of Malaysia and Indonesia, whose territorial waters overlap with
the heavily trafficked Malacca Straits where some of these armed private
security escorts have taken place.
Though reports of PSCs conducting armed escort services have died down in
the last 18 months, this does not necessarily mean they are not still
happening.
Steve Weatherford, the former head of maritime security operations at Glenn
Defense Marine Asia, told ISN Security Watch that “there continues to be a
demand for security on board vessels, and not just in the Malacca Straits
[…] but the specific details of these operations are kept low key by the
participants.”
The view of a robust future for private security responses to piracy is
shared by others in the industry.
Tom Ridenour, the director of maritime operations at Blackwater, is looking
to expand overseas into this counter-piracy market, recently purchasing a
ship capable of deploying small rigid-inflatable boats, helicopters and a
30-man security team to provide anti-piracy services.
Though this new ship has not yet won any contracts, Ridenour told ISN
Security Watch “we’ve applied the Kevin Costner ‘field of dreams’ concept.
If you build it, they will come.”
Whether or not this niche market of private maritime security expands along
with its land-based counterpart remains to be seen.
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=18830
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Patrick Cullen is an expert on issues pertaining to the private security
industry and is the author of numerous academic and professional
publications on the subject. He is currently finishing his doctorate at the
London School of Economics on private security and is based in Manhattan,
New York.