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National Defense > Blog > Posts > State Department: ‘Too Much Water to Patrol’ in Fight Against Somali Pirates

3/27/2012

State Department: ‘Too Much Water to Patrol’ in Fight Against Somali Pirates
Efforts to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia have had the unintended consequence of pushing pirates farther out to sea and giving them more control of the Indian Ocean, said the State Department’s lead official on counter-piracy policy.  
 
The U.S. Navy worked with partner countries to set up a nearly 500-mile long corridor in the Gulf of Aden to ensure safe travel for commercial vessels. The transit zone is heavily patrolled by naval forces and even used by some countries for convoy operations. It is used less now by pirates, who have set their sights on bigger targets farther away from shore.
 
“The corridor has helped reduce the number of attacks in the transit zone, but it has also had the unfortunate side effect of pushing pirate activities farther out to sea,” Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, said during a March 27 discussion at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C.
 
“This demonstrates how pirates are constantly adapting their tactics in response to international effects,” he said.
 
Pushed away from the coastline, pirates have increased their use of “mother ships,” which are hijacked vessels. They are launch pads for groups of pirates who employ smaller and faster boats to conduct attacks. The larger ships can carry dozens of pirates and tow several skiffs for multiple simultaneous attacks, Shapiro said.
 
“This has made pirates more difficult to interdict and more effective operating during monsoon season, which previously restricted their activities,” he said. “Mother ships have extended the pirates’ reach far beyond the Somali basin.”
 
Somali pirates now operate in a space covering 2.5 million square nautical miles, about the size of the continental United States. Their activities have reached waters off the coast of India, making it more difficult for naval forces to reach the scene quickly enough to thwart pirates, Shapiro said.
 
“There is just too much water to patrol,” he said.
 
There have been successful interdictions, including one in January in which the U.S. Navy rescued an Iranian fishing vessel that had been hijacked and was being used as a mother ship.
 
While the pirates increase their attacks on the high seas, authorities also have been putting renewed emphasis on related activities happening on land.
 
The European Union recently announced it would expand its battle against piracy to include possible strikes against boats on the Somalia shoreline and on ground vehicles.
 
The United States has shifted its focus to land as well, but not quite in the same way.
 
Pirates have shown an increased willingness to take hostages on land, Shapiro said. In January, Navy SEALS conducted a raid to rescue an American aid worker and a Danish colleague that were being held inside Somalia.
 
“Picking up pirates at sea isn’t enough,” Shapiro said. “We need to target the networks.”
 
Authorities must find connections that will lead them to facilitators who supply boats for the criminal operations and investors who bankroll them expecting large returns from ransom payments. The United States also is working to increase prosecution of pirates and expand prison capacity in Somalia to house them, Shapiro said.
 
The U.S. effort has included cooperation with dozens of nations, including China. Shapiro offered statistics that show these international collaborations have begun to pay off.
 
More than 1,000 pirates are in custody around the world, he said. And while the number of attacks off the coast of Somalia has increased, the success rate for these attacks was cut in half last year.
 
Hostage situations also have improved. In January 2011, pirates held 31 ships and 710 hostages. Early this month, they held eight ships and 213 hostages.
 
The United States opposes making ransom payments to pirates, believing that this cash flow has allowed a once disheveled activity to become a highly organized criminal enterprise. Currently, the average ransom payment to pirates is about $4.5 million, with some totaling as much as $12 million. Shapiro urged governments, ship owners and private parties involved in a hostage crisis to seek assistance from the U.S. government before paying any ransom.
 
The State Department last year conducted a review of its anti-piracy strategy and has decided to focus on pirate networks and the flow of money, in an effort to disrupt “the pirate business process,” Shapiro said.
 
“Often the best way to attack organized crime is to follow the money,” he said.
Posted at 3:25 PM by Eric Beidel | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (6)

Comments

Re: State Department: ‘Too Much Water to Patrol’ in Fight Against Somali Pirates

To give a number that quantifies the amount of water for the navies to cover is absurd, there have been other ways proposed and it's not like the pirates just "pop-up" in the middle... we know where they leave from... and that cuts this down to a bottleneck size.  The DoS is and has screwed up this operation from day one... and it appears Mr Shapiro is content on making excuses and continuing to talk rather than act.
Chad at 3/27/2012 9:32 PM

Re: State Department: ‘Too Much Water to Patrol’ in Fight Against Somali Pirates

Lets just wait untill they kill a spotted owl or kidnap an endangered animal. Then Justice will prevail and the money supply will be endless.
michael dale silvey at 3/28/2012 11:22 AM

Re: State Department: ‘Too Much Water to Patrol’ in Fight Against Somali Pirates

These "Pirate Tactics" could be seen as a forerunner to tactics against "big ship" navies, and by that I don't just mean just the U.S. Navy.  Already we've seen such tactics practiced in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

It's not like the U.S. Navy is unaware of such a small-scale threat that poses a big headache to larger vessels.

Big navies have just got to adapt and develop countermeasures to these small boat tactics---and by that I don't just mean the (expensive) Littoral Combat Ship.  How ironic considering that the U.S. Drug War and the use of "Go Fast Boats" has introduced the U.S. to these small swarm boat tactics since the 1980s, which has been countered by Coast Guard fast air and surface assets.  Fast-forward to 2012 and the DoS and USN are saying that they don't have the resources or capabilities to counter a threat that the USCG has been going up against for the past 20-30 years?  Yes, even the USCG keeps saying that they don't have enough boats to patrol enough of the Gulf of Mexico against the "Go Fasts"...and the Gulf is closer to the United States.
P at 3/28/2012 1:53 PM

Re: State Department: ‘Too Much Water to Patrol’ in Fight Against Somali Pirates

I'm afraid the piracy is just not high enough up the agenda of the major nations. The problem is seen to rest with the commercial shipping companies and the insurance industries who fund the bill. There is no doubt that the major maritime nations are concerned about this issue but on balance they see other issues as having a higher priority on resources.
Jonathan Marks at 3/29/2012 2:30 PM

Re: State Department: ‘Too Much Water to Patrol’ in Fight Against Somali Pirates

A technology exists that remotely gives Real Time alerts of tamper, attack or even if pirate ships are in the vicinity of a bonafide ship.  An international patent was filed, published in November 2011.  A White Paper was submitted late last year but I guess whoever read it did not understand the technology, or they did not even read it because they saw the inventor was a woman (a lot of people forget that a woman, Hedy Lamarr, invented the radar).  Technology was introduced to the EU and presented to 70 members of Customs & Law Enforcement, as it can be used for anti-terrorist initiatives and a myriad law enforcement applications besides the military application.  They asked us to submit an application for a grant and to provide EU Customs and Law Enforcement at cost.  We agreed.  Amazing that even with the mess in the EU, it is easier to get through the politicians there than in my own country.  Therefore, why complain about piracy when the solution is there and nobody steps forward to use it?
Stella at 5/22/2012 5:21 AM

Re: State Department: ‘Too Much Water to Patrol’ in Fight Against Somali Pirates

Too much water?  I can help with that.  For ten years I have been promoting the rollout of wing-in-ground effect vessels that cruise at 100 knots, and because they don’t actually touch the water they can do this all day without slamming, seasickness or hanging on for grim death.   So they can cover a lot of area in a short time and can intercept targets very quickly.  Natural stealth makes them the right thing for anti-piracy operations.  Also they are so much cheaper than a warship plus helicopter.  But I have presented this technology to navies around the world and their response, to be frank, is to stick their fingers in their ears and say they can’t hear me then look the other way.  Check out Hypercraft Associates Ltd..
Graham Taylor at 5/22/2012 2:45 PM

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