Nuclear fuel fleet arms up

Published on Monday 13 April 2009 22:08

PITY the pirates that set their sights on the vast container ships that sail from Barrow-in Furness to the Land of the Rising Sun. For while the Pacific Heron and her sister ships, such as the Pintail, may resemble any one of the thousands of elongated cargo vessels ploughing the world's sea lanes, they pack quite a punch.

Run by the British Nuclear Group, the vessels carry reprocessed plutonium-based fuel from Sellafield to be burnt in Japan's nuclear reactors, and come equipped with a suitably robust deterrent to pirates: three 30mm canons and a 12-strong security detail from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary armed with Heckler & Koch submachine guns and automatic sidearms.

The decision to arm what are essentially British merchant vessels was made a decade ago as a compromise to avoid having a Royal Navy escort on each trip, which would have made the plutonium fuel – an attractive target for terrorists – prohibitively expensive.

While a spokeswoman insisted last night that not every ship was armed on each trip, the merchant crew could relax knowing they had the finest protection outside of a naval frigate. Despite the high levels of protection on offer, it is now thought that even the Pacific Nuclear Transport fleet is avoiding the Gulf of Aden and the coast of Somalia.

"As far as I'm aware, we don't pass through that area," said a PNTL spokeswoman.

Yet as the number of pirate raids increases around the Horn of Africa, there is increasing debate among the maritime community over whether the British merchant fleet should, like the PNTL, now bear arms.

When the PNTL was equipped with canons in the late 1990s, it was the first time since the Second World War that merchant vessels were so armed and there are those who consider the threat of Somali pirates armed with AK-47s and rocket-launchers to be so high as to warrant such an upgrade in defences.

Among the first to raise the issue was the Royal Navy's most senior commander in the Gulf, Keith Winstanley, who, last autumn, when the spate of attacks had risen, said civilian vessels should be armed and that the private security companies in Iraq and Afghanistan could be better used protecting merchant fleets. He advocated a "visual deterrent", such as mounted heavy machine guns. He added: "There is a very active debate at the moment about whether or not the international shipping community employs armed security detachments. It is a measure we are encouraging people to at least consider."

The rise in hijackings around the Somali coastline and the Gulf of Aden has seen insurance premiums for shipping companies increasing tenfold over the past year. Last week, in the wake of the attempted hijacking of an American vessel and the kidnapping of Captain Richard Phillips, who was freed by the US navy on Sunday, Simon Fordham, a specialist in maritime security issues with corporate security risk consultant BGN Risks, argued the need to increase security on British vessels.

He said: "All ship owners and management companies need to ensure that their physical security measures are robust enough to withstand these attacks, which will occur with an increasing range of scenarios."

American maritime companies are taking advantage of new security services provided by Blackwater, the private company that has worked extensively in Iraq and gained notoriety when its staff allegedly killed civilians. It has sent to the Gulf of Aden a former survey vessel, the McArthur, which can carry up to 40 armed guards and has a landing pad for an attack helicopter.

Over the next year, the McArthur will be joined by up to four similar vessels to form the company's own private navy. Yet the British Chamber of Shipping remains firmly against vessels carrying armed guards, a position supported by the main maritime unions, the RMT and Nautilous UK.

Gavin Simmonds, the chamber's head of international affairs, yesterday explained that even Commander Winstanley's comments no longer applied as he was speaking before the European Union set up Operation Atalanta, which provides military escorts through the shipping lane. "There is no difference in approach between the MoD and ourselves. We both believe that armed guards will lead to escalation and more deaths," Mr Simmonds said.

A spokesman for the RMT said: "Our members don't want to be armed; they want to be protected."

Despite the unions and chamber's position there is no law to stop British vessels carrying armed security advisers. Mr Simmonds said: "It is possible, but I don't know of any."

Protection, however, need not simply take the form of armed force. Eos, a British security firm, has quadrupled its business by providing non-lethal advice to ship captains. Eos employees do not carry arms, but rely on tactics such as greasing or electrifying handrails, putting barbed wire around the deck and installing high-pressure fire hoses that can be directed at vulnerable areas of a pirate ship.

"The standard approach is for (pirates] to come in with all guns blazing at the bridge because when a boat is stopped, it's easier to board," said David Johnson, director of Eos. "But if you have guns onboard, you are going to escalate the situation. We don't want to turn that part of the world into the Wild West."

US tells how snipers seized their chance

SOMALI pirates have vowed to avenge their three fallen comrades, as the US military revealed details of the remarkable operation that freed Captain Richard Phillips.

The Seals who ended the five-day drama parachuted from their aircraft to the sea off Somalia and were picked up by the destroyer USS Bainbridge, which had been negotiating with the pirates and was towing the pirated lifeboat at the time.

The "takedown" happened shortly after the hostage-takers were observed by sailors aboard the USS Bainbridge "with their heads and shoulders exposed", said Vice Admiral William Gortney, commander of US naval forces in the region.

Military officials widely praised the snipers for three shots, which they described as remarkable, coming at night, from 25 yards on a ship in rolling waters to a small lifeboat.

The order to fire came after one of the pirates was seen holding an AK-47 so close to Capt Phillips that the weapon appeared to be touching him. Two other pirates popped their heads up, giving snipers all three of their targets, one official said.

Somali pirates, meanwhile, yesterday vowed retaliation. "From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill them (the hostages]," Jamac Habeb, a 30-year-old pirate, said from one of Somalia's piracy hubs, Eyl.

The pirates currently have around 260 hostages, including Greeks, Italians and Germans, taken from 13 vessels. Until now, pirates have generally treated hostages well.