Maritime Security-- You deserve what you pay for.

Maritime Security for merchant vessels and tankers....

Lots of ship owners and managers tend to save costs in this area without the insurance company's knowledge that they are in fact using unarmed teams just as lookouts. Some owners just pay lip service by employing 'shopping mall quality security guards' to sail with ships-- armed only with shotguns.

The 'worst' kind of security involves using just crew members as lookouts without ship security hardening (employment of concertina fences or high pressure hot water hoses to flush way pirates).

At the time of this writing-- a merchant ship-- MV FB (do and internet search and go to http://www.eunavfor.eu/ to guess the name of this vessel) used crew as lookouts. The 100 percent Indian crew were asleep at the time of the hijack and did not even see the pirate skiffs sending out pirates to board. We can sumrise the crews woke up to an AK-47 to their heads. The Captain failed in his duty and so did the crew as no 360 degree watch was posted.

At Stormo Rochalie, 80 percent of our maritime security personnel were former Naval Commandos. The other 20 percent were former special forces from the land and air arms who have received additional training by us to qualify as maritime security team members.

Maritime Security involves study of naval and civil maritime laws for Rules of Engagement... UN Laws of the Sea and knowledge of 'greywater' firearm engagements. Some routes allow for automatic weapons, some routes only allow for hunting rifles, as such-- personnel need to be well versed for each type of weapon.

Maritime Security should involve co-ordination with the Captain of the ship... when a pirate attack is imminent... and the security team sees on radar and visual that a suspicious looking boat has been shadowing the client's vessel for several miles... its probably time for battle stations and crew to start water hoses and prepare for entry into the Citadel. Captain should prepared for a total shutdown of engine and computer systems so pirates can go nowhere with the ship.