Pirates’ Aden

Following the sharp increase in attacks on merchant vessels in the Gulf of Aden, a major trade route for India, the Indian Navy deployed its warship, the INS Tabar, which sunk a pirate mother vessel last week. More vessels and a reconnaissance aircraft will be deployed soon. For the first time, the navy has also deployed its elite marine commando units onboard all ships that will patrol the waters.

The response was much needed since the Somali pirates don't follow the traditional pirate practice—a quick hit-and-run attack—and instead have started holding ships for ransom.

Their initial successes in holding vessels to ransom, say naval officers, have made pirates so bold that they are now attacking bigger merchant vessels. The tactics are simple: a pirate group consists of a ‘mother vessel’ that acts as a floating logistics base and two or more speedboats that take on a merchant ship.

The mother vessel searches the seas for vessels passing by and launches the speed boats—with groups of 8-10 heavily armed bandits—to catch up with the merchant ships. Pirates prefer attacking slower ships such as heavy cargo vessels or tankers.

Once under attack, there is little that a ship can do except increase its speed. Most merchant vessels are unarmed, with the exception of a few Israeli ships that have machine guns on board. The standard practice is to take ‘evasive manoeuvers’, which basically means steering out of the path of pirate vessels or generating a larger ‘wave’ to throw the smaller speedboats off course.

A more ‘close in’ tactic is to use high-pressure fire hoses—meant to douse flames on board—to wash off pirates who are attempting to board the ship. However, high-speed water jets can do little against automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades that the sea bandits carry.

While in the past, pirates would have taken over the ship and looted all valuables, the new tactic is to take the vessel to a neighbouring port and hold it to ransom. The pirates’ job has been made easy by the lack of effective governance in Somalia where the ships are anchored till a price is agreed upon.

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