Frag Out! Magazine

PirATes or Fishermen? direcT shoTs! If someone notices a potential threat, a certain continuity of events should occur, which prepare both a team, and a ship with its team to counter an attack. In order to illustrate this situation better, we will present exemplary procedures one of the Israeli part- nership companies, hiring people to maritime security operations on the ships, with which partners of the Tactical Risk Group and Paladin Tac provide trainings of the Maritime Security Operative. When there is no threat, the RS1 mode is in operation which is limited to routine scanning a horizon with binoculars. If in the field of vision is found a potential threat (a mentioned skiff, a large fishing vessel), an operator on the watch, if it is not a team leader, should call his TL and inform him about the situation. A TL asks a captain to change a course, if a threat still approaches. In this moment a mode switches to the RS2, during which a satellite phone is activated, TL calls the rest of the crew to announce the increased readiness and also asks an officer on watch to contact potential aggressors in the Channel 16 frequency. Apart from that he begins to broadcast sound and light signals. From this moment the hi- ghest security mode RS3 is in effect, and a team turns on camera for recording, if such is owned (a documentation of the preserving of the security procedures). The entire team as a matter of urgency comes to the bridge where takes on the tactical equipment (vests, helmets) and gets weapon. A captain is asked twice to convey a message: "Pirate attack, pirate attack, pirate attack" and to send the whole ship team to the "citadel", that is to the engine room from where one can safely steer a ship. The TANGO flag is shown to the pirates what in this case means "do not approach". There is no certainty that potential pirates differentiate any flags, but it is a procedural requirement and not applying it can cause further legal problems in the case of shooting in the aggressors' direction. The next visual signal is launching the flares and provide a code "Red Eagle" by the satellite phone to the company who hires a crew. In this moment a team is ordered to connect magazines to the firearms. In the procedures of the above mentioned company it is possible to make warning shots (after a kind consent of the captain!) at the angle of 45° in air, if aggressors will be in the distance of 300 m from the secured ship. If shots in air are ineffective, a TL orders to shot in the water direction. When a distance is 100 m, gives a consent to shot into the hull of the attacking vessel, and if it gives no intended effect, a team leader orders to open the direct fire that is to stop the pirates. In the case of refraining a crew of the pirate skiff one should throw out a lifeboat, and also collect all possible evidences of the occurrence. Now, it is necessary to mention about a key element which is recognizing if we really have to do with pirates. There were also situations that teams shot to the ordinary fishermen who seemed to be pirates – and in the case of shots after which somebody from the crew of such a boat was wounded or dead, teams were prosecuted what meant that their members spent a significant part of their life in the exotic prison. So, it is worth to warn any potential shooter that each Somalian Kalashnikov owner is not just a pirate – many of them has firearms for their own protection against maritime bandits what does not give them a right to fire them. MARSEC

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