Secure
Globe
Maritime
Security - Piracy
www.Secure-Globe.com
Secure-Globe
Pty Ltd
Level 9, 49-51 York Street, Sydney
G.P.O.Box 2593, Sydney, NSW 2000
Australia
Tel: +61-2-92367244
Fax:
+61-2-92622071
mobile: +61-401-931731
http://www.Secure-Globe.com
-----------------------------------
Secure-Marine BV
P.O.Box 23016
3001 KA, Rotterdam
The Netherlands
Tel: +31-10-4134915
Fax:
+31-10-4334624
Contact
Raphael Kahn
Secure-Globe Australia
Secure Marine - The Netherlands
Maritime
Security - Piracy -
Counter Terror
White Paper
Latest Inventions for Maritime Security - Piracy, Counter Terror.
Piracy
is a continuing menace in the 21st century.
It is nothing new, as for centuries many ships and seamen have fallen
prey to those thugs.
The difference today is that the means and power to stop this phenomenon are available but the will is not there to get the results.
Of course, I am not advocating for the summary hanging of pirates (although I am sure that would solve the issue very quickly). No, what I am saying is that the world’s navies are large, powerful and mainly doing very little… heard of any naval clashes lately (except for North and South Korea)?
So the ships are available, the aircraft and drones are available and
the fire power is available. What is lacking is the will to do something
serious about it.
It is clear that the ‘Somali’ pirates (or who ever picks up
the idea of a quick SeaJack and hostage taking) operate at vast distances
from their coast and bases. This is only possible due to the ‘mother’
ships, which are able to stay at sea for many days, provide for accommodation
and food for the pirates, and enable the launching of the attack boats
when a target is spotted.
The AIS (Automatic Identification System), launched several years ago to combat terrorism, does not exactly help, as it enables anyone with a receiver to identify the vessel, see its course and speed as well as it’s destination. Consequently, many ships, sailing in those danger waters turn off their AIS, which in turn does not help the Navies patrolling those waters.
Currently, the navies, patrolling those areas have a mixed mandate to operate. The main goal is to protect the food aid ships to Africa (which is puzzling to me, as a tanker with crude oil or LNG seems to be a much bigger issue to the world’s safety when taken).
Further, it seems that various navies are trying to protect their own
flag ships, but don’t care much for other vessels, I won’t
mention any names here…
Finally, even when sailing in a protected convoy, it has been possible
for pirates to attack ‘protected’ ships. So in short, at this
stage there is no serious protection available from the patrolling navies,
and only ships under attack can expect some help when a navy vessel or
helicopter is in the vicinity.
Consequently, ship owners and crews are trying any means they have (within budget constraints of course) to protect themselves. The best means is undoubtly having armed guards on board. The problem here is that the logistics are complicated (especially if they have to be put on board for several days only), the costs are very high – approx Euro 80,000 for several days, and many countries have laws prohibiting or limiting the use of fire arms on board merchant ships.
Finally, training crews to use arms, instead of armed guards, is also very expensive, time consuming and very hard to control.
As the above option is only used by the few ‘wealthy’ ship owners (which seem to become fewer in those hard shipping times) others are opting for different solutions.
The
solutions are many and some, such as barbed wire may seem effective, but
actually will not hold anyone away, ruin the looks of the ship (as the
barbed wire rusts profoundly) and are actually dangerous for the crew
to work with.
We, at Secure-Marine, have been working for over 8 years to secure ships
against piracy attacks.
The main goal of our systems is to prevent entry to the vessel and gain precious time to enable escape.
As we have seen, pirates operate from small powerful boats launched from mother ships at great distances from the coast. The pirates are looking for fast success, meaning stopping the vessel a.s.a.p and getting on board. They have no intention of following the vessel for hours and by doing so getting too far away from their mother ships and enabling nearby navy forces to respond to the ships distress signals. So, if the ship does not stop when fired upon (you do need a captain with balls, or one who really does not want to sit in Somalia for the next 3-6 months), the ships manoeuvres and there is an effective system to prevent the pirates from getting on board, then the ship will escape this attack.
Since 2001 we have been selling the Secure-Ship electrical fence, which
unlike barbed wire can be easily handled when turned off. It does not
interfere with the ship’s work (as it can be folded when in port)
and has a power full (but non-harmful) deterrence as well as detection
capabilities.
But our latest jewel is the Secure-Waters system.
This system (which by the way is patent pending) uses the idea of creating
a curtain of water around the ship using special, non corrosive pipes,
that are installed along the ship’s railing.
Now, there are 2 main types to chose from:
- A hot water system, low pressure, high temperature
- A cold water system, High pressure, high volume
The Hot Water System uses the engine’s exhaust heat to heat up the seawater to about 85c deg.
A heat exchanger is installed to transfer the heat from the steam or thermal oil source to seawater.
The required heat capacity is quiet large, as we need to heat up approximately
500 ltr / min on the fly (so no storage tanks). This hot water is then
pushed at low pressure to the piping system surrounding the ship and is
sprayed out via special nozzles.
The result is that anyone trying to enter the ship will start feeling
the heat at sea level, and will encounter hotter water the higher he gets.
Of course, at 60C deg it becomes already unbearable.
As previously indicated, the system is turned on when entering danger waters, so a ship can sail with the system turned on for several days. Since we are using the main engine’s exhaust heat, the costs for running the system are minimal.
The Cold Water System works on the principle of creating both a high pressure spray (which is very painful) as well as a large water fall, which will flood the boats. The combined cold water means are extremely effective in preventing boarding at sea. The technical requirements in this case are quiet high, as we need to be able to generate enough water flow and pressure to protect the ship.
In most cases we would recommend protecting the full ship (excluding the fore castle) but for ships that want to minimize costs, it is also possible to go half way and still get good protection, as it is not easy to climb on a manoeuvring ship past ½ its length. The main point of boarding is of course the aft ship.
The pipes used in both the systems (different diameter for low and high pressure) are GRE pipes that will not corrode, and are made especially for the shipping and oil and gas industry.
We have done firing test on them with AK47 rifles and because the pipes are made from enforced fiber glass, the resulting holes are minimal (the fibers splinter and close back on the hole) and the result is an extra small nozzle on the pipe, which has no effect on the pressure or the water capacity.
Further, when the vessel is under attack, we have the option of adding a special chemical to the water. This chemical is eco friendly (we do not want to pollute the sea) and is also not dangerous.
The main issue here is creating a severe temporary disabling factor to make sure getting on board is impossible, but also getting near the ship becomes unbearable. Further, we can add a die to the chemical, to enable the navies to identify the pirates and arrest them if caught near the attacked vessel (as they are very good in throwing overboard their weapons and claiming they did nothing of the sort).
To conclude, it is clear that ship owners need to protect their ships and crews, as no one else will do this effectively. If one wants to do this seriously (and not just to show that they are doing something), then the Secure-Ship and Secure-Waters systems are professionally designed systems that will ensure the ship is not boarded, give peace of mind to the crew and show P&I clubs that owners are protecting their assets and crews.
Professional View Point by Raphael Kahn
Professional View Point by Raphael Kahn
Perimeter
Security
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