Anti-Piracy 2.0 Deploys to Somalia

Do Motherships + Submarines + Force Recon = Davy Jones Locker? Lets find out.

As the monsoon season hits the coast of Somalia, nations are in a period of naval rotation and planning for the next round of piracy expected to begin when the monsoon season ends. Through the first 6 months of 2010 there have been 29 vessels hijackings, compared to 52 for the entire 2009 year. While the pace of hijackings through the first 6 months of 2010 is slower than in 2009, the rate of hijackings in the second half of 2008 was much higher than in 2009, so the possibility for another record year of modern piracy certainly still exists.

What we have not seen much to date is a shift in tactics. However, that may be about to change. As Feng noted on Thursday night, China's sixth naval escort flotilla departed Wednesday for the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters. What makes this noteworthy is that the composition of the sixth naval escort flotilla is different than the previous five.

The flotilla with more than 1,000 personnel, including Navy special forces troops, is to relieve the fifth flotilla, which has been cruising the waters off the Somalia coast for more than three months.

The amphibious landing ship Kunlunshan, destroyer Lanzhou, and supply ship Weishanhu of the fifth fleet, will escort vessels sailing through the region.

What is noteworthy about the Chinese approach to anti-piracy is how to date the activities by the PLA Navy has been escorting convoys. The Chinese have essentially forced much of their flagged merchant traffic to participate in a convoy system through the internationally agreed transit area. That isn't a bad thing, the PLA Navy has a perfect record of successfully escorting vessels in these convoys.

What I will be interested in watching is how the PLA Navy will use the Kunlunshan as an escort. The addition of the LPD is certainly the centerpiece of attention on the domestic front for China, the news reporting surrounding the Kunlunshan deployment almost looks like a state sponsored technology presentation in the newspapers - indeed I believe that is a fair and accurate description. Yes, the ship is interesting and it is something new to look at when observing the PLA Navy - but that isn't what has my attention.

Feng's post includes several of the popular images being circulated with this story. Note the small attack boats, which interesting enough are featured in every article including video I have seen of the deployment. As the sixth escort flotilla, China has now gained valuable experience in convoy escort responsibilities - something that will no doubt prove invaluable in wartime. What is noteworthy about the latest deployment however is that there also appears to be some tactical evolution taking place.

Not only will the sixth escort flotilla support more helicopters than any previous flotilla (7 total), but they will also have at their disposal several small, fast boats capable of dispatching towards threatening scenarios. As Mr. Boyko noted, China has observed the environment of indigenous vessels and has brought different capabilities to address the challenges being faced. That swarm of boats, which may or may not be pirates (but we see all the precautions being taken as if they are) represents an unknown that can be addressed by heavily armed fast, small boats through inspection. In many cases pirates will dump their weapons, ammunition, and pirate equipment before being boarded so as to avoid being arrested. Physical presence at sea with fast boats will give the PLA Navy capabilities for dealing with potential pirates that they previously did not have.

NATO Goes Hunting

This is an official NATO press release from earlier this week.

On the Alliance’s request, the Netherlands has agreed to deploy a submarine as part of multinational efforts to combat piracy off the east coast of Africa, from the Gulf of Aden – one of the busiest global shipping routes – to the Indian Ocean. The submarine will be used to monitor communication between pirate vessels and their warlords on shore, helping to curtail the hijacking of commercial ships for ransoms worth millions in US dollars.

This will be the first submarine to contribute to NATO’s anti-piracy mission “Operation Ocean Shield” off the horn of Africa. As one of four Walrus-class submarines belonging to the Royal Netherlands Navy, it is one of the most modern non-nuclear submarines. Built with stealth technologies, it is very difficult to detect – even by other submarines – and can remain submerged for long periods.

The submarine will be deployed from the end of September to the end of November 2010.

NATO recently extended Operation Ocean Shield for a further three years. Its current mandate will end in December 2012.

Now why would NATO request a Walrus class submarine? Lewis Page over at the Register is mostly correct, but he doesn't focus in on the details and gets a bit generic. All the rave these days when it comes to submarines is the advantages of AIP. On this blog we have to be more specific when focusing on propulsion systems - because propulsion systems on a submarine isn't only about sound and speed - it is also about power for systems.

The reason the silent service is so - silent, is primarily because submarines serve in the intelligence gathering role more than any other major piece of military hardware in the world. Submarines do amazing things that nobody likes to talk about in public, but lets just say you can buy a submariner a T-Shirt that says "I read your email" or "I listen to your cell phone" and you'd be keeping it real. You see, the advantage the Walrus has over every other conventional submarine in Europe (including all the AIP submarines) is that it has more power - thus is able to exploit more sophisticated electronic devices for eavesdropping purposes. By calling in the Walrus for anti-piracy, NATO is taking piracy surveillance to a whole new level.

The Walrus will be able to park itself unseen in these clusters of idle hijacked vessels and essentially watch and listen to everything taking place. Want to use your cell phone or a laptop from a hijacked ship? NATO will officially support that activity beginning this September! It is very likely that the US Navy has been doing similar things with nuclear powered submarines for a long time, and it is also possible that specific intelligence has been obtained that necessitates an expansion of eavesdropping capabilities - and the Dutch are being called in for an assist.

The bottom line here is that NATO is about to really know the pirate business, and that knowledge may be enough to shut down current operations. But how exactly might that happen?

We Trained For This

I would like to direct our professional reading audience to the July 2010 Proceedings article titled Pirates Beware: Force Recon Has Your Number (subscription only) written by Captain Alexander Martin, U.S. Marine Corps.

Hunting pirates with the U.S. Navy is what the 15th MEU—a wide array of ships and aircraft and even more Marines and Sailors—has just set sail to do.

The 15th MEU is a distinctive and historic Marine air-ground task force. This armada steams toward Africa more capable and ready for maritime contingency operations than any MEU in a number of years. It has among its numerous traditional capabilities and missions a trained, validated, capable, and lethal instrument now called the unit's Maritime Raid Force Capability (MRFC), a fully integrated Navy-Marine Corps team with the capacity to conduct visit-board-search-seizure (VBSS), kinetic strikes on non-compliant targets, maritime infrastructure seizure and reinforcement, host-nation training, and other maritime raid and interdiction operations as directed.

Its execution packages come complete with supporting air, medical and trauma units, sniper teams, shadowing ships, Navy VBSS and ship-control teams, small-boat units, and a direct-action assault unit with an integrated infantry trailer platoon for support. That second-to-last part—the assault unit—is our piece of the pie.

This article is great because it is real - indeed I may have quoted one of the few parts of the entire article that took itself seriously. It actually reads like a diary entry of a Marine Captain who has been training for over a year with an understanding his number is likely to be called. It is most likely the story of every Marine Captain in his position deploying as part of a MEU - except not every Marine Captain writes their thoughts down in Proceedings.

Leading up to the deployment of the Peliliu ARG - as I was following the news and articles covering the workup I took note of a stated focus on piracy in every article discussing training and exercises. I recall reading an article on the Harrier detachment that discussed piracy. There has clearly been some intense focus on anti-piracy integrated into this MEUs training. I knew something was different and was about to happen, and in passing I mentioned this a friend who works at the US Naval Institute. It was at that time I heard about this article being in the pipeline for Proceedings.

We don't know exactly what the 15th MEU intends to do differently that others have not done previous, but in making inquiries over the past month I have been assured by several people that the 15th MEU is different. Is the RoE going to be different? Are there already operations planned we don't know about? Can anyone provide any new information? So far.. nothing, but as the Proceedings article makes clear - the training and preparation of the Peliliu ARG does represent a new integrated Navy/Marine Corps approach to anti-piracy and at least one Marine Captain in the MEU thinks it will pay off.

Whatever happens we do know a few things.

• The Chinese have just deployed three ships that brings with them more capabilities for anti-piracy than the PLA Navy has ever sent to the Gulf of Aden previously.
• The Dutch are sending a submarine for anti-piracy operations at the specific request of NATO.
• The US has deployed an ARG specifically trained in a new way to deal with pirates, and one of the MEUs Captains is so excited about it he basically teased the entire national security establishment (all of whom are readers of Proceedings) with a hint that good things are to come.

It sounds like a tactical evolution in dealing with piracy is taking place across the board. The next few months could prove to be very interesting.