Private Violence Against Pirates: Already Happening

One such private security company that has teamed up with a brokerage firm to offer security services designed to lower insurance rates in the Gulf of Aden is London based Hart Security. Mike Maloney, an insurance broker involved in the deal confirmed that Hart’s ability to place an armed security team on board a client’s vessel had convinced a number of underwriters to offer preferred rates to ship owners that took advantage of this service. Yet Hart is far from the only British private security company offering anti-piracy services in the Gulf of Aden. London based Maritime & Underwater Security Consultants claimed they are running anti-piracy escorts off of Somalia and a spokesperson for the South Korean shipping firm Hanjin confirmed that they had hired ArmorGroup to provide security for one of their vessels transiting between the Suez and the port of Mombassa.

Last week, Blackwater Worldwide also announced an anti-piracy service for ships transiting the Gulf of Aden. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they have taken a slightly more proactive approach to the piracy problem. Tom Ridenour, the director of maritime security services for the private security company Blackwater Worldwide, said that while putting a security team on board a client’s vessel may be part of the solution, this technique should also be supplemented with broader defensive security measures. “Ideally, an on-board security team would also be supplemented with a mobile private security force placed on small and fast interceptor vessels that could impose itself between the client's ship and the attacking pirates before they could pose a threat to the crew." The fact that Blackwater announced that their McArthur is ready to deploy—a refitted and modified 183 foot ship that comes equipped with precisely this kind of interceptor rigid inflatable boats as well as a helicopter—speaks to the kind of ‘standoff’ security concept this security firm plans to offer potential clients.