Anti-Piracy Operations Off Somalia Face Challenges
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
South Korea's Navy is set to join international efforts to clamp down on piracy off the coast of Somalia, which has become a perennial global hotspot.
The planned dispatch of a warship to the troubled waters will mark the first-ever overseas combat deployment of the Navy. The service is confident in its counter piracy operation, based on close-range combat skills accrued from decades-long training exercises to fight against North Korean ships.
``We don't downplay the Somali pirates and are fully preparing for operations against them, but it would be almost impossible for pirates to hijack South Korean vessels escorted by our warship,'' a military source said on condition of anonymity.
The Cabinet approved a motion pertinent to the Somali dispatch last month. It awaits approval from the National Assembly.
The Korean warship will carry enough high-end weapons systems to combat the heavily armed pirates operating high-powered speedboats and using RPG-7 rocket launchers and global positioning systems (GPS), the source said.
Last week, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) announced that the Navy would send the Munmu the Great, a 4,500-ton KDX-II destroyer carrying about 300 personnel, to the seas off Somalia, to operate with a multinational task force ― the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) ― based in Bahrain.
The CMF includes warships from the United States, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Italy Russia and India, with more vessels from Japan, China and Turkey, set to join.
The task force is responsible for maritime security from the Red Sea down the east coast of Africa and into the Arabian Sea toward Pakistan and India. In August last year, the CMF established a rectangular Maritime Security Patrol Area in the Gulf of Aden to bolster security for transiting vessels.
Cmdr. Choi Soo-yong of the operations supporting bureau of the JCS said that deployment conditions are relatively good.
Choi's assessment came after a team of 10 Navy and foreign ministry officials had concluded an on-site inspection in Bahrain from Jan. 26 to Feb. 4. A group of officials visited there in October for preliminary inspection.
``Conditions at the port of Djibouti in Bahrain and other supporting situations there were quite good,'' Choi told reporters last Friday. ``There will be no problem regarding logistics support because we can use services from local companies contracted with other navies, such as the United States, Britain and Germany.''
Operational Capability
The 300-strong Korean contingent, involving some 30 UDT/SEAL special naval forces, will focus on escorting South Korean commercial ships in efforts to protect the nation's economic interests, but will also conduct operations to stop and seize pirates vessels, using force if required, in cooperation with other navies there, JCS officials said.
The KDX-II destroyer is equipped with a Mk. 45 127mm gun, Harpoon ship-to-surface missiles, RAM Mk 31 ship-to-air guided missiles, a 30mm Goalkeeper system for engaging sea-skimming anti-ship missiles and torpedoes.
The 150-meter-long, 17-meter-wide ship, built in 2003, is able to sail at a top speed of 29 knots and carries two Lynx anti-submarine helicopters and rigid inflatable speedboats (RIBs).
Challenges
Despite active coalition efforts to confront piracy in the region, some challenges still remain, experts point out.
A naval captain is permitted to defend his or her ship if attacked, or can intervene if pirates are caught in the act, according to customary international law and practice. But with 16,000 ships transiting the Gulf of Aden every year and more than 70 attacks in 2008, naval forces are at a competitive disadvantage, experts say.
``We can't be everywhere,'' U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Bill Gortney, 5th Fleet Commander in Bahrain, told USA Today last November. ``They can be fishermen and 10 minutes later they're on the vessel. Once they're on board the vessel, we have a hostage situation.''
Lee Geanuleas, a former U.S. Navy cruiser captain, was quoted as saying by Defense News, ``It's a very big ocean. I hate to state the obvious, but a single ship's awareness of what's going on over the ocean, even in this network-centric age, is limited.''
Another cruiser skipper said, ``If we were able to thwart, impede or disrupt an act of piracy, we would. But we can't arbitrarily attack a flagged vessel of another nation whether it's been hijacked or not.''
Piracy in Somalia
Located along the route of a crude-oil pipeline connecting the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean and racked by civil war, Somalia's coastline has become infamous for piracy. Each year, about 20,000 ships sail throughout the Gulf of Aden, headed for the Suez Canal, an important shipping route for international trade that links Europe to the Middle East and Asia.
The International Maritime Organization had counted 111 attacks in 2008 in the Arablic Sea near Somalia, the most notorious location for such activity.
South Korean cargo ships have also suffered a series of hijackings in recent years. Eight crewmembers of two Dongwon Fisheries tuna ships were released in 2006 for a ransom of $800,000 after being held hostage for four months by Somali pirates. Two Daechang Fishing boats were hijacked in May last year, and their 25 crewmembers were released six months later.
In September last year, pirates kidnapped a cargo vessel carrying eight South Korean and 13 Myanmar crewmembers, releasing them the following month after the ship's owner paid a ransom.
The Somali pirates reportedly run sophisticated operations using the latest hi-tech equipment, such as satellite phones and GPS. They are known to receive tip-offs from contacts at ports in the Gulf of Aden and use speedboats with very powerful outboard motors to approach their targets. Sometimes the speedboats are launched from much larger ``mother ships'' on the high seas.
To actually hijack the ships, the pirates first use grappling hooks and irons ― some of which are rocket-propelled ― and climb aboard using ropes and ladders. The pirates have also on occasion fired at the ships to scare them into stopping, so it is easier for them to board the vessel.
The pirates then sail the hijacked ship to the Somali pirate hub town Eyl. Once there, pirates usually take the hostages ashore, where they are normally well looked after until ransom is paid.