Floating Arsenals Battle Pirates on High Seas

there's currently no water past midnight I'm on watch doing above Paris he watched after my watch three o'clock try get to bed depending on if we have any transfers throughout the evening flight we do this evening early morning hours in the Gulf of Oman Robert handle and a small team are shuttling weapons and security guards to a nearby container ship it's headed through one of the most dangerous shipping routes in the world the waters of the coast of Somalia in a short time they're headed back to home base the m ng resolution a floating armory 25 miles from the coast of the United Arab Emirates the resolution soars weapons for private maritime security companies who protect ships crossing the high-risk area of the Indian Ocean we saw that floating armories were being done actually quite badly and mostly illegally and we felt that we could literally Jetta my heart of the maritime security industry the resolution and at least half a dozen other armories in the Gulf of Oman are part of a growing industry shippers began using armed guards to protect their cargo and crew after a spate of Somali pirate attacks several years ago but most countries won't let arms into their ports so the guns must be stashed offshore on ships like the resolution once the security team and their guns are on board the resolution staff carefully inspect and log in the weapons unify the teams usually bring a kit on a full kit which could be full weapons ammunition plus all their air and salaries and then they will take usually take those off so once they mustered on they will stay on board for three to five days and then we get another transit we will then most of their kit again and take them take them off transits can cost between 1,500 and 5000 dollars in 2013 the International shipping industry spent about 1 billion dollars on armed guards and equipment in the Indian Ocean critics say the Armory's are a potential target for attacks themselves and governments of nearby coastal nations are wary of their presence fearing they present a security risk there are few regulations in the international waters where these armories operate and no official body oversees them but resolution staff of former British military say they take more precautions than many of their competitors on the team leader of the four-man security team which we are armed and we do a security watch for 24 hours so everybody knows the routine if there is somebody getting too close we should have a mile radius nobody should come into that in addition to storing weapons for private security teams the Armory's also serve as hotels at sea for the off-duty guards some of the fort nominees should really be sunk to the bottom of the ocean the Statham this is the first time I've come onto marine resolution and very happy with it so far that's a good sail very professional compared to previous ones I've been on on the resolution off-duty guards who normally combat piracy are more concerned with fighting boredom thanks in part to their own success attacks in the high-risk area have fallen significantly in the past two years the last hijacking and ransom of a merchant vessel in the Indian Ocean was in 2012 on this day those bunking on the resolution say it's a pretty good place to stay the Wi-Fi works the food is good and there's a gym I would say probably 99.9% of the Armory's in the city don't have any sort of gym equipment on them if you're here for a few days or a week you try to get your cell on a routine you know you learn a small cabin with the other guys changing commode after a few days the gym is almost like an escapism to relax for a period of time still it's no five-star hotel guards sleep six to nine in a cabin and luggage has to be stored in racks out on deck to save space but for the men running the resolution there's not much time to dwell on comfort days can quickly turn into nights leaving little time for sleep we have our days where we've had 10 to 12 transfers in a day and they are hard because they could be spread out say one every two hours there's no time for downtime over a 24-hour period all part of the routine in this thriving industry when the m ng crew members say compensates them well for their eight-week rotations at sea you are rewarded for your time away you

Channel: Niki Blasina

Views: 1,913,097

Rating: 4.585062 out of 5

Keywords: floating armory, piracy, floating arsenal, arabian sea, gulf of oman

Id: IXI4DT6d6Bs

Length: 5min 15sec (315 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 04 2015