Navy's piracy mission troubled
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/748502--navy-s-piracy-mission-troubled
January 09, 2010
Allan Woods
OTTAWA–Pirate-fighting sailors had to share uniforms, borrow equipment and battle Ottawa for authority to fly their helicopter, which was key to a Canadian counter-piracy mission in the Horn of Africa last year.
The months-long $2 million operation escorting vessels off the coast of Somalia was deemed both a tactical and public relations victory.
But the commander and crew of HMCS Winnipeg had to draft the military playbook on fighting modern-day pirates while sailing to join NATO ships from Portugal, the United States, Netherlands, Spain and other nations trying to secure the world's busiest shipping route.
Documents obtained by the Toronto Star show there were problems getting vital equipment and supplies for the frigate, along with fierce internal military squabbles.
Canada and other countries can't detain and prosecute the armed Somali pirates because of a loophole of international law that is now on United Nations Security Council's agenda. Under the Safety of Life at Sea Convention, the Canadians made an impromptu decision to give the Somalis blue NATO backpacks loaded with bottled water as they sent them back to the coast in their pirate boats.
The post-operation report on the NATO-led mission showed the most vital part of the Winnipeg's mission – boarding pirate skiffs to search for and seize weapons and gather intelligence – was perhaps the most disorganized.
A request for replacement handheld radios was refused and evidence-gathering video cameras, which "succumbed to catastrophic failure" upon arrival in the Gulf of Aden, were not replaced because of "significant bureaucratic roadblocks."
Members of the naval boarding party, the rifle-toting team that searches the pirate boats, were denied military-issued boots, hats and uniforms necessary to do their jobs.
"This resulted in situations where team members were required to share one person's uniform between them throughout the mission," said the report by Cmdr. Craig Baines, obtained under the Access to Information Act.
"It is simply not acceptable to put (naval boarding party) members in harm's way without the appropriate equipment."
Last year set a distressing record for piracy with 214 vessels coming under attack off the Somali coast and 47 hijackings being pulled off, according to statistics from the International Maritime Bureau cited in a New York Times report.
The Winnipeg's mission was extended in May through to August because of the elevated risk that faced ships transiting through the narrow Gulf of Aden. The waterway is in a politically volatile region flanked on the south by lawless Somalia and on the north by Yemen, a country engulfed in civil war and tackling a resurgent Al Qaeda force.
But the air force and navy leadership back in Ottawa started pressuring mission commanders to cut the time the ship's Sea King helicopter would spend in the air in an apparent attempt to extend the service of the aircraft. Baines suggests that was a mistake, and there was significant pushback from mission heads in Ottawa and at NATO.
"It cannot be overstated how critical Winnipeg's embarked Sea King was to mission success," he wrote. "The helicopter was integral to every major piracy event that Winnipeg was involved in."
Later in the report, he concludes "it should not be acceptable to jeopardize mission success by reducing flight hours during the Counter-Piracy commitment."
Despite the headaches and disagreements, Baines dubbed the mission an unqualified success, noting in part a level of national and international media interest "that is unprecedented in recent naval operations."
Interest in Canadian operations in the Horn of Africa peaked with the April capture of the Maersk Alabama, a U.S. vessel whose captain was taken hostage by Somali pirates. Capt. Richard Phillips was later freed in a surgical U.S. Navy SEAL takedown that underscored the risk to valuable cargo and crew on the high seas and the determination of nations to wipe out the multi-million dollar piracy scourge.
But it also illustrated the difficulty of combating criminal gangs in international waters who drop their anchors in a country where the national government has little influence or control.
Baines wrote that the role of military photographers and video operators to beam images back to Canada, as well as visits from two television outlets, made an impact.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/748502--navy-s-piracy-mission-troubled
January 09, 2010
Allan Woods
OTTAWA–Pirate-fighting sailors had to share uniforms, borrow equipment and battle Ottawa for authority to fly their helicopter, which was key to a Canadian counter-piracy mission in the Horn of Africa last year.
The months-long $2 million operation escorting vessels off the coast of Somalia was deemed both a tactical and public relations victory.
But the commander and crew of HMCS Winnipeg had to draft the military playbook on fighting modern-day pirates while sailing to join NATO ships from Portugal, the United States, Netherlands, Spain and other nations trying to secure the world's busiest shipping route.
Documents obtained by the Toronto Star show there were problems getting vital equipment and supplies for the frigate, along with fierce internal military squabbles.
Canada and other countries can't detain and prosecute the armed Somali pirates because of a loophole of international law that is now on United Nations Security Council's agenda. Under the Safety of Life at Sea Convention, the Canadians made an impromptu decision to give the Somalis blue NATO backpacks loaded with bottled water as they sent them back to the coast in their pirate boats.
The post-operation report on the NATO-led mission showed the most vital part of the Winnipeg's mission – boarding pirate skiffs to search for and seize weapons and gather intelligence – was perhaps the most disorganized.
A request for replacement handheld radios was refused and evidence-gathering video cameras, which "succumbed to catastrophic failure" upon arrival in the Gulf of Aden, were not replaced because of "significant bureaucratic roadblocks."
Members of the naval boarding party, the rifle-toting team that searches the pirate boats, were denied military-issued boots, hats and uniforms necessary to do their jobs.
"This resulted in situations where team members were required to share one person's uniform between them throughout the mission," said the report by Cmdr. Craig Baines, obtained under the Access to Information Act.
"It is simply not acceptable to put (naval boarding party) members in harm's way without the appropriate equipment."
Last year set a distressing record for piracy with 214 vessels coming under attack off the Somali coast and 47 hijackings being pulled off, according to statistics from the International Maritime Bureau cited in a New York Times report.
The Winnipeg's mission was extended in May through to August because of the elevated risk that faced ships transiting through the narrow Gulf of Aden. The waterway is in a politically volatile region flanked on the south by lawless Somalia and on the north by Yemen, a country engulfed in civil war and tackling a resurgent Al Qaeda force.
But the air force and navy leadership back in Ottawa started pressuring mission commanders to cut the time the ship's Sea King helicopter would spend in the air in an apparent attempt to extend the service of the aircraft. Baines suggests that was a mistake, and there was significant pushback from mission heads in Ottawa and at NATO.
"It cannot be overstated how critical Winnipeg's embarked Sea King was to mission success," he wrote. "The helicopter was integral to every major piracy event that Winnipeg was involved in."
Later in the report, he concludes "it should not be acceptable to jeopardize mission success by reducing flight hours during the Counter-Piracy commitment."
Despite the headaches and disagreements, Baines dubbed the mission an unqualified success, noting in part a level of national and international media interest "that is unprecedented in recent naval operations."
Interest in Canadian operations in the Horn of Africa peaked with the April capture of the Maersk Alabama, a U.S. vessel whose captain was taken hostage by Somali pirates. Capt. Richard Phillips was later freed in a surgical U.S. Navy SEAL takedown that underscored the risk to valuable cargo and crew on the high seas and the determination of nations to wipe out the multi-million dollar piracy scourge.
But it also illustrated the difficulty of combating criminal gangs in international waters who drop their anchors in a country where the national government has little influence or control.
Baines wrote that the role of military photographers and video operators to beam images back to Canada, as well as visits from two television outlets, made an impact.
