Surveillance and Training Officer Course
The Merchant Maritime Warfare Centre (MMWC), a UK based, non-profit counter-piracy organisation, reports that its first Surveillance and Training Officer (STO) course, which took place 16-18th November 2009 has proven a great success. The course is an industry first, as it is designed to provide security professionals with a practical foundation of ship operation and counter-piracy procedures, therefore ensuring that better trained maritime security personnel are available for vessels transiting the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. The first MMWC STO course was attended by five students, all of whom have existing security backgrounds. The role of a Surveillance and Training Officer is to provide unarmed security support and training to vessels transiting high-risk areas. To enable this, the STO course is divided into class-room, simulation and live exercise segments that cover everything from maritime basics such as discerning port and starboard, and understanding radar, charts and navigation through to counter-piracy operations including maritime surveillance, risk analysis, security briefings and emergency procedures.
The on-water exercise, which took place at Lymington proved to be an enlightening experience for the STO course attendees who soon recognised that despite expertise in surveillance and security on land, the maritime environment introduces a number of unique, extra challenges: “While I am skilled in military land surveillance I soon realised that at sea I am literally lost. There’s no dust trail to provide early warning of approach. There’s no disturbed birds soaring up in the sky and it’s loud. You can’t use your ears well so by the time you hear the skiff, it’s way too late. It’s clear to me that at sea, land training does not count, so you really do need the kind of specific training that the STO course provided,” commented one course attendee.
The first phase of the on-water exercise took place from the bridge and sun deck of the Lymington ferry, where the team was tasked with surveillance in order to locate an 8m RIB piloted by MMWC staff, using the same techniques to approach the ferry that pirates would use during a hijacking attempt.
This provided vital experience for work as an STO officer, as one of the critical aspects of the job is to ensure early warning if any suspect vessels are approaching. The second phase of the exercise saw the team playing the role of the pirates, learning the techniques that they use to attack from sea level.
“We believe it’s vital that potential STOs, especially those with none or very little maritime training get to experience a pirate attack from both sides, which is why we put students in the role of the pirates for part of the exercise,” comments Nick Davis, Director, MMWC. “Despite being an exciting exercise in its own right, it also shows that approaching a vessel from a small skiff is very challenging, and that a good STO should be able to leverage this fact to ensure that the pirates don’t get close enough to board and hijack the vessel.”