Decreasing variance in response time to singular incidents of piracy in the horn of Africa area of operation

• Main Author: Descovich, Christopher M..
• Other Authors: Iatrou, Steven J.
• Published: Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10945/5258

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited === Instances of piracy have been increasing since 2006, and the international community can ignore this problem no more. Legal, socio-economic, and technological issues hinder multi-national efforts to combat piracy effectively. Response to events of piracy are oftentimes late, as reporting of incidents is also mired in legal issues; however, technology does exist that can notify companies that a ship is being attacked by pirates as the attack occurs or possibly prior to the attack if the attackers display intent. This technology is the Ship Security Alert System (SSAS), and The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has mandated that all ships greater than 500 gross tons (United States Coast Guard, 2004) shall be equipped with an SSAS. The problem lies in who should receive the SSAS attack alert notification. Currently, these distress signals only go to the company that owns the ship. This thesis will investigate the implications of SSAS reports directly fed to existing Navy networks, and show that small changes to existing Navy Maritime Operations C2 structure could result in an optimization in force employment and timeliness of response.