A US State Department official has called the use of privately contracted armed security teams a "game changer in the effort to combat" international maritime piracy.
In testimony this week before the House of Representatives, the Assistant Secretary at Bureau of Political-Military Affairs Andrew J. Shapiro said that U.S. efforts to 'empower the private sector to take steps to protect themselves from attack' was 'perhaps the most significant factor in the decline of successful pirate attacks.'
Game Changer
Mr. Shapiro added that: 'Perhaps the ultimate security measure a commercial ship can adopt is the use of privately contracted armed security teams.' The teams 'are often made up of former members of various armed forces, who embark on merchant ships and guard them during transits through high risk waters.’
'The use of armed security teams has been a game changer in the effort to combat piracy,' Secretary Shapiro concluded.
Motley Crew
President William H. Watson of private security company Advanfort is 'proud' to have contributed 'to those private security efforts' but warns in the words of threat analyst Andrew Moulder, who heads AdvanFort's research department, that private maritime security companies remain 'a motley crew, some well ahead on best practices (while) others, too many, still seek to increase their share of the market with proclamations, claims and even the invocation of misunderstood history that keep them competitive only at the risk of the greater good.
