Vice Adm. Bill Gortney, commander of Combined Maritime Forces, standing, makes introductory remarks to naval leaders from 22 nations at the Shared Awareness and Deconfliction meeting — a monthly gathering held in Bahrain for navies to share anti-piracy strategies. (D. Keith Simmons / Courtesy of the U.S. Navy)
Piracy may be a bane to worldwide shipping, but it has also fostered maritime cooperation among nations that don’t normally see eye-to-eye.
At a meeting in Manama, Bahrain, on Tuesday, naval officials from India and Pakistan, China and Russia, and 19 other countries, along with representatives from NATO and the European Union, gathered — workshop-style — to share information and streamline tactics used to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden.
The Shared Awareness and Deconfliction meetings, or SHADE, are now held monthly in an effort to make sure assets and information are used efficiently and with the desired effect.
"Sharing information like this helps us manage the water space more efficiently," said Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman with the Combined Maritime Forces. "We’re trying to alleviate the ‘little kid soccer’ tendency of everyone going after the ball at once. A zone defense is more effective."
Since August, international navies involved in anti-piracy efforts have captured 449 suspected pirates, eight of whom were killed during the operations.
Almost half of those captured, 212, were released due to lack of evidence, and 205 were turned over to various nations for prosecution including the United States, Kenya, Italy and France. Twenty-four cases are still pending, according to U.S. Central Command officials.
Anti-piracy operations have also captured or destroyed 38 pirate vessels along with a cache of weapons including 189 small arms, 39 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and 80 grenades, along with ladders used for boarding ships, GPS devices and cell phones.
While not all navies possess the same high tech surveillance equipment, Campbell said the information collected is shared among nations patrolling what has now come to be known as "Pirate Alley."
"We’ve used Scan Eagle — a small (unmanned aerial vehicle) to collect data. Even though not everyone has that, we share the information it produces with other navies," Campbell said. "We’ve even shared information with China, and they have shared information with us, for example, where our ships would be operating the next day, so we wouldn’t duplicate efforts."
