Finding New Bearings - Facts & Figures About PMSCs
by Dirk Siebels
THERE HAS been a lot of talk about regulating the private maritime security industry. So far, however, nobody has asked ship-owners or captains about the performance of armed guards onboard and the effect their presence has on the crew. With our groundbreaking survey, we want to find out more about the bigger picture, writes Dirk Siebels.
Armed guards on merchant vessels were unthinkable only a few years ago. Most flag states and ship operators opposed the idea of privately contracted security personnel on their ships as a deterrent against pirate attacks off the Somali coast.
Rising numbers of attacks, however, brought about a sea change. It did not take long for ship operators to realise that neither the US nor European nations had the capacity to provide naval protection for every single ship. Moreover, most vessels are registered in open registries around the world rather than in countries considered to be maritime powers.
Many ship operators were in desperate need to find an effective protection for their ships, their crews and their cargoes. They quickly realised that, in many cas-es, a combination of physical measures and armed guards was the best solution to a complex problem. While that was acknowledged by most of the important flag states, there were almost no rules in place to regulate privately contracted armed security personnel.
Within just a few years, the picture has drastically changed. An industry that did not even exist four years earlier made an estimated turnover of more than a billion US dollars in 2012 and provided some interesting headlines in the process. Flag states and port states were trying to regulate operations while the shipping industry was looking for an international standard, trying to avoid different laws in almost every jurisdiction.
Currently, the situation remains in flux. Some flag states are rather liberal when it comes to embarking private security per-sonnel, other countries have introduced strict regulations. Furthermore, an ISO standard has been introduced in 2014 that could go a long way to securing high- quality security services at sea.
At the same time, the actual performance of armed guards on merchant vessels has not been a topic in the discussion about new rules and regulations. With our survey, we want to add another point of view. We are looking at performance indicators as well as other data such as the nationalities of armed guards or the number of days they actually spend onboard.
The following study provides a glimpse into our findings. Much more work remains to be done and we would like to convince other stakeholders in the maritime domain to join our effort. After all, facts and figures are the best foundation for future regulation.
Read the report HERE
Dirk Siebels is a Partner at Xiphias Consulting 
Views expressed are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of OCEANUSLive.
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