[TheDrive] How armed contractors operate aboard ships and the ways they’ve been adapted to the eruption in hostilities around the Bab el-Mandeb strait.
Nearly every day, private armed security teams (PASTs) stationed on a floating armory somewhere in the Indian Ocean will get a message from supervisors at Ambrey, a U.K.-based firm specializing in maritime risk management. They are to grab their L1A1 SLR or Steyr Scout rifles and head out to a commercial ship sailing to the narrow and increasingly dangerous Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Once on board, the PAST will provide armed security, overwatch and help the crews take all the safety precautions possible for a trip through waters where U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have conducted over 100 drone and ballistic missile attacks, targeting 10 merchant vessels in the past month. This is in addition to boarding attempts and even seizing ships outright. These activities are ongoing in a region that's already a piracy epicenter.
“Ambrey is operating somewhere between 500 and 600 transits a month in the Red Sea at this current time," said Joshua Hutchinson, a former Royal Marine commando now serving as the company’s Managing Director of Risk and Intelligence. “Clearly, there's a natural increase in demand because of the threat that is emerging in the market.”
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