Word: vessels
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Here is how the system works, according to kidnap-and-ransom experts who agreed to talk to TIME: Within minutes of a vessel being seized by Somali pirates (or foreign oil workers being nabbed in Venezuela or Nigeria) the crew alerts its company headquarters. There, officials call the company's insurer, which then contracts a "response company" - private firms, like Control Risks in London or ASI Global in Houston, which are generally staffed by former military personnel experienced in hostage situations, and whose day rates can run to thousands of dollars, according to insurance brokers. Those companies begin negotiations with...
India sends out more than 120,000 seafarers and Indian industry has $250 billion worth of merchandise going back and forth through the Suez Canal every year. The route is also critical to India for its energy security. Though no Indian-flagged vessel has been taken hostage lately, India has been on the forefront in dealing with hostage situations off the Somali coast, particularly after the Hong Kong-registered MT Stolt Valor was hijacked in September of last year along with its crew of 22, including 18 Indians. The wife of the ship's Indian captain, Seema Goyal, waged...
Most information on hijacked ships is that the ransom paid to get them back is about $2 million per vessel and crew. In some cases, the pirates actually charge an additional fee for the ships which has been estimated as being as high as $5 million...
...pirates, largely from lawless coastal Somali towns, have basically turned the heavily traveled route through the Gulf of Aden into a toll road that shippers' insurance firms have been willing to pay for (up to $3 million for a single vessel). About 20,000 merchant ships traverse the waterway each year; there have already been 74 attacks and 15 hijackings in 2009, compared with 111 attacks last year. The pirates generally want cash, not trouble. They've treated their hostages well, and violence has been rare. All of that changed, of course, last week when a quartet of Somalis seized...
...small and fast Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) from two to three next year, with a total planned buy of 55. The defense chief termed the LCS a "key capability for presence, stability and counterinsurgency operations in coastal regions." With its ability to sail into shallow waters, an LCS vessel can chase pirates into places bigger warships could never go. The LCS is "an ideal platform" for unconventional Navy missions, including "counterpiracy operations," Rear Admiral Victor Guillory, director of the Navy's surface-warfare division, told a House panel on March 10. But at 400 feet in length and $500 million...