Typhon has launched a marine escort service to protect ships in the Indian Ocean from pirates
January 29, 2013
Maritime Security Company Typhon has launched a marine convoy escort service to protect ships operating in the Indian Ocean from pirates.
Typhon CEO Anthony Sharp says the area the company aims to protect is too vast for current naval resources to monitor effectively.
“With millions paid out in ransoms to pirates and much more money lost by businesses in fuel costs avoiding pirates, it is important that businesses are granted a safer passage with their cargo through dangerous waters,” he says.
According to Typhon, Typhon’s Integrated Protection Model aims to detect piracy threats at long range.
This is done onshore in Typhon’s Operations Centre in the United Arab Emirates.
As part of the service, close protection vessels (CPVs) shadow client vessels using an ‘umbrella concept’, which consists of surveillance, detection and early warning capabilities to identify threats.
Convoys can then travel in a protected ‘envelope’, making it difficult for
pirates to launch attacks.
The company claims to detect piracy in three ways: by sea, using radar; by air, using satellite; and by land, through an onshore operations centre.
In conjunction with CPVs, armoured patrol boats can be used to intercept a potential target, but the company says the use of force is a last resort.