KEY POINTS:
The American security company Blackwater is planning to cash in on the rising threat of piracy by launching a flotilla of gunboats for hire by shipping companies.
The firm, which gained international notoriety when its staff killed civilians in Iraq, has already equipped one vessel, the McArthur, which will carry up to 40 armed guards and have a landing pad for an attack helicopter.
The McArthur, a former survey ship, arrives in the Gulf of Aden, the scene of high-profile hijackings and shootouts with Somali pirates, at the end of the year.
It is to be joined by three or four similar vessels over the next year to form the company's private navy.
Blackwater was the subject of investigations by the US Congress and the Iraqi Government after its guards shot dead 17 people in Baghdad's Nisoor Square last year, a massacre which led to changes in the laws regarding security contractors in Iraq.
Several security companies are rushing to the region despite the presence of British, American, Russian and Indian warships.
For fees ranging from £8000 to £12,000 ($21,000 to $32,000) for transits of three and five days, companies are offering teams of unarmed guards, "non-lethal deck security personnel".
With more than 60 ships attacked in the Gulf and shipowners paying an estimated £75 million in ransom for the return of crew and cargo, the security companies foresee a lucrative business.
But Blackwater plans to have the largest and most heavily armed presence among the contractors. The company believes that the presence of escorting gunboats will be a deterrent, as criminal gangs will be forced to switch to more vulnerable targets.
A Blackwater spokeswoman, Anne Tyrrell, said the company had received about 15 inquiries already. The company refused to reveal how much it will charge.
Its executive vice-president, Bill Matthews, said the US Navy and the Royal Navy did not have the resources in the region to provide total security, opening a role for companies such as his.
Nick Davis, a former British Army pilot who runs a company in Poole called Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions, said: "It frightens me that Blackwater is going down there. Their background is not in deterrence.
"Their background is in weapons. To me, the best people to be armed are the military."
Chris Austen, chief executive of Maritime and Underwater Security Consultants, in London, said ship-owners should be cautious about armed guards.
- INDEPENDENT
