Maritime will build security

Maritime will build security

Michael Richardson
The Straits Times
Asia News Network/Singapore

When planes take off from Singapore to fly to other countries,
they are tracked in the sky. Aircraft movements around the world
are under constant surveillance, for safety and security.
Satellite-based communications and intensified checks since al-
Qaeda used hijacked passenger jets in September 2001 to attack
the United States enable the relevant authorities to know the
precise positions of nearly all planes in the air, where they are
going, when they will arrive, who is on board and what cargo is
being carried.

The same can't said for the more than 46,000 ships that sail
the world's oceans. They are largely unchecked and untracked when
they leave port. But this is changing and it could form the basis
for real-time global surveillance of ships at sea.

A number of Asia-Pacific nations, including Singapore, are
working with the U.S. to develop a maritime surveillance
arrangement known as the Regional Maritime Security Initiative,
or RMSI. It is designed to curb both security and criminal
threats at sea, including piracy, trafficking in arms, humans and
drugs, and the use of ships and cargo containers for terrorist
purposes, or to spread weapons of mass destruction (WMD). These
threats, by their nature, are transnational.

THE RMSI framework aims to improve intelligence sharing and
law enforcement. It will monitor, identify and, if necessary,
intercept vessels suspected of involvement in criminal, terrorist
or WMD activity in national and international waters.

The head of the U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii, Admiral Thomas
Fargo, told a U.S. congressional panel last month: "Working first
with other navies of the region, our approach is to assess and
then provide detailed plans to build and synchronize inter-agency
and international capacity to fight threats that use the maritime
space to facilitate their illicit activity."

Adm Fargo said that the U.S. wants to harness available and
emerging technologies to improve maritime security in the Asia-
Pacific region. Following the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. which
exposed a whole new degree of vulnerability in the global
transport system, the International Maritime Organization (IMO)
has made it mandatory for all ocean-going vessels of 300 gross
tonnes or more to be equipped with an automatic identification
system, or AIS, by the end of this year, at the latest.

This device forms part of a ship- and shore-based broadcast
network, operating in the VHF (very high frequency) maritime
band. The AIS automatically sends and receives ship information
such as identity, position, course, speed, ship particulars and
cargo information to and from other ships, suitably-equipped
aircraft and the shore. Precise timing and positional information
is integrated via satellite.

The AIS system can help ships avoid collisions, make
navigation safer and improve traffic management. But it can also
be used to make shipping more secure close to land. The VHF
version to be generally applied this year is short-range,
normally little more than 20 nautical miles.

However, the IMO, the United Nations specialized agency
responsible for shipping safety, is developing a plan for long-
range identification and tracking of ships and hopes to get
governments to agree to the details in December. The technology
has already been proven by the Inmarsat company that provides
satellite communication services to ships, airlines and air
traffic controllers around the world.

For example, Inmarsat's C satellite terminals -- which the IMO
has approved as an appropriate system for long-range ship
tracking -- are in wide use by national fisheries authorities
around the world to monitor the activities of fishing boats
operating in their exclusive economic zones that extend 200
nautical miles out from the coast.

An Inmarsat C terminal incorporates a global positioning
system (GPS) receiver which uses signals from 24 satellites in
the U.S. GPS constellation to determine an accurate position.
This information, including time, speed and course, is
automatically transmitted at timed intervals via Inmarsat's
satellites and the nearest receiving station on land, to the
fleet monitoring centre to ensure that boats are fishing where
they are supposed to be and that no unauthorized vessels are in
the zone. The Inmarsat C system covers the globe, with the
exception of the extreme polar regions.

U.S. OFFICIALS say that the size, shape and force structure of
potential RMSI activities are yet to be determined. The RMSI is
in the preliminary planning phase but is evidently open to a wide
array of nations in the Asia-Pacific region, including China.

Initial discussions among interested states are scheduled to
take place over the next few months. The first related activities
are expected late this year. However, it is likely to take
several years to shape the RMSI into a full-fledged regional
partnership.

Adm Fargo said the U.S. believed an architecture was needed
that would "allow us to share information and share intelligence,
that puts standing operating procedures in place with the
countries of the region, such that we can take effective action
against this illicit activity".

The IMO has cautioned that while long-range identification and
tracking of ships at sea could enhance maritime and coastal state
security, the system could also be misused "as an aid to ship
targeting" by military forces.

Given the level of mistrust of U.S. intentions in some
countries of South-east Asia, especially in Muslim-majority
Indonesia and Malaysia, Adm Fargo may have difficulty gaining
universal acceptance for the RMSI.

For example, only Singapore among the 10 Asean members has so
far agreed publicly to participate in the U.S.-sponsored
Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) to halt the trade in
weapons of mass destruction at sea, on land and in the air,
although Adm Fargo said that India had recently indicated it
would like to be part of PSI. Other Asia-Pacific members of PSI
include the U.S., Canada, Japan and Australia. Most of the
remaining participants are from Europe.

Still, Adm Fargo said that the RMSI concept had been well
received by America's Asia-Pacific friends and allies, including
Singapore which was going "to help us with this". The U.S.
expected "a very broad range of support", he told the
congressional panel. "I think you'll find that all of the
countries in the region have an equity here and a means to make a
contribution, however modest."

U.S. officials say that each country deciding to participate
in the RMSI will define how much, if any, of its activity takes
place within national waters. They also emphasize that RMSI
operations on the high seas and in international shipping straits
will observe international law.

The ultimate goal is to coordinate regional maritime security
capabilities to make the sea more secure and create an
environment hostile to terrorist and other criminal activities.

The writer is a visiting senior research fellow at the
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. This is a
personal comment.