Dryad Maritime Urges for Overhaul of Maritime Intelligence Industry

 

"The threat is changing. Ship owners and operators no longer simply face a sporadic pirate threat in the Indian Ocean but are routinely deploying armed security teams to counter the threat of Water Bourne IED in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait located between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa," it said in a statement.

 

Without up to-date practical research and development supported by the expert collation of intelligence the industry will be blindsided by asymmetric threats at sea.

 

Already through Dryad’s research and development program to generate and test threat intelligence, it has been established that the most commonly deployed weapon used by security teams are ineffective when used as disabling fire against an outboard engine at 100 metres. Further, the lack of clues to a potential threat (combat indicators) means that the distance at which vessels are engaged with an adequate case for self defence is usually sub optimal. 

 

Graeme Gibbon-Brooks, Chief Executive Officer, Dryad Maritime said: “Intelligence is usually bought either for situational awareness or as the background upon which a risk assessment is conducted. All too frequently, 'intelligence' is restricted to a list or narrative of geopolitical events. However, the scope of intelligence is much wider than this. Intelligence should look at the events in the context of the capabilities and limitations of the threat to provide the reader with an understanding of the meaning of events and predictions about the most likely outcomes. Without this methodology or understanding of the threat, intelligence is impotent and the risk assessment is based on incomplete information”.

 

The STANAG proposed by Dryad Maritime will be used by the consumer to form the basis of a due diligence check. The standard will be complied on a voluntary basis by companies producing intelligence, risk assessments and tracking products and services.