At about 6 AM on 11 Nov, about 450 nautical miles West of Mumbai, a merchant ship MV BBC Orinoco with a crew of 14 (5 Ukraine and 9 Philippino) reported being attacked by pirates. The crew locked themselves in the ships Engine room and the Steering compartment and communicated with their agents, UK MTO Dubai, on e-mail. Dubai, in turn, intimated the Indian Navy for assistance.
On receipt of this information, the Indian Navy promptly detached one of its missile corvettes, INS Veer, to intercept the distressed vessel and also sailed a destroyer INS Delhi with a team of Marine Commandos (MARCOS) embarked. One of the Navy’s long range maritime ratrol aircraft (Ilyushin-38) was extensively deployed for aerial surveillance. The Indian Coast Guard, too, responded with alacrity adjusting all routine deployments to keep one or more Dornier aircraft on hot standby, besides asking their ships on assigned mission to be also on stand-by.
At daybreak, the naval forces, which had arrived at the scene, commenced their actions. MARCOS slithered onto the merchant ship from a Sea King helicopter and took the crew, who were locked in compartments, to safety, while the helicopter provided air borne fire support. The merchantman was boarded by naval personnel and a thorough search is currently in progress. The ship will set course for its destination once the boarding party reports all clear. Although no pirates remain onboard, implements such as crow bar, knives etc., were found aboard the ship.
MV BBC Orinoco is a General Cargo Carrier and is registered in Antigua and Barbuda.
Photos Courtesy Indian Navy
where was 'Phantom – The Ghost who walks?'
you mean to say that they boarded a ship with no pirates on 🙂 and spent all that money. I wonder how many indian families could have had a proper meal for the money to board an empty ship. Indians have become the slave of the British again!
Ha ha ha stomach burn:-)
again with same outdated stuff humm??????????????????
What you fail to realize is that the 'pirates' were scared ****less when they saw the awesomeness that is the Indian Navy approaching. I wonder if, in fact they managed to make a getaway, or whether they simply thought it easier and more prudent to jump off board.
What you fail to realize is that the 'pirates' were scared ****less when they saw the awesomeness that is the Indian Navy approaching at high speed. I wonder if in fact they did even manage to make a getaway. I wouldn't be surprised if they simply jumped of board, thinking it to be the more prudent thing to do.
at least give the marcos good uniforms…god..the black on top of the jungle fatigues is so unprofesional…..
For the first time in the modern history, the pirates anywhere ran away before the Indians reached to them. This is good for entering in to the permanent membership of the security council.
Deploying INS Delhi,(one of the most potent destroyer) AND INS Veer AND long range maritime patrol aircraft (Ilyushin-38) AND Dornier aircraft on hot standby for what? To chase away bunch of loonies 🙂 AWESOME planning dude ! What skul IN officers graduate from again ?
Eh, so what if several million kids remain hungry/impoverished few more years? (They have for 63 years)
We've got to fool the world in to believing we are a superpower (NOT)!
@Deshaaz
I am sick of you bounch of idiots. STF. How much you donate everytime you get your pay check for the hungry family. If you are so concerned, sell your house and falt screen tv and donate that money to hungry family. I am sure you can live bare minimum and survive without LCD tv. would you do that. otherwise STF.
I don't understand whats so funny about what IN or ICG did?
Would we "Indians" be more happy if they had dispatched a guy with a lathi assuming that, that there won't be any pirates anyway?
And whats with someone always whining about "Aww old news!"?
if they get it fresher than the rest then why can't they start a blog? and be actually in the race and not be some fool sitting on a tree when people are actually doing a decent job around.
@ anon 5.57 and deshdaaz .would you have the courage to board a ship if pirates were reportedly on it ???
ans.no
must be some stupid ngo wala.
indian miltary officers are the best in the world.i dont you would even make it through a SSB selection and interview.you will just be a keyboard officer.
I think IN is doing awesome work! cudos to the IN.
Shiv, one question…….in most of the photos of joint military excersizes etc., I see soldiers wearing stuff totally out of sync! is this normal for Indian soldiers? Top not matching with Bottoms, life jackets are black colored while the soldiers wearing camouflage, in Alaska, Indian soldiers are wearing some camouflage (lol) that looks more like a jungle warfare suit with body armour with camouflage resembling that of the US army!
Any Idea if this is going to change anytime soon? Aren't the Navy/Army even a tiny bit embarrassed to be furnished like jokers? I know the F-Insas is on the works but I'm specificaly wondering about the size & colors of the camouflage that the Indian army has……….some update on this will be highly appreciated.
Great work with the blog by the way……i read it first thing in the morning after I wake up lol.
@living room low furniture
I too have noticed and used to think that they don't have dressing sense.
@ anon @ 10:46
There was no need 4 name-calling. With all due respect,do donate sizeable portion of personal income, much higher than average national middle class annual income. HOWEVER personal philantrophy is not topic of discussion. Stay on course.
@atma ram
Sir, no one is questioning ability of IN officers/individuals or of the organization as a whole. No one is either questioning need to respond to these pirate threats. The question is about over/bad planning (or the lack of it). Would you need to invite 5 of ur neighbours if u had a mosquito in your house ? And finally that "you will just be a keyboard officer." is a classic example of our Indian charater of pre-judging people without an iota of information.
To Shiv: The original MoD press release about this latest anti-piracy operation says that long-range maritime patrol (LRMP)aircraft were employed, but does not say that the LRMP aircraft in question is the IL-38SD or IL-38. I suspect that it must have been a Tu-142M that was pressed into service, since that aircraft is classified as LRMP by the Navy, and not the IL-38.
On a more worrying note, the photo of the Sea King Mk42C shows is devoid of a chin-mounted FLIR turret that was due to be retrofitted so that such helicopters can be capble of night-flying with MARCOS on board. The fact that this retrofitting has not yet been done tends to limit the Navy's operational options in terms of all-weather anti-piracy operations. Nor have the Sea King Mk42Cs been upgraded with NVG-compatible cockpits, which means that the aircrew cannot undertake nighttime flights using helmet-mounted NVGs. This is most worrisome indeed.
To Deshdaaz: This operation was not the first, but the second of its type over the past 72 hours at more or less the same location, and is frighteningly close to India's shores. To me, the issue is not about bad planning, but rather of doing the best with the available resources, which are scarce in any case. Undertaking such wide-area surveillance missions–be it with LRMP or even surface combatants–is akin to searching for a needle in a haystack. You obtain more info about such challenges at: http://www.informationdissemination.net/2010/11/why-china-might-be-right-about-india.html
One must also bear in mind that even with the best of resources and numerically superior assets, the US Navy, US Coast Guard and the DEA have not been able to stop the flow of drugs (especially be sea) from South America to continental US. That being the case, it will indeed be a herculean task for the Indian Navy to produce guaranteed results for anti-piracy operations in the high seas.
Prasun: Nope. The Navy deployed an Il-38. Checked.
Shiv, many thanks for the heads-up. Probably the civilian PR guys in MoD goofed up (by referring to the IL-38SD as LRMP aircaft) while drafting the press release.
Going by the popular mandate, the Forces must include some top tailor masters, dress designers and fashion designers within their scheme of things.
The dirtiest colored dresses, I think belong to pak forces. Indians are a shade better.
Prasun according to DOD n NATO classification of such aircrafts as IL-38 (9500Km) is known as long range aircraft – Exceeds 3500 nautical miles at normal cruising conditions (6482 Km).
You should be aware of this as you are known to be a walking encyclopedia on defense matters.
Why did you discontinue your valuable site?
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To keshto: I was going by the Indian Navy's classification standard (as it has appeared several times in interviews given by the CNS and FONA to various Indian military publications over the past five years, in which the IL-38SD is referred to as a medium-range platform and the Tu-142M is described as a LRMP platform. Apparently, the Indian Navy classification is based on flight endurance.
Will revive my blog fairly soon, rest assured. Thanks.
all those who are taunting the navy for trying to do their best trying to help people in need… im a shippie and its a great confidence booster to have in the back of my mind that my own countrys navy is out there, looking out for us. so i would like to ask deshdaaz and many anons to kindly refrain from showing down out armed forces for helping out in an international problem, that too, quite effectively.