‘999’ service available to all ships in distress in the Red Sea
By Lt Cdr Dominic Golden
The UK Maritime Trade Organisation (UKMTO) has seen a huge increase in the number of reports of attacks and incidents in the Gulf of Aden and Southern Red Sea since November 2023. This significant increase is as a direct result of the surge in attacks on shipping with drones, missiles and even unmanned surface vessels.
The UKMTO is a Royal Navy sponsored organisation based just outside Portsmouth, supported by its regional office in Dubai. It employs a small team of watchkeepers (18 in total), manning its Operations Room 24/7 throughout the year. The organisation is primarily focused on the Northwestern Indian Ocean and has for more than 25 years worked hand- in-hand with the maritime industry to provide support to sailors and vessels within that vast area, initially to offer advice and support against piracy, but as seen recently, support and help as a result of the wave of attacks on shipping in the Southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The support provided by the UKMTO is available to all shipping, regardless of nationality, with all vessels encouraged to make contact with the Ops Room as they enter and leave a voluntary reporting area that covers this region. Under just normal routine activities, the organisation handles thousands of emails every month.
The UKMTO works very closely with French authorities who provide a similar service to mariners in the Gulf of Guinea, which has also suffered from occasional attacks of piracy.
The UKMTO’s regional office in Dubai promotes regional engagement and expertise, hosting regular events such as the Middle East Industry Vessel Operator Meeting (MIEVOM) which is supported by the maritime industry and industry liaison officers. This regional engagement combined with the output from the Portsmouth- based Ops Room provides a useful information conduit between military and security forces, and with the wider international maritime trade in the region.
Emergency call
Outside of the normal reporting by vessels entering and leaving the voluntary reporting area, the UKMTO Ops Room acts very much like a ‘999 call centre’. Vessels, either under attack or if they believe they have seen some- thing suspicious, can call the UKMTO, who are often in a better position to pass on any requests for assistance to appropriate authorities and can use that report (and possibly others from the same area) to issue Warnings and Advisories to other seafarers in the wider region. The UKMTO hosts all Warnings on its website as well as hosting notices from partner organisations, such as the Joint Maritime
Information Centre (JMIC), a US-led, Bahrain-based organisation that provides more in-depth analysis on each incident to provide an accurate and factual account with the advice that the maritime industry needs.
The nine months since November 2024 have seen a significant increase in demand upon the UKMTO watchkeepers. There has been a 475% increase in incidents reported by seafarers in the Middle East since the attacks began in November but the watchkeepers’ enthusiasm and desire to support seafarers – with many being former sailors themselves – remains strong.
When the Master of a vessel under attack calls, the UKMTO will always try and ensure that it is the same watchkeeper that always answers that vessel in any subsequent calls so as provide a level of reassurance and familiarity to a Master who is undoubtedly under huge pressure on board his/her ship at that moment.
Unquestionably, all our watchkeepers take great pride in the service that they provide, with the genuine belief that their work not only keeps trade flowing, but ultimately saves the lives of seafarers at sea.
Lt Cdr Dominic Golden is part of SO2 Ops – Maritime Trade Information Centre (MTIC), part of the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations and Maritime Domain Awareness for Trade – Gulf of Guinea (MDAT-GoG).
