Malaysian, U.S. Navies Practice Maritime Interdiction Skills During CARAT
Navy NewsStand
Story Number: NNS060731-07
Release Date: 7/31/2006 6:00:00 PM
By Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist Melinda Larson, Destroyer Squadron 1 Public Affairs
ABOARD USS HOPPER, South China Sea (NNS) -- Four combined U.S. and Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) teams climbed aboard a simulated rogue vessel to look for drugs and weapons during an exercise Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) maritime interdiction July 31.
The critical contact of interest was tracked through the night and into the early morning hours by Navy P-3 Orion aircraft before the break-of-dawn boarding of the Malaysian merchant vessel Mahsuri.
“Our first priority is safety of the team,” explained Lt. j.g. Spencer Seufert, USS Hopper’s (DDG 70) boarding officer. “Boarding the vessel is the most vulnerable time for a team. First we set a security perimeter to allow the rest of the elements to get off the rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB). Even during a compliant boarding, you can still have a bad ladder and run into trouble with the sea state.”
The four VBSS patrol teams each had two members from both navies. Besides Hopper, USS Crommelin (FFG 37), and the RMN ships Jebal and Laksamana Tun Abdul Jamil made up the teams. Hopper teamed with Jebal, and Crommelin joined forces with Laksamana Tun Abdul Jamil. Two RHIBs from Hopper picked up and delivered the teams to the merchant vessel.
When the RHIBs pulled alongside Mahsuri, the teams entered the ship through a hatch that was near the waterline. Once aboard, the four teams split into different directions - the bridge, forecastle, engineering and a sweep team. Each area is equally important.
“On the bridge, we can gather intelligence about the ship’s intentions by looking at documentation such as charts and crew manifests,” said Seufert.
The forecastle is typically where teams will gather the crew to keep them contained. A sweep of the spaces will scoop up persons who may be hiding. Engineering spaces have hazards that need to be taken into account.
“It’s important to make an assessment of engineering spaces when you first come aboard to determine if a ship is seaworthy or if a crew has sabotaged the ship to sink so the illegal cargo won’t be found,” said Fire Controlman 1st Class Nathaniel Melvin, a Hopper boarding team member since 2001. “You know when things don’t look right and that it’s not safe to be on a vessel. You have to make the call to get your team off the ship.”
Communication is a big part of the teams’ ability to work together. Spread out around the ship, teams need to know what’s happening elsewhere, Melvin explained. One lesson learned from the Malaysians is how they communicate with their ship when radios malfunction.
“The Malaysians use flags to signal their ship if they lose communications. We switch to a different radio because we carry two radios. If that fails we’ll use a ship’s bridge-to-bridge communication. If that fails, we’ll signal the RHIB,” said Melvin, who has been on nearly 200 boardings in the past five years.
Seufert noted that the boarding took just under one hour when it was discovered that the rogue ship was not carrying contraband.
Prior to the boarding at sea, the teams had worked together during the week building confidence in each other’s skills and learning how to work as a team.
“Working well together isn’t always about verbal commands. If you’re accustomed to each other, you know how to move as one and make sure every team member is looking in a different direction as you transit through the ship,” said Seufert.
Learning each other’s skill sets is also important in the event of future combined operations.
“It’s good to know how a nation operates, know how their movements go, their English proficiency, so that if we work together, we’ll know what to expect,” said Melvin.
By the time the final boarding ended, the teammates were no longer strangers.
“When we first met up, we were a little shy of each other, but by the end we were high-fiving each other and talking about our homes,” added Melvin.
CARAT is a bilateral series of military exercises with several Southeast Asia nations designed to enhance the interoperability of the respective sea services in a variety of mission areas of mutual benefit, including skills directly applicable to the combating of seaborne terrorism threats and transnational crimes at sea.
The CARAT Task Group includes dock landing ship USS Tortuga (LSD 46), rescue and salvage ship USS Salvor (ARS 52), and high endurance cutter USCGC Sherman (WHEC 720), in addition to Hopper and Crommelin.
Malaysia is the fourth phase of the 2006 series.
For more on CARAT, visit www.clwp.navy.mil/carat2006.
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