The U.S. Navy is in the very first stages of exploring ways to increase its ability to monitor maritime traffic off the pirate-plagued coast of Somalia. And one idea being given a preliminary look is the use of aerostats tethered to barges.
Credit: Lockheed Martin The Navy’s Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) office is looking at different approaches to explore in the near term to monitor surface traffic in the area, a Navy official says. The MDA office thinks an aerostat or aerostat-like aircraft has potential “but it’s one among many candidates,” the official says.
The Navy has been looking at aerostats for a number of tasks for a while. The Navy’s Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) and Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) have been collaborating for more than a year on the development of a 71-meter (232-foot) aerostat that could be tethered at sea and, equipped with a variety of payloads, operate at an altitude of 15,000 feet.
The waters around the Horn of Africa have seen a dramatic rise in attacks on ships, ranging from ocean-going sailboats to freighters and tankers, by pirates operating out of the failed state of Somalia.
The Standing NATO Maritime Group is set to begin anti-piracy operations off the Somali coast this month. There are also British, Russian and U.S. naval vessels in the vast area maritime environment surrounding Somalia, which has had no effective government since 1991.
“The Somali pirates are now attacking vessels in the northern Somali coast in the Gulf of Aden,” according to the latest weekly piracy report from the International Maritime Bureau.
