On Thursday 12 January, USS Carney also part of Operation Ocean Shield discovered and tracked a suspected pirate vessel. Early on Friday 13th January, RFA Fort Victoria along with her embarked helicopter was tasked to intercept the suspected pirate vessel. At first light, Fort Victoria launched her helicopter to investigate the suspected pirate vessel. In order to stop the vessel, the helicopter fired several rounds of various warning shots. A Royal Marines boarding team in fast boats approached the vessel and successfully boarded it. Shortly after the Marines approached, the pirates surrendered moving to the front of their ship with their hands up. A thorough search of the vessel revealed numerous weapons including RPG launchers and machine guns. At this time the suspected pirates are still on the vessel and investigations are still ongoing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence for prosecution.
This is the third successful disruption of a pirate action group operating from a pirated mothership in the last seven days. This demonstrates NATO’s capability to track and stop target vessels by using information from the various maritime counter piracy forces operating in the area.