No Hiding Place

The newest addition to the European Naval Force is the HSwMS Carlskrona, a vessel from the Swedish Navy.

It didn’t take long for the Carlskrona to see action however– on one of its first patrols last week, the ship’s helicopter spotted a small pirate skiff off the Somali coast. The helicopter was able to photograph the men and their equipment and keep an eye on it to see if it traveled further out to see.

The men spotted the helicopter, however, and adjusted whatever their plans were. They moved back towards the Somali coast, and once on land, began to remove their equipment and destroy the skiff. Obviously, there was no fishing activity goig on anywhere near this skiff.

As the EUNAVOR German Maritime Patrol Aircraft that was observing continued to patrol up and down the coast, the HSwMS Carlksrona moved back out to sea to resume counter-piracy patrols on more open water.

Commander Mathias Jansson, commanding officer on the HSwMS Carlskrona, spoke abot the operation: “One of the greatest challenges we face in such a huge sea area is to be in the right place at the right time to apprehend suspect pirates and their vessels. We work closely with the EU NAVFOR flagship, NRP Alvares Cabral, who will ensure that the areas deemed to be high risk from piracy are monitored by EU NAVFOR assets. We remain ever watchful of the threat.”