Royal Netherlands Navy
Two years ago, I served as the officer in charge of Naval Cooperation and Guidance for Shipping (NCAGS) in the Spanish Maritime Action Force Headquarters in Cartagena, Spain. My only previous contact with NCAGS came many years before when NCAGS was still known as Naval Control of Shipping, but my recent experience has shown me the importance of the word “cooperation” in this NATO acronym and the power of asking the maritime industry to participate in exercises at sea.
During what is now an annual two-week Spanish Navy exercise as many as 500 commercial ships willingly participate. The exercise, called MARSEC, takes place in a very congested area along the Spanish Mediterranean coast, the Canary Islands, and the Strait of Gibraltar. This sea area includes one of the world’s busiest and most important choke points—an area where various potential threats demand close cooperation among navies and merchant shipping. It is this story of cooperation that I want to share.
Why It Is Called NCAGS
A few years ago, NATO wisely decided that in today’s strategic environment the Alliance no longer could demand merchant ships come under military control. Allied Tactical Publication 2 (ATP-2), which had for years been titled “Allied Naval Control of Shipping,” was renamed “Naval Cooperation and Guidance for Shipping.” The new motto became cooperation.
Cooperation means everything in this realm, as we cannot force merchant ships to follow military orders. On the other hand, if merchant ships do not follow military recommendations, we will not provide them protection in threat areas. It is in this environment that we conduct operations such as NATO’s Operations Ocean Shield and Active Endeavour or the European Union’s Operation Atalanta.
So, what options do we have for working with merchant ships? In times other than war, NATO navies can request merchant ships to cooperate with military ships in a specific area when navy ships are there to improve the security of merchant shipping and in compliance with United Nations mandates. ATP-2 defines such missions as “the provision of cooperation, guidance, advice, and assistance to merchant shipping in support of the commander’s mission and to enhance the safety and security of merchant ships.” One of the key messages in this definition is that NCAGS requires a commander with a mission assigned. The scope of NCAGS goes from peace to conflict, passing through crisis response operations, and thus is a key element in our daily business.
Under the rubric of NCAGS, what do we ask of merchant ships, and what do we provide them within the area of an operation? We request ship’s data and information on ship movements, along with any other information that could help in the proper development of the operation, such as incident reporting, suspicious sightings, and security arrangements. This usually is done through a voluntary reporting scheme using a template called Format ALFA, which contains all required information, such as contact details. In return, we provide all available information for the merchant ships to conduct safe and secure transits while avoiding interference with military operations.
MARSEC Exercises
Beginning in 2013, the Spanish Navy has conducted MARSEC, an annual maritime security exercise designed to involve as many maritime environment non-military actors as possible, as well as colleagues from other services, including the Spanish Army and Air Force. The exercise scenarios include a full range of possibilities, dealing with issues ranging from port security to humanitarian crises, collisions at sea, counternarcotics operations, and naval cooperation and guidance for shipping.
The NCAGS scenario covers most of the Spanish maritime areas of interest, from the Canary Islands to the English Channel, and from near the Azores to the central Mediterranean. Inside this area, the exercise threats include mining, piracy, and maritime terrorism. But the most remarkable part of this scenario is that, after advertising the exercise and releasing a navigational warning about the exercise area, we draw the cooperation of impressive numbers of ships—up to 500.
As soon as we release the exercise warning, we start receiving Format ALFA reports in emails—from 30 to 50 per day until the last day of the exercise. The typical sequence of the exercise is as follows:
• At 0001 of day one we release the naval warning message. As the exercise typically is conducted only during working hours, we try to prevent overloading the operators.
• By 0800 of day one we usually have about 100 emails from merchant ships (of all flags and from anywhere inside the area) submitting Format ALFA reports and asking to be incorporated into our voluntary reporting system. We reply to all emails, attaching examples of all documents that merchant ships could receive. All Format ALFA reports are introduced into the Spanish web-based unclassified information system called ENCOMAR that allows us to share information with actors outside our navy.
• From day two, we receive 30 to 50 Format ALFA reports per day, as well as a limited number of Format BRAVO reports. Format BRAVOs are ship’s position reports, which are not specifically requested because position updates usually are linked to the ships’ automatic identification system (AIS) transmission once the Format ALFAs are introduced into ENCOMAR.
• During the last two to three days of the exercise, the numbers of new Formats ALFA typically falls to about 10 to 15 per day.
This sequence has been observed during MARSEC 2015 and 2016 and the Multinational NCAGS Exercise 2015 Spain. The NCAGS exercise typically is conducted in odd years, alternating with NATO’s Dynamic Master series; it is an invitational exercise intended to be organized by different NATO nations. The exercise was run by Norway for many years, but Spain took the lead in the last edition, incorporating new ideas, as a test for this international shipping cooperation.
Flags and Willingness to Cooperate
The exercise area is quite congested. All kinds of vessels can be expected, including regular ferry lines, tankers, bulk carriers, and small freighters. The traffic we address our request to is not limited to national traffic or traffic bound to/from Spanish ports. We request all ships in the area to cooperate voluntarily and join our exercise.
The International Maritime Organization advised us that releasing a navigational warning to promote the exercise is insufficient. In addition, because security communications always take precedence over exercise communications, the naval area coordinators did not consider it appropriate to release a naval warning message that contained too much wording, including the whole procedure to join the voluntary reporting system. So for MARSEC 16, we reached out to all ships’ agents operating in Spanish ports and provided them with a leaflet about the exercise and asked them to deliver it to their merchant ships, starting three weeks before the exercise. The high numbers of ships that joined the exercise indicate communicating with shipping companies in advance pays off.
All types of ships of all flags have shown their willingness to cooperate. This cooperation goes beyond submitting Format ALFA messages; it includes additional coordination with ships at sea and providing two-way information exchanges about exercise incidents (basically, exchanging information with other ships by various means including phone, bridge-to-bridge radio, or email). To avoid any confusion with real-life incidents, the standard “EXERCISE – EXERCISE – EXERCISE” warning is included at the start of all exercise communications. In addition, we request some ships to self-generate incident reports, based on inputs provided by the exercise controller. We provide guidance on the time and type of incident to be generated but give participating ships some freedom and creativity in the exercise, providing additional challenges to the NCAGS organization. We have not had any ships, companies, or nations reject participation in the exercise.
Advanced Exercises
There is a misconception that merchant ships are always in a hurry and unable to lose any time and therefore are unwilling to participate in training or exercises. The multitude of today’s threats, however, motivates commercial shipping companies to participate. In addition, not all ships are on tight schedules. Many ships are more than happy to conduct advanced exercises at sea. Spain’s annual maritime security exercises have shown that many ships are eager to cooperate beyond just the Format ALFA exchange and voice communications. Many merchant ships invited our navy to conduct live boardings, and some even were willing to conduct noncompliant or opposed boardings, including air assets. Escorting exercises also were practiced.
During NATO’s large international exercise Trident Juncture in 2015, the exercise controller requested merchant ships at sea to accept boarding parties for training. Many ships agreed, and boarding teams from numerous NATO navies took advantage of the opportunity. In fact, so many participating naval ships queued up for practice boardings the admiral in charge was forced to halt that part of the training and order them back to the antiair, antisurface, and antisubmarine training.
During MARSEC 16 we conducted “lead through” exercises with merchant ships in several Spanish ports. A lead through exercise consists of guiding a ship through a cleared channel in a mine field. These exercises traditionally were conducted by mine countermeasures units, but in MARSEC they were accomplished using navy detachments on both naval and non-naval vessels. Pilot boats with a navy detachment on board are the best option to guide a ship, combining the pilot’s local knowledge of the port with the navy expertise on the mine threat.
Protection of merchant shipping and global sea routes is a major reason navies exist. The more we cooperate with the maritime industry, the better we know each other, the better we understand each other´s requirements and, hence, the better we can interact and solve common problems at sea.
A Win-Win
NCAGS is all about cooperation. While it is difficult to force merchant ships to follow military orders without an international mandate, merchant ships are predisposed to cooperate with—and even help—military operations at sea. In this world of intertwined interests and increasing maritime security challenges, it is important to expand cooperation between naval forces and commercial shipping, so we can work together toward safer and more secure seas, which benefit everyone.
Operation Ocean Shield is NATO’s contribution to Operation Enduring Freedom—Horn of Africa (OEF-HOA), an antipiracy initiative in the Indian Ocean.
Under Operation Active Endeavour—active until in October 2016—NATO ships patrolled the Mediterranean and monitored shipping to help deter, disrupt, and defend and protect against terrorist activity. The operation evolved out of NATO’s immediate response to the 11 September 2011 terrorist attacks against the United States.
Operation Atalanta aims to counter acts of piracy and armed robbery off the Somali coast. The European Union Naval Force protects vessels of the World Food Program delivering aid to displaced persons in Somalia.