Navy scrambles jets after suspected drone hit on merchant ship
The incident comes amid heightened fears of maritime trade being targeted in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
A merchant vessel bound for Mangalore was struck by a drone off India’s west coast, officials and maritime security agencies said on Saturday, an attack that comes at a time of heightened fears of maritime trade being targeted further west in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The Indian navy and the coast guard deployed assets to aid the merchant ship MV Chem Pluto. The vessel was carrying chemicals from Saudi Arabia’s Jubail port to Mangalore, officials said. It was struck 217 nautical miles from Porbandar around 11.30am, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).
The UKMTO cited the crew of 21 as having reported that all on board were safe and the attack to have come from an uncrewed aerial system (UAS), which led to an explosion and a fire that disabled its power supply.
READ | How Indian Navy countered hijacking incident in Arabian Sea
By 8pm, the crew regained some control and reported heading towards Mumbai, with a Coast Guard ship on course to intercept later at night, the Coast Guard said in a statement. “The Indian Coast Guard Maritime Coordination Centre (MRCC) established real time communication with the vessel’s agent and ascertained nil loss of life and assured all assistance. It was also learnt that the vessel fire has been doused by the crew,” said the statement, which added that a Dornier maritime surveillance aircraft “has sanitised the area and established communication with Chem Pluto”.
The vessel has started making way towards Mumbai after undertaking damage assessment and repairs on its power generation systems. It has sought escort assistance due to steering issues and Coast Guard vessel Vikram will be escorting it, the agency added.
It was not immediately known who was behind the incident but an official aware of the matter said the Chem Pluto sails under the Liberian flag and is managed by a Japanese company.
The hit on the vessel follows drone and missile attacks in the Red Sea by Iran-backed Houthis, who say they are supporting Palestinians under siege by Israel in the Gaza Strip, on commercial shipping, forcing shippers to change course and take longer routes around the southern tip of Africa.
READ | Key naval meeting to focus on Indian Ocean Region security
British maritime security firm Ambrey said the incident “fell within Ambrey’s Iranian UAV heightened threat area”. The Houthi rebels are seen to be backed by Iran.
The ship has a crew of 21 sailors, of whom 20 are Indian nationals, an official told HT, asking not to be named. The master in command of the vessel is Indian national Deepesh Badikkihil, and the only non-Indian crew is a Vietnamese citizen.
The chemical tanker was carrying ethylene dichloride, the person cited above added.
The navy and the coast guard scrambled maritime surveillance planes, a P-8I and a Dornier, to respond to the emergency within minutes of receiving information about the emergency through the UKMTO, a reporting and emergency incident response interface for ships in the Arabian Sea, Red Sea and Persian Gulf, the official said on the condition of anonymity.
After receiving information about Chem Pluto, the Mumbai-based Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) activated the International SafetyNET to rush the nearest merchant vessel in the area to inspect the chemical tanker, said a second official, asking not to be named. The SafetyNET is the service for broadcasting and automatic reception of maritime safety information via satellite communications.
“MV Merlin, which was in the area, went to check on MV Chem Pluto. Merlin reported that the Chem Pluto crew was safe, but the ship’s power generation had failed. The navy and coast guard diverted their ships to the area as it is on the fringes on India’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ),” said a third official.
Every coastal country’s EEZ extends to 200 nautical miles from its shores, and it has exclusive rights to all resources in the water, including oil, natural gas and fish.
The warship and the coast guard’s offshore patrol vessel Vikram are expected to reach Chem Pluto’s location on Saturday night, the official added.
INS Kochi had earlier intercepted Maltese-flagged merchant vessel MV Ruen, which was seized by unknown attackers in the Arabian Sea on December 14. It tailed the hijacked vessel until it entered the territorial waters of Somalia. One of the 18 sailors on board MV Ruen was on December 18 transferred to the Indian stealth destroyer for medical assistance after he was injured. He was transferred ashore at Oman the following day.
“In the light of Ruen incident and towards augmenting the anti-piracy efforts in the Gulf of Aden area, the Indian Navy has deployed another indigenous guided missile destroyer in the region. The Indian Navy remains committed to ensuring safety of merchant shipping and rendering assistance to the mariners at sea, as a ‘first responder’ in the region,” the navy said in a statement on December 21.
The Ruen incident put piracy in the Arabian Sea back in the spotlight. Pirate attacks in the region peaked between 2008 and 2013 but had steadily declined thereafter because of the concerted efforts of the multinational maritime task force operating in the region.
The December 14 incident was the first in the last three years, according to EUNAVFOR data.
The Indian Navy has been deployed in the Gulf of Aden for more than 15 years.
But there are now concerns over the safety of maritime trade via the Red Sea, where several drone attacks by Houthi rebels have taken place.
