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PRESS RELEASE – Dateline 1200 UTC 20th  July 2011

THE FUTURE’S HERE – THE FUTURE’S

“GLOBALERT - MARS”

It is well-recognized, understood and established that maritime piracy is increasing. Many Maritime Security Operators are now becoming extremely reluctant to undertake unarmed transits due to the increasing threat by pirates and the risk of intervention by terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda modifying their modus operandi to this lucrative business and what is now a way-of-life for many in the HOA region.

It would appear that the maritime community in general is failing to embrace this growing perception and reality –  and that includes many Shipowners, Governmental, Non-Governmental, Insurers and most maritime organizations. This is despite the efforts of such bodies as the International Association of Maritime Security Professionals (IAMSP), the recently ratified ICoC for PSCs, and SAMI producing and exercising strict Codes of Conduct and conditions of membership.

Having established it’s Anti-Piracy service in 1996, Marine Risk Management has been studying and researching practical solutions to this growing and critical issue. For the past three years, the company has been designing and developing “MARS”.

“MARS” is the world’s first private, fully integrated, Maritime Airborne Reconnaissance and Surveillance strategy – first made public in February 2011.

Operating as GLOBALERT, the “MARS” system itself is a strategically-located asset offering an extended-range aerial surveillance, detection, identification and deterrent resource to merchant shipping in the Indian Ocean region. Manned by highly experienced flight crews (many from the recently disbanded UK NIMROD programme), equipped with state-of-the-art surveillance equipment, and backed up by tacticians, analysts and support crew. The service is designed to provide intelligence, indicators and warnings to operators, ship-owners and authorities participating in the scheme.

To enhance protection levels, MRM SA has joined forces with four leading MarSec-orientated organizations – OceanusLive, Solara Remote Data Delivery Systems, Evolutionary Security Management and the IAMSP (with whom GLOBALERT is seeking professional accreditation) – to provide a fully integrated threat analysis and forecasting, Intelligence collection and dissemination, real-time threat detection service, offering near real time, 2-way, up-and downloads to vessels, MarSec companies, and all those involved in the fight against piracy. Each participating vessel, individual or company will be issued with a sophisticated, hand-held terminal developed by Solara Remote Data Delivery Systems and capable of up- and down-loading

intelligence and threat assessment/warning data and positional information in a highly secure environment. The service will initially focus on the Indian Ocean region, but will rapidly be expanded to other areas of interest.

This vital and privately-owned Anglo-American operation signals the first functional private-sector international initiative against piracy and MCT, representing the closest civilian equivalent of the military “eye in the sky”. This “eye” however provides critical intelligence fusion for dynamic and predictive analysis focused exclusively on the maritime domain.

“It is hoped that the GLOBALERT service will be rolled out to the maritime community by the end of 2011”, said John Dalby, Chief Executive of Marine Risk Management, and one of the leading exponents of this venture in private sector international co-operation. “Funding for our aircraft and specialized equipment has been sourced, and we await further investment to allow infrastructure works to go ahead”, he added.

In response to a specific question, Dalby replied “The potential employment of UAV systems (“drones”) is being examined in parallel with our main development work. The launching and recovery of these craft is perfectly possible from a merchant vessel – any merchant vessel - but must be fully integrated and cost-effective for our customer”.

“We are exploring practicalities of these craft and until the variables have been resolved by our highly experienced team, we will continue to deploy our aircraft and human operators!”

“It has also been pointed out by many experienced senior European military figures that GLOBALERT’s MARS system would be capable of extrapolation to fulfill drug and human trafficking, arms smuggling and other law enforcement tasks, especially in the light of funding restrictions imposed by many governments,” Dalby added.

For further non-classified details about GLOBALERT’s “MARS” service, or any of the companies/organizations mentioned, please direct your enquiries to info@globalert.net,  information@marinerisk.com, or to any of the Alliance partners mentioned above. Or visit our web site www.globalert.net