Ship security course at IMLI

Major Anthony Hall and Major Martin Walker of LITAV Formazione Marittima Superiore recently delivered a two-day course on maritime security to IMLI 2007-2008 class students.

This course has been held for the past four academic years. Its aim is for the participants to understand both the legal implications and the practical aspects of maritime security which together form a coherent whole for the protection of life and property at sea. The course introduced the students to the procedures and processes necessary for the assessment of risks.

It focused on the need to understand the threats that the maritime industry faces and the response given by the states through the creation of international regulations and policies that cover maritime security as well as the national regulations that have been imposed.

The importance of the ship security assessment, its relationship to the ship security plan, and the necessity for port security measures were also extensively explained and demonstrated during the seminar. The main part of the seminar was the company and ship security officer training course where students were exposed to theoretical situations and practical exercises wherein they could apply the knowledge imparted to them during the seminar. Major Hall was previously with the Royal Air Force and later transferred to the Intelligence Corps of the British Army where he served for 24 years. During his career his primary areas of expertise were counter-intelligence, protective security, intelligence analysis and exploitation, and counter-terrorism. Major Walker worked with the Intelligence Corps of the British Army for 28 years.

During his last five years in the service he served as Commanding Officer and Senior Instructor at the Surveillance branch of the Joint Service Intelligence Organisation where he was responsible for all aspects of management, development and implementation of specialist covert surveillance training, including the requirement to train Intelligence Corps and authorised personnel from other agencies.