Missiles vs Merchant Ships: Can BMP MS Keep Seafarers Safe?

The maritime security playbook has been rewritten, but the battlefield has moved faster. Seventeen months after the IMO (IMO) replaced its piracy-focused guidelines with Best Management Practices for Maritime Security (BMP MS), the framework faces its harshest test yet: merchant ships caught in the crossfire of missiles, drones, and state-enforced blockades. Four seafarers died when the Egyptian-owned bulker Tihamah was struck in the Bab el-Mandeb strait, an attack attributed to Houthi forces. The same day, the Panama-flagged Vela Nova was reportedly fired upon by a US military helicopter after allegedly…

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