Firearms Training

ISO/PAS 28007-1:2015

Firearms Training

The carriage of firearms aboard a merchant vessel carries serious responsibility. Black Pearl Maritime Security Management Limited holds its personnel to exacting firearms competency standards and ensures that those standards are demonstrated, recorded and maintained throughout an operator's service. Our approach is fully aligned with ISO/PAS 28007-1:2015 and underpinned by our ISO 9001 quality management system.

Most of our operators arrive with extensive firearms experience from regular military or law-enforcement service. That experience is never assumed to be sufficient on its own: every individual is assessed and brought to a common, verifiable standard appropriate to the specific weapons and the maritime environment in which they will be deployed.

Competency standards

Each operator must demonstrate the knowledge and practical skill required to carry and, if absolutely necessary, use a firearm safely and accurately at sea. Competency is assessed against defined criteria covering the technical operation of the weapon, safe handling under realistic conditions, judgement in the application of the Rules for the Use of Force, and accurate, controlled marksmanship.

Safe handling and weapon discipline

Safe handling is the foundation of everything we do. Operators are drilled in the universal rules of weapon safety and in the standing drills that govern the loading, unloading, making-safe and carriage of firearms aboard ship. Discipline is constant: a weapon is treated as loaded at all times, is never pointed at anything not intended as a target, and is kept under positive control throughout a deployment.

Marksmanship and the maritime context

Shooting accurately from a moving deck, in varying light and weather and against the backdrop of an open seascape, demands skills that go beyond range competency. Our training and assessment account for the maritime context, emphasising controlled, accurate fire, sound target identification and the avoidance of any collateral risk to the crew, the vessel or third parties.

The use-of-force continuum

Firearms training is inseparable from training in judgement. Operators are taught that a firearm sits at the very top of a graduated response and is only ever employed in defence of life, when no lesser option remains. The continuum our operators are trained to follow includes:

• Detection, observation and assessment of intent;
• Visible deterrence and clear warnings;
• Proportionate, escalating measures consistent with the rules and the law;
• Use of a firearm strictly as a last resort, in self-defence or the defence of others.