On 14 October 2010, EU NAVFOR Operational Headquarters (Northwood, UK) welcomed maritime industry representatives to provide them with an update on the current piracy threat in the Horn of Africa. A variety of topics were covered throughout the meeting, but of particular note were the possible ways to improve the military support to merchant vessels and the challenges for masters of vessels transiting the area. “The pirates’ business model has not evolved: they simply look for easy targets, that is to say low freeboard and slow vessels.