RAN captain sacked for (accidental) incursions into Indonesian waters

[CougarKing]

So even navigational errors are naval career killers?

Sacking navy captain harsh: Indonesia
4:38pm April 24, 2014

Indonesia's chief navy spokesman believes sacking an Australian navy captain whose vessel breached Indonesia's territory is severe, if it really was an innocent navigational error.

Commodore Untung Suropati has confirmed the Indonesian Navy was initially unaware of the six incursions, in December and January.


The Australian navy puts them down to navigational errors made through incorrect calculations of the boundaries, but has released only limited details of what occurred.

It's believed the breaches occurred during operations to turn back asylum seekers, a policy that was already unpopular in Jakarta.

Cdre Suropati says he doesn't know the circumstances, but thinks it would only be fair to sack the captain from his command if he knew where Indonesia's boundaries were and crossed anyway.

"If he knew and then he violated, then it's fair to be fired," he said.
"But if the commander did not know then he got fired, in my opinion that's not fair."

The disciplinary action was announced last week by Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Ray Griggs.

A second captain will be administratively sanctioned and five others counselled in what Vice Admiral Griggs says isn't about punishment but upholding the navy's high standards.

Cdre Suropati also revealed Vice Admiral Griggs visited Indonesia to apologise in person for the breaches.

(...EDITED)

Source : Australia Channel 9/MSN news

And more details from an earlier news article:

Navy captain sacked for Indonesian incursion while on border protection duty
BRENDAN NICHOLSON THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 17, 2014 3:51PM

The Australian revealed in January that Australian warships had breached Indonesian waters while the vessels were turning or towing boats back to Indonesia as part of Operation Sovereign Borders.

In February, an investigation into the incursions found naval and Customs vessels strayed into Indonesian waters six times during December and January.

The joint Navy and Customs inquiry found that the breaches were inadvertent and the result of a “miscalculation’’ by Australian crews.

It recommended that action be taken against the ships’ commanders by Navy chief Ray Griggs.

The Australian Defence Force today announced that Vice Admiral Griggs had made decisions about the actions of seven RAN commanding officers involved.

Vice Admiral Griggs said more than one ship was involved in each incursion.

He said that the commanders all had clear instructions not to go within 12 nautical miles of the Indonesian archipelagic “baseline”.

An ADF spokesman said Vice Admiral Griggs carefully considered the circumstances of each incursion and heard the explanations of the officers involved.

“The chief of Navy accepts that none of the commanding officers involved deliberately contravened orders not to enter Indonesian territorial waters,” the spokesman said.

“Notwithstanding, there were, in the chief of Navy’s view, lapses in professional conduct that required action to be taken,” the spokesman said.

(...EDITED)

Continue reading at : The Australian

 

[Colin Parkinson]

With modern navigation system and accurate mapping of the area, being 12nm off of your position is a major lapse. 

 

[Journeyman]

With modern navigation system and accurate mapping of the area, being 12nm off of your position is a major lapse.

As noted in the article, "most of the ocean within the 17,000-island archipelago is considered by Jakarta to be 'Indonesian waters' even though it is much more than 12 nautical miles from the nearest land.....with 'the intrusions probably resulted from confusion over how the maritime boundaries were defined."  It's more complex tha a simple GPS problem.

However, the fact that several Captains crossed the lines multiple times yet only one was fired suggests there's more to the story.

 

[Shamrock]

With modern navigation system and accurate mapping of the area, being 12nm off of your position is a major lapse.

Unless, like me, one chooses to read nm as nanometres. 

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Which is why I qualified my comment with "accurate mapping" Modern GIS can develop that baseline and put the 12nm  "no-go zone" on as well. The question is did the RAN give it Captains adequate tools to carry out the orders? It could also be the case that the other side know the limitations placed on the RAN Captains and played a game along the line and some Captains got pissed off enough to bend orders and one bent them to far.