Hardening (Vessel)

Physical and procedural measures that make a ship harder to board and slower to seize during a pirate attack, set out in BMP5 (2018) and its ship-protection annexes. Typical hardening includes razor wire along the rails, water cannon and fire hoses on deck, secured access points and locked-down accommodation, dummy sentries, enhanced lighting and lookouts, increased speed and evasive steering, and a citadel for the crew. Hardening buys the time naval forces need to respond and is the self-protection layer BMP assumes before any armed guards.