Visit, board, search, and seizure
Visit, board, search, and seizure (VBSS) is the term used by United States military and law enforcement agencies for maritime boarding actions and tactics. VBSS teams are designed to capture enemy vessels, combat terrorism, piracy, and smuggling, and to conduct customs, safety and other inspections.
A combined U.S. Navy/U.S. Coast Guard VBSS team from USS Chosin (CG-65) and embarked MSST personnel inspects a suspected pirate dhow in the Gulf of Aden, November 2009.
US Navy SEALs demonstrate VBSS techniques for the 2004 Joint Civilian Orientation Conference.
US Navy VBSS Team assigned to the USS Gary (FFG-51) training at Naval Station Pearl Harbor.
U.S. Navy SEALs train with Special Boat Team 12 on the proper techniques of how to board gas and oil platforms from a moving vessel near Long Beach, Calif., on July 28, 2011.
Naval boarding action is an offensive tactic used in naval warfare to come up against an enemy watercraft and attack by inserting combatants aboard that vessel. The goal of boarding is to invade and overrun the enemy personnel on board in order to capture, sabotage, or destroy the enemy vessel. While boarding attacks were originally carried out by ordinary sailors who are proficient in hand-to-hand combat, larger warships often deploy specially trained and equipped regular troops such as marines and special forces as boarders. Boarding and close-quarters combat had been a primary means to conclude a naval battle since antiquity, until the early modern period when heavy naval artillery gained tactical primacy at sea.
Boarding and capture of the Spanish frigate Esmeralda by Chileans in Callao, 1820
A D'Estienne d'Orves-class aviso near RFA Brambleleaf prior to performing a "visit, board, search and seizure" operation
A team of Fusiliers Marins launches on a rigid-hulled inflatable boat
British Royal Navy sailors guard the crew of an Iraqi oil tanker in 2002