Missile containers, merchant-ship targeting, and concealment

Should hiding missiles in shipping containers be a war crime, and does the concept put all container ships at risk?

The panel rejects both claims, arguing that the equipment and operating arrangements needed for a missile container make effective concealment much harder than the premise suggests.

The panel rejects the claims that missile containers automatically make every container ship a target and that containerizing a missile should itself be a war crime. Most of the discussion concerns the practical difficulty of concealing a working launcher aboard a commercial ship. It needs power, access for maintenance, personnel, and unobstructed space above it, requirements that can produce unusual cargo arrangements. Keeping a particular container in a powered position at the top of a stack also leaves a pattern in loading decisions. Heavy equipment placed high in the ship raises stability concerns, while an unexpectedly low stack can draw attention for the opposite reason. Port inspections and the small size of merchant crews create further opportunities for someone to notice the equipment. The discussion does not set out a complete legal test for targeting merchant vessels.