Maritime domain awareness (MDA) starts with surveillance and ends with actionable intelligence, with data sharing, analysis and a common operating overview in between – a description recognised by oceanographer and navigator for the US Navy, Rear Admiral Jonathan White.
"The US Department of Defense (DoD) definition is ‘the global understanding of the maritime environment as it applies to safety and security to the economy and environment’, White says, "those four things and, more broadly, any of our national interests in the maritime domain.
"In the DoD, we especially focus on national defence and security, and sharing knowledge of the maritime domain with interagency and international partners," he continues. "Our three main interagency partners at the US level are the Department of Homeland Security – which includes the Coast Guard, the national intelligence community – which includes the Office of Naval Intelligence, the National Maritime Intelligence Office (NMIO) in Suitland, Maryland, and the Department of Transportation.
"We work together to create a national understanding, a shared common picture of maritime domain awareness. The intent is a shared understanding of the maritime domain, to make sure that we’ve all got the best available information from each other."
Today, many large US ports have vessel traffic services (VTS) operated by the US Coast Guard for safe, secure and efficient movement of maritime traffic. VTS takes advantage of the automatic identification system transponders on ships, radar, television cameras and radios to gather and share information about arriving and departing ships. But small vessels such as fishermen and pleasure boats, which operate in the maritime domain in large numbers, can also pose a threat.
"The overwhelming majority of small vessels operating in and around the US coasts, and in our ports and inland waterways are engaged in legitimate activities. However, a small number are platforms for illegal or illicit activities, such as human and drug trafficking, and may be used for waterborne attacks on our maritime infrastructure," said Thomas Tomaiko, programme manager, Borders and Maritime Division, Science and Technology Directorate, US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
A time and a place
The DHS Science and Technology Directorate developed the Coastal Surveillance System (CSS) to create a concise, dynamic, large-scale view of a defined maritime environment so users can locate, track and prosecute small vessels of interest in real time with up-to-date geospatial intelligence.
The challenge isn’t to create sensors, because many ports and coastal locations have received port security grants to buy and install them. But those sensors are not connected to any central network, and many of them need maintenance funding to support and sustain them, which was not included in the grant money.
"We have an opportunity to leverage the existing maritime domain awareness system capability that was paid for with all of these port security grants, with no strings attached, without addressing sustainment, through the CSS enterprise (CSSE)," Tomaiko says. "We’re creating a common, reusable, scalable enterprise in core services that connects up all of these stand-alone maritime domain awareness systems in an enterprise of enterprises."
For example, two of the world’s busiest ports, Long Beach and Los Angeles, are located side-by-side.
"You have two major ports, with separate port operations, facilities and systems, adjacent to each other,’ says Tomaiko, "they’re separated by a fence. They have radars, cameras and guards on one side of the fence, and the same thing on the other side. But they have not been linked together. With CSS, we set up the infrastructure to be able to tie all these sensors together. Now they can share information with each other, and we can see what they can see. My whole goal is to set up an exchange that connects up the service providers, the data providers and the data consumers."
The CSS data is displayed at the Customs and Border Protection’s Air Marine Operations Center (AMOC) at March Joint Reserve base near Riverside, California.
"The AMOC has a solid picture of what’s in the air, and is able to share that awareness with various interagency partners, but less so on the water," says AMOC public information officer Tina Pendell. "CSS will enable us to have greater visibility of the maritime domain and share that information with our partners.
"Fusion technology, like CSS, allows us to work closely with the coast guard and other agencies for intelligence sharing and cross-flow of communication creating a multiforce cued response," she adds. "The AMOC/coast guard relationship is further strengthened by the coordination of operational assets to prevent replication of assets on-scene as well as the on-scene relief to each other during an incident, and asset allocation for the situation."
Strong signals
The S&T maritime security technology pilot showed how easy and effective it is to connect a sensor to the network. Working with contractor SRI International in St Petersburg, Florida, DHS S&T set up a SCANTER 5202 surface surveillance radar provided by Terma North America at Carlsbad (on the Pacific coast between San Diego and Los Angeles), linked to SRI over a 4G cellular connection. From there, the data was available to the AMOC.
"We were getting a nice picture from the Terma radar in Carlsbad here at the AMOC," says Steve Savala, a detection enforcement officer at the AMOC. "Within minutes we were tracking targets, at ranges that have exceeded our expectations."
Since the demonstration began, the radar has made possible at least one major drug bust – a hard-to-detect Panga boat coming up from Mexico.
"Many shore-based maritime surveillance radars, such as those used in VTS, are optimised for tracking larger targets," says Jim Moore, director for land and naval systems for Terma North America. "For maritime security purposes, it’s important that the radar has the high-resolution capability to detect and track small targets."
"The whole concept of this is to share information across components and agencies within the US Government, down to the local law enforcement level," said Gerald Bowe, maritime security operations manager with DHS S&T. "There are many sensors collecting data. We are creating a fusion centre to put that data together, then making it available for everybody to see. We’ve created a standard interface control for radars and cameras. If a port or facility has a radar, all we need is an internet connection."
"The CSSE provides the information integration platform as well as a number of core services and the associated infrastructure to be able to share information across missions and domains, to enable decision-makers to make decisions regarding the validity of targets and decisions to interdict with assets," says Tomaiko. "Ultimately, the metric for this end-to-end process is the efficient use of ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] capability as well as the tactical response elements, the interdictions assets, and increasing the apprehensions and prosecutions of people who are threatening our sovereignty through smuggling of people, drugs and potentially more hazardous cargo."
Tomaiko adds that he wants to hear from anyone who has an information source, an information analytical capability, a need to share information or who can enable sharing information between people who need that information. "There are people who have information, there are people who are in positions to broker the exchange of information, but they lack the capability that CSSE provides to make that connection."
