Federal agencies tackle maritime security, ports first.

THE U.S. GOVERNMENT'S PLAN TO INCREASE ITS awareness Of activities on the world's waterways is starting close to home, as many federal agencies turn their attention to ports.

While die U.S. Northern Command has been steadily bolstering its harbor security posture, the Department of Homeland Security is heightening efforts to detect and interdict waterborne threats to ports. The Navy and Coast Guard may expand joint command centers to prevent and respond to calamities near domestic hubs of commercial maritime traffic.

But officials from the Navy and DHS said the task of securing the maritime domain is a global problem--a strike in a vital choke point in the Malacca straights could mean economic upheaval in the continental United States. Officials also often note that by the time the threat is at a port, it may be too late to avert a disaster.

Pushing the security line away from the United States requires often-thorny new developments, such as international agreements, yet-to-be developed sensor technologies and intelligence sharing with myriad players through a common operating picture.

Ports, on the other hand, have a more focused task, with well known sea lanes, established protocols for inbound traffic, known domestic law enforcement partners and leverage with private sector shippers to cooperate to ensure quick access.

One Navy official said that compared to aviation, the overall awareness of the oceans traffic would receive a failing grade. He quietly added that the United States has "good spotlight awareness at some harbors."

Emblematic of the current state of maritime security is the use of an automatic identification system that is the cornerstone to knowing locations and identities of ships. By separating potential risks from the clutter of harmless ship traffic, threats can be found. Installing an AIS transponder is voluntary for commercial ships, and there are hopes that their use will expand beyond littoral areas.

In a map used by Navy officials at a recent industry conference, the gaps in AIS coverage were clearly visible. Arcs drawn on the map, bowing from major ports in the country, indicated zones where AIS signals could be received. Large segments of the U.S. coastline, including small ports and inland waterways, as well as the enormity of the oceans themselves, are not included. Seven of the 15 MS zones were noted to be in development.

That is not the only void, said retired Coast Guard Capt. Dana Goward, chief of the office for programs and architecture for the Coast Guard's maritime domain awareness directorate. Within those arcs, only 70 percent of the signals used on international ships can be processed by U.S. agencies, he said.

Goward added that the AIS data needed to be more helpful, and go simply beyond a vessel's name and position to include its history with law enforcement, ownership and whether the ship is where it is supposed to be, based on records filed by its crew and owner. Ideally, some of this sifting would be accomplished by software.

"Unfortunately, lots of this is done manually," Goward told National Defense, adding that a $30 million Navy Research Laboratory program is looking at ways to integrate the numerous private and government databases which track ships.

Other improvements are being planned and investigated. In March, a prototype AIS system was installed on a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration buoy station 41 nautical miles southeast of Charleston, S.C. The AIS system relays ship identification data received at the buoy to the Coast Guard in near real-time. This is the first buoy-mounted AIS station operated by NOAA, which adds range to the Coast Guard's land-based stations.

NOAA buoys cover the U.S. Atlantic and Pacific coastlines, much of Europe's, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and Hawaii.

If international standards are developed and implemented, AIS transmitter-receivers could be installed to communicate with AIS-enabled vessels.

If adopted by the Coast Guard, the buoys would form a picket line around the continental United States and southern Alaska coastline. Other "soldiers" on the line would include manned and unmanned aircraft, satellites and airships. Each platform would have AIS equipment, and possibly radar and other sensors for tracking non-participating targets.

Focusing solely on ports and sea lanes is too limited to thwart maritime risks, asserted Navy and Coast Guard officials, who added that sea lanes and geographical bottlenecks around the world require monitoring in close cooperation with every seafaring nation.

This is a main argument against using the North American Aerospace Defense Command as a model. It centers too closely on threats closing in on the continental United States. Pentagon officials, including Assistant Secretary for Homeland Defense Paul McHale and Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, support a structure similar to NORAD.

However, in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee in April, Adm. Tim Keating, the first Navy officer to head Northern Command, told the Senate such a maritime system might prove to be "too restrictive" and might exclude Mexico and other countries that might be hesitant to participate in a rigid command structure.

Despite the global nature of the task, ports feature "the most critical infrastructure, most traffic and highest risk" and logically receive considerable attention, pointed out Goward.

With that in mind, the Pentagon and DHS are taking fresh steps to secure them. For example, the DHS' operation safe commerce program has distributed $55 million to the nation's three high-volume port regions--Los Angeles/Long Beach, Seattle/Tacoma and New York/New Jersey.

Other mechanisms are being used to get the Pentagon involved in securing vital ports.

Last September, Anchorage was designated a "commercial strategic seaport" following a joint assessment by the Maritime Administration and the Army Surface Deployment and Distribution Command. It was the second within six months to receive such a designation: in October, the port of Philadelphia became the country's 14th. The designation comes with guaranteed federal money and emphasis on safety and security training.

The Coast Guard stood up a 75-man marine safety and security team at Anchorage, the ninth Coast Guard anti-terrorism team commissioned nationwide. Also, the designation inspired a two-day exercise called "Vigilant Port," which involved 200 soldiers, Coast Guardsmen and local officials. Its scenario included a terrorist threat targeting military equipment being shipped through the port. The Army stations one of three rapid-deploying Stryker brigades at Forts Richardson and Wainwright.

Being a strategic seaport also extends an economic hand to aging ports to keep up with a shifting industry. Twenty-foot containers once dominated shipping, but their size has more than doubled, meaning new cranes and offloading equipment need to be purchased. With federal dollars subsidizing expansions and modernization programs, strategic ports can make more sweeping changes.

Additionally, the Coast Guard and the Navy are working on revamping their operations to be more preventative and less reactive, Goward said. This effort has spawned multiple projects, including the creation of a pair of joint harbor operations centers, run by the DHS and Navy. The JHOC at Hampton Roads cost $3 million to establish, said a news report.

The other center is based in San Diego. An increase in the number of JHOCs is currently being negotiated between the Navy and DHS, Goward said.

The JHOCs are more focused versions of Coast Guard Sector Commands, which claim responsibility for coastal regions and respond to emergencies. Those 35 sector command centers are also being revamped to do more than wait for emergency calls, Goward said, including electronic charting, web-hosted common operating picture links for use by other maritime security authorities and blue-force tracking of nearby first responders.