Port security will improve, but gradually: Coast Guard officials say that the nation's waterways always will be vulnerable.

The Coast Guard will be spending at least the next three years making up for lost time in its effort to safeguard ports and waterways, officials said. A major challenge is figuring out how to make the best use of new funding, considering that the agency, in recent years, only spent 5 percent of its budget on security.

The task ahead is as overwhelming as eating an elephant one bite at a time, said Capt. Robert Ross, the head of the Coast Guard's Strategic Analysis office. "We are trying to carve this elephant up in slices that we can swallow without choking," he told National Defense.

The Coast Guard is under significant pressure to build up its security operations, he added. "We got here through many, many years of neglecting the threats that a lot of people knew were there," he said. "We are not going to fix these problems overnight and it is going to take a lot of money. ... We need to take the time and think it through, so that the money we spend, we spend wisely."

During the next three years, said Ross, the Coast Guard will see growth in human and materiel resources. "We are looking at a three-year ramp up for fiscal years '03, '04 and '05," he said. "We have capacity constraints on the training system--and we can only buy so much stuff at a time, because we only have so many contracting officers."

One area of particular interest is the development of capabilities to monitor ship crews and cargo. "We need to improve our ability to know what is coming. We need to improve our understanding of what is coming," he said.

Nevertheless, it was recently reported that the Coast Guard, for budgetary reasons, cut back the sea-marshal forces it deployed shortly after the September 11 attacks. The Coast Guard needs an extra $228 million to keep armed reservists on active duty to board and inspect vessels, crews and cargoes before they reach port. A special appropriation is now awaiting congressional approval. The Coast Guard also is seeking an additional $750 million in fiscal 2003, which begins Oct. 1, to set up rapid-deployment teams that would board suspect vessels approaching a U.S. port.

There are infinite targets and infinite ways of attack, Ross said. "We have to prioritize which are the most profitable ways to do that. ... We are not going to be able to defend from all attacks."

The Coast Guard, he said, should not be viewed as a "cop on the beat," because it does not have the resources to provide security across the board, at every port. "There is no 24-hour waterside security. When it comes to specific facilities--for example, nuclear facilities--the Coast Guard does not have the resources to provide 24/7 security."

The waterways always will present vulnerabilities, he said. "We cannot prevent everything," he said. "At some point you stop building up your prevention capability and you start building your consequence management capability. Knowing where to draw the line still requires some analysis."

Safe Commerce

At the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, security is the order of the day, said Beth Rooney, security manager for the Port Authority. The agency established an operation, called Safe Commerce, which focuses on cargo security. Rooney and other port-security officials spoke at a Coast Guard-sponsored symposium, in Baltimore, Md.

The success of operation Safe Commerce does not necessarily require high technology, she said. Mundane projects, such as adding fencing and lighting and extra TV systems, take priority over sophisticated gadgetry, Rooney said. "We see ourselves as an ongoing target. ... Waterways are open," and, therefore, vulnerable.

Some advanced technologies are beginning to make their way into the Coast Guard, although not across the board. Some law enforcement officers are starting to arm themselves with $3,500 digital pagers that help them run criminal backgrounds on suspects and check stolen equipment on site.

"I can find out what boat it is, know if it is stolen, if the registration is up to date or who the people are I am dealing with," said Bryan Beard, a Coast Guard law-enforcement officer. The pager, called Cyberforce, takes about 30 seconds to produce the data.

The Coast Guard has 1,500 of these devices, which have a range of 12 nautical miles. The Coast Guard is also working on a satellite link, which would expand the range beyond the line of sight, said Beard. New York police officers began using the Cyberforce on routine street patrols more than a year ago.

MISLE Database

The Coast Guard has been working since 1995 to develop a Web-based information system to replace an aging computer database that it uses to track activities such as cargo inspections, drug interdiction and oil spill cleanups.

The new system is called the Marine Information for Safety and Law Enforcement System, or MISLE. It was launched in December 2001, said Lt. Cmdr. William Balsinger, who works at the MISLE operations center. The system will support more than 5,000 users at about 550 sites.

The Coast Guard has a spotty record in fielding computer systems, which prompted a General Accounting Office review of the MISLE program. The GAO report was released on September 18.

According to GAO, the MISLE program has experienced cost overruns and delays. Back in 1986, the Coast Guard began developing requirements for replacing its legacy Marine Safety Information System (MSIS) by 1995. In the early 1990s, the service delayed plans to replace MSIS in order to integrate requirements for multiple systems in a single program, according to GAO.

In 1995, the Coast Guard awarded a contract to Computer Sciences Corporation to develop and deliver the complete MISLE system by 2002. At that time, service officials estimated the contract was worth about $35 million. However, GAO pointed out, the requirements changed in 1999. The service had already spent $26 million on the development.

The same year, the Coast Guard transferred responsibility for the MISLE development from CSC to its Operation Systems Center--a government owned contractor-operated facility. The Coast Guard now manages the project.

According to GAO, MISLE will cost about $61 million through 2003 and the life-cycle cost is estimated at $94 million through 2008.

"Much remains to be done to deliver the complete system," the report said. "In its efforts to develop and deploy a complete MISLE system, USCG faces significant challenges and risks in several areas, including managing system requirements and user expectations, testing the system, transitioning to an operational system and managing program risks." The Coast Guard's risk management approach has been ineffective so far, according to GAO.

Dale Streyle, the MISLE program officer, said that the Coast Guard implemented GAO'S recommendations and prioritizes risks on a monthly basis.

Balsinger said that the system is working today, but limited to basic functions such as tracking vessel inspections and oil spills. "We are still adding things to it," he told National Defense. "I am not sure if we are ever going to be done, I mean that in a good sense. There are always changes to be made."

Because the system was developed before September 2001, the Coast Guard did not place strong emphasis on port security, Balsinger said. "We have to see how we can look at this system and find ways to support our new business processes and also support our homeland security," Balsinger noted. "The emphasis [of MISLE] was on safety."

However, he added, the system is beginning to show how it can help boost security. "Right now, for example, if a foreign vessel is coming into port, we do a boarding matrix to determine whether it is a high risk or low risk vessel, and decide whether we should board it or not, Balsinger explained. With MISLE, "we can keep look-outs on certain vessels and do quick searches on them."

The information collected is entered into the database. The data only can be accessed by authorized users of the Coast Guard's intranet. Most of the data available today on the MISLE system is on domestic vessels, Balsinger pointed out. "There are certain U.S. vessels that have to go through an inspection process, and we gather specific info," he said. "As far as a foreign vessel goes, we may capture the fact that it was in port. If we physically go on board and inspect it, then we enter the information into the system."

By the end of the year, the Coast Guard is planning to add a geographic information system, which would be able to point out what resources exist in certain areas to help in rescue missions or environmental cleanup, said Balsinger.

Although MISLE runs service-wide, some ports, such as the Houston Ship Channel, do not use to the MISLE database for any kind of security operations.

The Texas Regional Houston Center has seven ports, five of which are among the 25 busiest ports in the United States, said Lt. Joseph Leonard, from the Coast Guard's Marine Safety Unit at Galveston, Texas. "In our entire region, we have 800-1,000 ship movements a day," he said. "There is no way to track all those ships without something to coordinate it."

Houston Ports

Right after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Houston marine safety unit developed a database called the regional fusion center.

The center has three branches, One processes all the intelligence received from the Coast Guard and outside agencies. The vessel targeting division monitors vessels and crews arriving into port and determines whether the vessels need to be inspected. The joint operations center coordinates and manages homeland security activities.

"We don't use MISLE at all," he said. "It does nor give me any information I need for my job." In less than a year, Leonard's office put together all the information available and consolidated it into an easily accessible database, he said. "We did not spend any money on it," he noted. "Other than the salary of the people manning it, there was no additional cost incurred."

"We tried to keep it as simple as possible," said Daniel Buchsbaum of the Marine Safety Unit in Galveston.

"There are 47 ports in the United Stares and 47 different ways of doing things," Buchsbaum said. If every port managed to improve security on its own, he said, there would be less pressure on the Coast Guard to develop a national strategy.

"You can have all the intelligence in the world, but unless you have the resources to respond to it, it is no good," said Leonard.

He stressed that the Coast Guard needs to be able to see and react to suspect rugs, barges and passenger boats. "We can't see them," he said. For example, Lake Charles has more than 90 miles of nautical waterways and only one boat patrols the entire area.

In Galveston Bay, security cameras were installed some time ago, but they only cover one straight line, leaving large areas without any surveillance, Leonard explained.

He noted that video cameras would be one tool to enhance security, but they are very expensive to buy, install and maintain. "There is no one thing to solve the awareness gap.

Security experts generally agree that the waterways are vulnerable to terrorism. Any attacks would have disastrous ripple effects on the economy, said Ross. "We do not even want to think about it."