A discussion forum on Marine Safety, Recreational Boating Safety, and waterways managment as we work together to protect maritime commerce and mobility, the marine environment, and safety of life at sea.
The current edition of Proceedings (Spring 2011 – Waterways Management) is available online at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/.
Excerpt from U.S. Coast Guard Proceedings of the Marine Safety & Security Council magazine by Ms. Alice F. Dunn, Program Analyst, U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Domain Awareness and Information Sharing.
Achieving maritime domain awareness is a daunting challenge, especially in view of the vast community of stakeholders. To better connect to this global maritime community of interest, the National Concept of Operations for Maritime Domain Awareness called for creating “enterprise hubs” focused on cargo and people, critical infrastructure, vessels, and architecture.
MDA Information Hubs. To date, four MDA information hubs have been established, one for each pillar or domain. These hubs identify key partners and inventory information resources and respond to GMCOI inquiries.
MDA Architecture Management Hub. This hub assists the federal information sharing environment for the global maritime community of interest (GMCOI) by establishing national data and infrastructure standards and capabilities. It formulates the architecture, processes, and standards that facilitate information sharing. The Department of the Navy Chief Information Office is the designated lead agency. The hub was established to design and manage the overall enterprise architecture needed to facilitate net-centric sharing of maritime information. The MDA enterprise architecture will provide the standards and processes that will allow the information hubs and maritime community members to share information and services.
For more information:
The Maritime Domain Awareness Information Exchange: http://www.mda.gov/.
The National Maritime Domain Awareness Coordination Office: http://www.gmsa.gov/index.html.
Full article is available at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/summer2010.
Subscribe online at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/subscribe.asp.
Synergistic Efforts
The NMIC’s key functions are coordinating and integrating maritime information and intelligence in support of national policy and decision makers, supporting maritime domain awareness objectives, and supporting interagency maritime requirements.
Its four functional areas and representative initiatives are collection integration, analysis integration, architecture, and information management and sharing.
What to Expect From Your NMIC
To ensure robust dialogue from stakeholders and ensure the greatest return on investment, the Director of the National Maritime Intelligence Center will continue to aggressively engage the GMCOI. Temporary and standing working groups and communities of interest such as the NMIC interagency working group, the maritime threat working group, and the interagency advisory group have been created to advise the NMIC director and bring together expertise from the intelligence community, the interagency and international communities, and industry to address matters of shared concern in the maritime domain.
For more information:
The Maritime Domain Awareness Information Exchange: http://www.mda.gov/.
The National Maritime Domain Awareness Coordination Office: http://www.gmsa.gov/index.html.
Full article is available at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/summer2010.
Subscribe online at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/subscribe.asp.
Excerpt from U.S. Coast Guard Proceedings of the Marine Safety & Security Council magazine by LCDR Craig Wennet, Project Officer, U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Domain Awareness and Information Sharing.
In addition to other efforts and legislation, the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA) ensured that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would have a central role in the information sharing environment. The Coast Guard, as the largest DHS component and a member of the intelligence community, possesses a unique role in federal information sharing efforts.
Coast Guard Information Sharing Initiatives
Since 2007, the Coast Guard’s Information Sharing Executive Agent (ISEA) staff has visited Coast Guard sectors and subordinate units. Staff members speak with sector personnel and their port partners about their working relationships in maritime safety and security and gather information about information sharing and joint operations.
Visits are planned in coordination with several key Coast Guard and DHS stakeholders, including Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). We interview a variety of partners at the federal, state, local, public, private, and occasionally international levels to gather information sharing best practices and recommendations for improvement.
General Findings and Recommendations
Primary sector collaboration venues include Area Maritime Security Committees, harbor safety committees, and numerous other committees or associations. In every port visited, the Coast Guard also plays a chairing or moderating role in local law enforcement or first responder associations, and is often the glue that holds them together, even when it is not the primary response or enforcement agency.
Since commencing our interviews in 2007, a consistent trend toward increased collaborative planning, joint operations, and joint training among the Coast Guard and its numerous partners has been apparent. Additionally, respondents shared concerns and provided many recommendations for improving operational collaboration and information sharing.
Next Steps
DHS published its information sharing strategy in July 2008, and the ISEA staff plans to introduce an information sharing strategy for the Coast Guard, incorporating what we have learned through visits and interviews with port partners.
One of the ISEA staff’s most important goals is to make the best practices and recommendations we have collected more visible within the Coast Guard. For more information on Information Sharing Executive Agent staff initiatives or to review our annual reports, please visit our Homeport or CG Portal sites:
We invite you to share your information sharing success stories or recommendations with us at uscginformationsharing@uscg.mil.
For more information:
The Maritime Domain Awareness Information Exchange: http://www.mda.gov/.
The National Maritime Domain Awareness Coordination Office: http://www.gmsa.gov/index.html.
Full article is available at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/summer2010.
Subscribe online at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/subscribe.asp.
Verifies and prioritizes maritime domain awareness gaps. MDA stakeholders have been active in the years since the interagency investment strategy was written, eliminating some of the gaps. Other entities have conducted somewhat similar studies and made their own conclusions concerning maritime domain awareness tasks or gaps. An interagency solutions analysis working group will join forces with two of the major efforts—the Department of Defense MDA Joint Integration Concept and the Navy’s MDA Capabilities-Based Assessment—avoiding duplication of effort while adding more resources and brainpower to the interagency team.
Recommends interagency solutions to mitigate or close the gaps. The Interagency Solutions Analysis working group will consider non-material solutions (changes in policy or procedures) as well as material solutions (new capability that must be bought or developed). The difficult part will come next—determining which agencies or organizations should be responsible to bring about the necessary changes, and estimating the cost of these improvements.
Provides strategic planning, budget, and acquisition documentation necessary to facilitate the improvements. The Department of Defense has probably the most robust requirements-to-budget system—the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS). In the absence of a formal interagency process to determine and share solutions to MDA gaps, the working group will utilize a JCIDS-like process for its planning documentation baseline.
The process will be modified as necessary to capture agency-specific requirements. At the same time the analysis is being conducted, there will be an ongoing process of updating the MDA Stakeholder Board and all major partners to ensure that all involved understand the process and there are no surprises when recommendations for funding are made.
Study Process
The process will begin by defining the scope of the analysis. The team must determine how much MDA is “enough” in each of the primary focus areas. Without imposing some reasonable limits, recommended solutions might easily prove to be “pie in the sky” and therefore not achievable in today’s budgetary climate.
Critical gaps identified by the interagency solutions analysis and other studies will be compared against existing doctrine and policy. The processes or capabilities required will not always require new technologies. Modifying regulations, breaking down illogical barriers between organizations, or re-orienting methods of doing business can result in dramatic improvements in information flow.
Looking Ahead
The Interagency Solutions Analysis team’s first round of recommendations will include the validated list of critical maritime domain awareness gaps, the best potential solutions, cost estimates, and the recommended lead department or agency to tackle the issue. Time will be allowed for feedback from all stakeholders. Then the report will be presented to the involved departments and, ultimately, the Maritime Security Interagency Policy Council.
The primary measure of success of the interagency solutions analysis should be development of implementable cross-agency solutions that will mitigate or solve the identified critical MDA tasks and related capability gaps. The current cooperation among these partners portends well for a successful venture.
For more information:
The Maritime Domain Awareness Information Exchange: http://www.mda.gov/.
The National Maritime Domain Awareness Coordination Office: http://www.gmsa.gov/index.html.
Full article is available at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/summer2010.
Subscribe online at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/subscribe.asp.
From an international perspective, this already has a significant impact on the way we are focusing on a global MDA capability. Our tasks are to align, guide, and advocate efforts focused on but not limited to the maritime domain. We serve as the U.S. “bridge” that links domestic and international efforts to provide the right information to the right organization at the right time to safeguard the security of the global maritime commons.
MDA cannot be a segmented sphere that is alongside but separate from the land, air, space, and cyber domains. We need broad and deep collaboration and cooperation among interagency, other government, international, and industry partners at home and abroad crossing physical, geographical, cultural, and governmental boundaries. In this way we will achieve a “whole-of-government” solution to maritime domain awareness and a crucial way by which maritime security and safety can be assured.
The Way Ahead
There is thus increasing emphasis among naval and maritime forces worldwide to improve partnerships and increase data sharing as important ways to enhance maritime domain awareness. The responsibility for MDA primarily belongs to world navies and coast guards, but none of them, including the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy, have the resources and manpower to do everything needed. Only by sharing maritime information and data as widely as possible will navies and coast guards have the collective means to perform their vital missions.
For more information:
The Maritime Domain Awareness Information Exchange: http://www.mda.gov/.
The National Maritime Domain Awareness Coordination Office: http://www.gmsa.gov/index.html.
Full article is available at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/summer2010.
Subscribe online at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/subscribe.asp.
In short, one of the most important ways in which we can increase MDA is by increasing our knowledge of maritime commerce. The health of our economy and the safety and security of our nation depend on it.
For more information:
The Maritime Domain Awareness Information Exchange: http://www.mda.gov/.
The National Maritime Domain Awareness Coordination Office: http://www.gmsa.gov/index.html.
Full article is available at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/summer2010.
Subscribe online at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/subscribe.asp.
Excerpt from U.S. Coast Guard Proceedings of the Marine Safety & Security Council magazine by Mr. Dana Goward, Director, U.S. Coast Guard Marine Transportation Systems Management; and Mr. Curt Dubay, U.S. Coast Guard Director of Maritime Domain Awareness Program Integration.Awareness Network
Even more importantly, maritime domain awareness is the key to countering our biggest challenge—maritime criminal and terrorist networks. Because they are organized as networks, they are incredibly effective in thwarting the efforts of hierarchies such as governments. Fortunately, governments can effectively combat networks if they also operate as networks.
Shared awareness allows the local fish and wildlife officer, the national intelligence analyst, and everyone in between to bring their own experiences, capabilities, and authorities together in a widely distributed but unified effort. The general public can also join in a network for maritime good by identifying suspicious behavior and helping to counter illegal activity.
In upcoming posts we will feature a cross-section of articles that cover the efforts of the U.S. Coast Guard and our partners to transform maritime domain awareness through a whole-government approach to policy, capabilities, and technology led by the newly formed National MDA Coordination Office.
For more information:
The Maritime Domain Awareness Information Exchange: http://www.mda.gov/
The National Maritime Domain Awareness Coordination Office: http://www.gmsa.gov/index.html
Full article is available at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/summer2010.
Subscribe online at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/subscribe.asp.
One way we exercise the authority given to us by the U.S. Congress is through regulations. Since our roles and responsibilities are so diverse, our regulations will be equally diverse.
Our regulations are primarily contained in Title 33, Navigation and Navigable Waters, and Title 46, Shipping, of the Code of Federal Regulations.
Current Regulations
To review all Coast Guard regulations currently in effect, look at the online Code of Federal Regulations. You will notice regulations for “hardware”—ships, equipment, materials; those for “software”—operating/operational requirements, personnel requirements; and those for financial requirements.
You will also find, among other things, regulations on treatment of ships’ ballast water to prevent the introduction of non-indigenous species, regulations on inspection standards for towing vessels, discussion of standards for card readers that read identification cards for transportation workers, and environmental issues that include pollution sources such as engine emissions and oil spills.
Reg Agenda
Do you want to know what regulations the Coast Guard is currently working on, or is thinking of working on?
Go to: http://www.reginfo.gov/. Click on the link in the center of the page, “Current and Past Agendas and Plans and How to Use Them.” From the drop-down menu for “Select Agency,” select “Department of Homeland Security” and click “Submit.” Scroll down to the Coast Guard entries—the ones labeled “DHS/USCG.”
For more information:
Full article is available at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/spring2010.
Subscribe online at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/subscribe.asp.
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