A layered sensor network that stretches out to the deep waters of the oceans will be required to track and identify every vessel approaching U.S. shores, according to a draft of the maritime domain awareness technology roadmap obtained by National Defense.
Over the horizon radars, space-based radars and acoustic sensors are among the recommendations found in the report.
The unclassified, draft version of the roadmap is one piece in the development of the “national plan to improve maritime domain awareness,” which was initiated by a national security presidential directive in December 2004. The goal is “sufficient understanding of all maritime traffic approaching U.S. shores or areas.”
Data from sensors, human intelligence, and open source records must be gathered, exploited, processed, collated and interpreted, the report said.
A working group, which included representatives from 45 agencies, spent five months taking stock of the available technology, databases and potential gaps in coverage.
It focused on sensors, data fusion and how to best distribute information about vessels once they are detected.
“Every vessel must be watched in order to determine which vessels should be of interest,” the report stated.
That includes everything from large oil tankers to small pleasure craft.
No one sensor is capable of doing the job. Radar, for example, can provide excellent tracking, but no identification. Electro-optical and signal intelligence sensors can provide identification capabilities, but little or no tracking information.
“The only way the problem can be solved is by using high-quality data from many sensor systems and sources to support appropriate levels of automated data fusion and data mining,” the report said.
The report divided the maritime domain into six zones, with inland waterways such as rivers as Zone 0, and the high seas as Zone 5. Generally, the further out to sea the ship is, the less robust the sensor network must be, the report said. However, tracking and identifying vessels thousands of miles from U.S. shores will pose its own set of problems.
Among the technologies the working group would like to see used are:
Relocatable Over-the-Horizon Radar. ROTHR is a land-based Navy operated system that bounces high-frequency signals off the ionosphere. Energy reflected back locates sea-going targets. It has been adapted for use in counter-drug operations in the Caribbean.
Acoustic Tripwire. Although the unclassified version of the report omits details, acoustic tripwires are a series of unattended sensors that have been tested for both ground-based networks and harbor defenses. The Navy has tested a multi-influence tripwire system, which uses a series of sea-based acoustic and magnetic sensors, to detect harbor incursions.
Space-based radar. A long-time goal of the Defense Department, which is working to launch a system capable of penetrating clouds and detecting targets at night, the maritime version would be dedicated to watching the seas. “This system will be shared throughout maritime communities of interest as well as law enforcement agencies,” the report said.
Fusing all these sensors will depend on the merging of “disparate, stove-piped programs,” the report said. Creating a network-centric system is an issue the U.S. military has struggled with for years.
To go beyond tracking and identification, and to move into the trickier realm of determining the “intentions” of the crews manning boats, there will also have to be a vigorous human intelligence network, the report said. Resources have been severely cut back in this sector during the past decades, it added.
“A robust, effective international HUMINT network is a critical component for successful maritime domain awareness efforts, and cannot be overemphasized,” the report stated.
Guy Thomas, technology advisor to the Coast Guard and one of the report’s authors, said the roadmap was initially classified, but there was a consensus in the community that an unclassified version should be released so it could reach a broader audience within the government.
Many in the maritime domain awareness community believe if terrorists attempt to smuggle a weapon of mass destruction into the United States, it will not be inside a shipping container, Thomas said at an Institute for Defense and Government Advancement border management conference.
“Most of us believe it will come in a small boat.”
A device that uses lasers to scan the surfaces of paper, plastic or metal to detect their unique molecular “fingerprints” won the Global Security Challenge prize, which is awarded annually to homeland defense start-ups.
Ingenia Technology, based in London, took the $10,000 prize with its laser surface authentication scanners, which uses a beam of light to scan the surfaces of materials for microscopic irregularities. The company has touted the technology as a way to detect counterfeiting.
The surface of an item, such as a passport, can be scanned before issuance, and the unique “fingerprint” of the material entered into a database. Items made of paper and plastic all have unique irregularities on their surfaces that lasers reflect back as “optical speckles.” The device chooses one spot on the item to scan. The same spot can later be examined a second time to verify its authenticity, according to a company fact sheet.
Ingenia has developed a static version of the scanner that could be installed on production lines or printing presses. There is also a handheld device.
The technology can be used to verify the authenticity of identity cards, credit cards, software, banknotes, share certificates or any kind of packaging. “The list is endless,” the company said.
The judges for the competition said the vote was unanimous. “Ingenia has developed a potentially disruptive technology with global opportunities,” they said in a statement.
The London Business School sponsors the prize. Along with the cash reward, Ingenia will receive mentoring from Siemens Venture Capital to help bring the product to market.
A group of local activists are opposing Lawrence Livermore Laboratory’s attempts to win a bid on a Department of Homeland Security bio-defense facility.
Tri-Valley CARES, based in Livermore, Calif., has circulated an on-line petition addressed to Secretary Michael Chertoff opposing the University of California’s proposal to operate the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility. UC operates the national laboratory for the Department of Energy.
An accidental release of biological agents, potentially caused by a massive earthquake, would be devastating to the nearby community of Tracy, Calif., and the nearby agricultural industry, it said. The grouping of the proposed facility in a complex that also develops nuclear weapons may be misinterpreted, Tri-Valley CARES said.
“Other countries may perceive this as a move towards developing offensive U.S. biological weapons capabilities and respond by developing their own,” the group said in the letter.
The organization, however, may be fueling that misconception. It regularly calls the facility a “biological warfare agent research facility” in its statements.
Not so, said the lab’s spokesman, Steve Wampler.
It is intended to enhance and protect the nation’s ability to counteract animal-to-human diseases such as anthrax and mad cow disease and human-to-human diseases. It will not develop biological weapons, he said, and added that all laboratory structures are protected against massive earthquakes.
Lawrence Livermore is one of 18 research organizations vying for the facility. Of the 18, several will be selected to continue into the next phase of the program, and the winner will be chosen in 2008, according to a DHS press release.
The activists and the lab have had an adversarial relationship for years. The group sued the laboratory in 2002 over concerns that it did not carry out the necessary environmental assessments on its Biosafety Level 3 lab. Tri-Valley CARES lost that case on appeal in October.
Tri-Valley CARES said a concerted campaign on the part of local citizens could sink the proposal. DHS seems to agree. It listed “community acceptance” as one of four criteria it will use to make its final selection.
Congress has drawn a line on the troubled transportation worker identification credential program.
The card’s purpose is to ensure that those working in a port or airport facility are not on a terrorist watch list and to verify their identities.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration began work on the card in December 2001, but progress has been slow. To get its hands around the delay, DHS announced in 2005 that it would start with maritime transportation workers only.
The recently passed SAFE Port Act demands that the agency publish the maritime rules by Dec. 31. Whether that happens remains to be seen. DHS has become infamous for missing congressionally mandated deadlines — sometimes by years.
A Government Accountability Office report blamed the delays on poor contract management. The program has cost $90 million so far.
TSA faces further hurdles, it said.
The first is how to enroll an estimated 750,000 port workers who are spread out at 3,500 maritime facilities or aboard 10,800 vessels. The process entails a background check and submitting to a 10-digit fingerprint scan.
The second challenge will be getting the access control technology, including the scanners, to work correctly in the harsh maritime environment.
Lastly, there are issues remaining on how to connect facility computers to a national database.
Operational tests last year highlighted many of these problems. The GAO recommended further testing. “Rapidly moving forward with implementation of the transportation worker identification credential program without developing and testing solutions to identified problems to ensure that they work effectively could lead to further problems, increased costs and program delays without achieving the program’s intended goals,” the GAO said.
In a response to the report, DHS said it has set up a program control office to better manage finances and contractors. The department also said that it concurred with the recommendation to carry out further tests, but that it won’t do so.
TSA spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said, “We don’t have the luxury of time [to carry out further tests] with this program, and we are moving aggressively forward.”
TSA expects to vet about 650,000 port workers against terrorist watch lists by the end of 2006. Enrollment will begin shortly thereafter, with the first cards issued during the first months of 2007, Kudwa told National Defense.
The costs for implementing the system — much of it passed on to the workers and their employers — could be high, the report noted. TSA estimated $90,000 per facility. Industry said it could be as high as $300,000. Workers will have to pay a $150 fee. Cost to the taxpayers will be $800 million during a 10-year period.
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