Despite the abundance of sensors in ports, harbors, waterways, and along coastlines, we still don’t have the big maritime picture—because they aren’t connected. The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T) has started to change that by enabling the many existing maritime sensors to plug into a system-oriented architecture called the Coastal Surveillance System (CSS), a key element of the DHS Port and Coastal Surveillance Improvement Project.
Software called the Smart Integration Manager Ontologically Networked (SIMON) and a project named the Open Mongoose System (OMS)—and the ability to collect, understand and share data—have made it possible. SRI International of St. Petersburg, Florida, developed the SIMON system to connect various data generated by maritime-security sensors and display the various feeds into a single consolidated operational picture. The SIMON interface can connect with any sensor and manage and display the information.
DHS has worked with the Naval Research Laboratory to develop OMS, an unclassified version of the Mongoose fusion engine, using open-source data to track vessels and maintain a database. OMS draws on commercial record information, the automatic identification system (AIS), satellite data, and sensor inputs from existing coastal and port safety and security networks. OMS collects and aggregates information, generates tracks, and stores the results in a database, where they may be displayed or processed by a complex-event processor. This information is made available to those who need it.
The primary means of tracking maritime traffic at sea, particularly in harbors and their approaches, is the AIS, a short-range line-of-sight collision-avoidance and traffic-management transponder beacon with 29 data fields. All ships 300 tons or greater or carrying passengers must have an AIS transponder. Basic AIS information includes ship name, location, course and speed, flag state, length and draft, and destination. The information is unclassified and shareable. The U.S. Coast Guard has a network of AIS stations covering all major ports of the United States and most smaller ones. Private companies also operate their own AIS systems. There are national and private networks all over the world. Satellite-based collection of AIS is now the primary means of tracking ships at sea globally.
In addition to AIS and radar, sensors can include cameras and underwater acoustic detection systems for port protection. Cameras are found on naval and law-enforcement vessels, towers, and other fixed platforms, as well as manned and unmanned aircraft, tethered aerostats, and free-flying airships.
The VTS Mission
The Coast Guard manages vessel traffic services (VTS) at 12 locations in the United States to ensure the safe, secure, and efficient movement of vessels in high-traffic areas. Mark Ashley, a civilian employee of the Coast Guard, directs VTS for the Port of Puget Sound. The port, one of the largest and most complex, shares some responsibilities with Canada. According to Ashley, of the 12 VTS radars within the Puget Sound area of responsibility, five U.S. radars and three Canadian radars watch over the international boundary area. “The complexity of the waterway and all the different activity that occurs [there] is such that the VTS can help instill order and predictability in the flow of all of that traffic,” he said.
While the VTS mission focuses on navigation safety and the radars are primarily intended to detect and track larger vessels and extended ranges, they can also be useful in spotting unknown or suspicious contacts. Jim Moore, vice president of command, control, and sensors for Terma North America, said newer solid-state radars can detect large or small targets at all ranges and conditions without constantly adjusting for the optimal settings. “The improved resolution and clutter-suppression features make it possible to discern even smaller targets in high-clutter situations,” he said.
With CSS, the entire VTS network—as well as all of the other radars and sensors—can be integrated to provide comprehensive, fully integrated coastal surveillance and maritime situational-awareness capability, allowing for safety, security, and efficiency.
Forming a Comprehensive Picture
Data fusion is the process of combining information from multiple sources to create the most complete and accurate awareness and understanding of objects in the environment possible. Including multiple sensors with varying range and fidelity and detecting the different electronic, acoustic, and visual signatures from vessels can provide increased fidelity and persistence. According to Guy Thomas, a former S&T adviser to the Coast Guard and founder of Collaboration in Space for International Global Maritime Awareness, combining fusion engines with word-based databases that include information such as a ship’s history, ownership, operating organizations, past voyage data, crew, and passenger manifests can transform this sea of data into a more useful and precise picture—and make it available for access and display.
CSS, an unclassified system, is designed to share information across components and agencies within the U.S. government down to the local law enforcement level. With its potentially vast amount of sensor data, it requires robust algorithms. Identifying the same vessel as seen by different sources and making this dissimilar data useful is a big challenge. But certain algorithms can correlate multiple data sources, predict where a track is going, and discern aberrational behaviors from normal traffic patterns. Combining the AIS and radar data with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite ship detection to find anomalies is possible, but computationally intensive.
The present method of maintaining maritime security coordination between stakeholders is voice and email systems. According to Gerald Bowe, operations manager for the DHS S&T Maritime Security Technology Program, CSS provides the network, interface, display, and tools to permit any and all sensors and networks to be a part of the big picture. “We’re building a national air and marine common operating picture,” he said.
CSS provides the core enterprise architecture and a set of services so that individual user requirements can be met without having to individually invest in expensive applications, connections, or other cost-increasing factors. “We can integrate individual sensor data access to databases. We’re display agnostic. We don’t support a basic interface. If an organization or an individual requires a special interface, they can still access the data,” said Bowe. “They can have it designed or set up any way they want.”
Border Protection Implications
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations Center (AMOC) in Riverside, California, coordinates border enforcement in the air and maritime domains. AMOC currently sees everything from the interconnected nodes, but those sensors are primarily watching the air picture, not the maritime domain. And certain vessels of interest—small, non-regulated “dark vessels”—are by nature hard to track.
Illegal drugs coming north from Mexico along the Southern California coast on board small, fast wooden “panga” boats are such targets. Difficult to detect, they can carry 2,000 to 6,000 pounds of contraband. Traffickers may meet someone offshore and offload; bring the boat up on the shore, beach it, offload, and leave; or just ditch it and take off. They typically land late at night or in the early morning hours in areas with easy access to major roads and highways.
A network of sensors and information sources such as CSS would permit authorities to better respond to this threat. As a 2013 demonstration showed, with CSS capabilities, AMOC could have the same visibility for maritime contacts as it does for air traffic over the United States. A SCANTER 5202 radar made by Danish defense manufacturer Terma was placed on the roof of a maintenance building at Carlsbad State Beach on the Southern California coast between San Diego and Los Angeles—panga territory. The Terma radar feed was connected to the DHS S&T Maritime Security Technology Pilot CSS node at SRI International’s facility in St. Petersburg by means of a 4G wireless data link. The data was made available to the AMOC, the U.S. Coast Guard–Los Angeles Sector, and the adjoining ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.
The Carlsbad demonstration showed how easy it is to connect a sensor into CSS, and that the system will detect small targets. Since a busy port may have its own network of radars and cameras, sharing that data with CSS can give better situational awareness to all participants.
CSS can integrate any operationally relevant radar or camera system with just an Internet connection. “If it happens to be the new solid-state Terma radars, for example, it’s connectible because they’ve already built the interface,” Bowe said. “Many camera models and types are already integrated.” Next, the port will authorize AMOC and/or other agencies to control the radar or camera on an as-needed basis. “We have a standard interface control for radars and cameras, and all the manufacturer has to do is adapt to it.”
The CSS enterprise will be made up of participating federal, state, local, and tribal entities, as well as international partners. Having a comprehensive maritime-domain awareness picture is difficult because information may be classified, or because of differences in military and law-enforcement access. With CSS, information is shared based on a “need to know” level of access. For example, classified information might not be made available to a local fire department.
Dealing with illegal drugs or migrants coming from Central America, the Caribbean, and even Canada has brought about a significant amount of international cooperation. “We work together to coordinate the deployment of assets, identify ways to reduce the potential for duplicative technologies across the border, and work toward deploying shared feeds for existing technology,” said Inspector Andris Zarins of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, officer-in charge of the Federal Coordination Center–Canada/United States.
Threats vary in different places along the border. Illicit activities include smuggling illegal immigrants, drugs, currency, and firearms. In one location it may be cocaine coming north, or marijuana and ecstasy headed south. Along the Great Lakes, for example, criminal enterprises traffic tobacco into Canada to sell without the expensive taxes.
“We’re not just looking at the borders, because that’s just one point on the continuum of criminal activity,” Zarins said. “If we stop somebody at the border, that’s great, but we want the whole organization and the bosses, not just the mules. Working closely together in partnership with the various inland law enforcement investigational units, sharing information and intelligence in a timely manner, is essential.” Furthermore, if designated officers can carry out their investigations on either side of the border, those involved in cross-border criminal activity on shared waterways “will no longer be able to frustrate the efforts of law enforcement officials by simply crossing the border to evade arrest and prosecution.”
More than Data Collection
Meanwhile, space-based AIS (S-AIS) has two primary uses. It can provide tactically relevant data in a useful time frame, and the study and analysis of S-AIS track and identification data over time can give a useful baseline for determining which ships are operating where. “That information can determine where a synthetic aperture radar satellite [SARSAT] should be tasked to look at a specified area of interest at sea to detect small targets or the wakes of vessels,” said Thomas.
The next big demonstration will take the program to new heights. The Naval Research Laboratory and DHS S&T are conducting a joint-capability technology demonstration to use SARSAT to provide information to the AMOC. Instead of sending imagery, which requires a trained analyst, it can report when certain conditions are met. For example, algorithms can be developed that define “normal” traffic and conditions, such as regular shipping lanes, as well as “abnormal” situations, such as rendezvous, or small, fast boats headed to an unusual location. The report can then help the tactical commanders decide whether to respond by sending a vessel or aircraft.
The Traffic Route Extraction and Anomaly Detection tool, developed by NATO’s Center for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) in La Spezia, Italy, automatically learns and identifies normal patterns in the data. “With this knowledge, it is then possible to identify abnormal or anomalous patterns—possibly a threat. This is something that a human operator would not be capable of doing on a persistent and global scale,” said Steven Horn, maritime situational awareness project lead at CMRE. “The traffic route information product can be used to enhance the evaluation of compliance, and push maritime security activities to a more proactive stance vice reactive.”
Maritime-domain awareness is more than collecting and analyzing data; it’s knowing when that information is actionable, and how best to act on it. That decision-making process can be intelligence-based.
The Coast Guard is currently in the middle of an acquisition effort to procure interagency operations centers and the WatchKeeper information sharing and management system to upgrade sector command centers across the United States (including Hawaii, Alaska, and Guam). WatchKeeper’s software coordinates and organizes port-security information to help DHS and federal, state, and local maritime partners share information and collectively make the best use of their resources. When the CSS demonstrations are completed and it is certified, WatchKeeper could be incorporated into CSS for the interagency operations centers and for expanded use with DHS partners, like the AMOC.
According to Bowe, open architecture also means an open business model. “Small vendors realize they only have to develop that interface one time for their product based on the standards we give them. It’s the first true service-oriented architecture that’s been actually out there in the open environment.”