Maritime Domain Awareness: The Key to Maritime Security Operational Challenges and Technical Solutions

Abstract : We will not win the Global War on Terrorism if we cannot tell the bad guys from the good guys. We have to develop the capability to do that. This statement, made by former CNO Admiral Vern Clark in December 2004, sums up the essence of where maritime domain awareness (MDA) fits in the continuum of the quest for international maritime security. Simply put, without adequate MDA, the ability to enhance maritime security and win the global war on terrorism (GWOT) will remain elusive. This challenge has been addressed at the international policy level by the United Nations and by the International Maritime Organization. At the national level, the United States Government has addressed this challenge in a number of policy documents, most importantly, the National Strategy for Maritime Security and The National Plan to Improve Maritime Domain Awareness. While the policy imperatives of achieving MDA are strong and straightforward and while the concept of operations to put this into effect is already evolving, the technical challenges to achieving the requisite degree of MDA to pursue the GWOT and defend the U.S. Homeland are significant, primarily because MDA is such a broad and comprehensive subject. Compounding the challenge is the fact that operator's typically view MDA through the lens of collection, fusion/analysis, display/dissemination, and action, or, put another way, with specific attention to data; data mining, data fusion, and data display. While this operational paradigm is useful from a practitioner's point of view, these requirements don't easily map to technical capabilities.