Vessel tracking: coast guard begins to tackle complex surveillance mission.

• Author: Jean, Grace
• Position: MARITIME DEFENSE

Sorting out potential wrongdoers among the millions of vessels that transit the oceans bound for United States has become one of the Coast Guard's biggest challenges, officials say. Multiple initiatives have been set in motion to develop better ship monitoring systems, but the service is encountering financial constraints that could delay or prevent such efforts.

Before 9/11, the nation did not have a mandatory ship-tracking requirement for large commercial vessels. The Coast Guard has since established rules mandating the use of the automated identification system, or AIS, a technology that provides continuous information on the identity, location, speed and course of vessels.

Self-propelled vessels 65 feet or more in length, other than fishing vessels are required to carry trans-ponders that transmit information from ship to ship, and from ship to shore.

That may not be enough, however, says Vice Adm. Terry Cross, vice commandant of the Coast Guard. "Simply knowing that there are people out there is of marginal usefulness. The trick is to know who they are, where they're going, what's on board, who's on board," he told a Navy League conference.

Such deficiencies also exist in most of the country's 361 ports and in waters close to its 95,000 miles of shoreline, he said. The Coast Guard is working with multiple agencies--including the Navy and U.S. Northern Command--to develop a system that will provide the desired intelligence, which is known as "maritime domain awareness."

One effort being planned is a nationwide deployment of AIS sensors to track vessels throughout all U.S. ports, waterways and coastal areas.

One of the limitations of the current system is that it cannot detect ships easily from shore. A long-range AIS--to be developed in the future--will be able to detect watercraft upwards of 2,000 miles off shore, he said.

Though tracking large commercial ships via vessel traffic systems may bolster the safety of U.S. ports, the greater potential threat to port security may reside in the small boats and craft that are not required to carry AIS transponders.

"In our major ports, we may see something not a whole lot different from the air traffic control system, in the sense that if you want to take your 16-foot fast boat and fish down by the nuclear power plant, you may be required to have some sort of transponder on that boat, and you may need to have permission to enter that particular zone," said Cross.

The Navy is working with the...