Seapower - May 2009

IOC Headway
Coast Guard effort to improve port, coastal security capabilities gains speed

By JOHN C. MARCARIO, Assistant Editor

Conversion Taking Shape

At the heart of the IOC conversion is the WatchKeeper information management system — which will be installed in all of the centers by the end of 2010. The system will maintain a common operating picture for each port by consolidating and displaying information from various interagency systems of record and sensor arrays placed around harbors, its approaches and critical infrastructure, according to the Coast Guard.

WatchKeeper will ensure all port partners share a common tactical picture for the port. It will be available to anyone at the sector command center who has Internet access.

“We are focusing on developing tools and facilities that facilitate interagency planning and response activities in port security,” said Cmdr. Ken D. Marien, IOC’s project manager.

The IOC project has been in effect in several iterations, first as Command 2010 and then as Command 21, since 2000. But the effort was accelerated by the Security and Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006, which required the Department of Homeland Security to establish IOCs at the nation’s highest priority port facilities.

The Coast Guard was given $60 million in a fiscal 2008 appropriation to implement the act. That funding was slated for two years.

The Charleston Harbor Operations Center, also known as Project SeaHawk, opened in 2003 after the Coast Guard received special funding for it from Congress shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Charleston is considered a major logistics center for the Department of Defense as it is home to Charleston Air Force Base and Charleston Naval Weapons Station, which transport about 40 percent of the military’s

The Security and Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006 and $60 million from Congress have allowed the Coast Guard to pick up the pace of its Interagency Operations Centers (IOC) project.

■ The service plans to convert 35 sector command centers at critical ports to IOCs by 2016.

■ The conversion work typically involves installing additional software and sensors and expanding facility space.

■ IOCs will close significant tactical information gaps critical to security and interagency coordination in vulnerable port and coastal areas.

The Coast Guard’s first Interagency Operations Center (IOC), located in Charleston, S.C., will be completed later this spring, marking a major milestone in the service’s effort to upgrade its 35 sector command centers located at critical ports across the United States, Guam and Puerto Rico.

The IOC project aims to improve situational awareness by automating data fusion, dissemination and anomaly detection processes, according to the Coast Guard. IOCs will close significant gaps in the service’s ability to see, understand and share tactical information critical to security and interagency coordination in vulnerable port and coastal areas, and provide a central location for this coordination to take place.

Work has begun on, or contracts awarded for, the conversion of nine sector centers in IOCs. The Coast Guard hopes to have the entire IOC project finished by 2016.

The scope of the work depends on the needs of the individual command centers. The conversion of a sector command center to an IOC typically will involve installing additional software and sensors and expanding facility space. In some instances, new facilities are being built adjacent to the sector command center.