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Dedicated to Those Who Are Always Ready

Efficiency Driver Rear Adm. Robert E. Day Jr. Assistant Commandant for C4IT, CIO & Director CG Cyber Command

Rescue Hoists O NSCs, OPC, Response Boats O Port Security Rugged Displays O IT Modernization

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July 2013

Volume 5, Issue 2

NEXTISSUE

September 2013 Vol. 5, Issue 3

Cover and In-Depth Interview with:

Rear Adm. Bruce Baffer

Director of Acquisition Programs & PEOs U.S. Coast Guard

Features Navigation The navigation world is now the digital world.

Old school and new school come together on the bridge and in the cockpit to keep everyone on track.

Corrosion Control Operating in a maritime environment is rough on metals. The Coast Guard has aggressive corrosion control and mitigation programs to keep rust at bay.

Cyber Surveillance and Protection Systems Recent events have heightened awareness on protecting information from intrusion.

Sophisticated attacks require sophisticated cyber monitoring and defense systems.

Air Asset Recapitalization From routine maintenance to major overhaul, Coast Guard maintainers and industry partner to keep aircraft operational and current.

Special Section Program Management Updates The Coast Guard provides U.S. Coast Guard Forum with an up-to-date review of its major air, land and sea programs of record.

Insertion Order Deadline: August 15, 2013 • Ad Materials Deadline: August 22, 2013

U.S. Coast guard forum Features

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Cover / Q&A

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Floating Assets NSCs, OPCs and Response Boats are just some of the maritime assets that the Coast Guard is spending valuable resources on in order to bring new technologies and capabilities to their operations.

By Peter Buxbaum

IT Modernization

The U.S. Coast Guard is in the process of evaluating its portfolio of technology products and services to determine exactly where and how modernization makes the most sense. Establishing where best to apply virtualization, mobile data convergence and cloud computing is a critical move on the course toward infrastructure modernization.

By Cheryl Gerber

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Hoist Away

Tough Displays

Port & Harbor Guardian

Search and rescue has long been one of the Coast Guard’s core missions. Search and rescue units rarely operate in fair weather conditions; it is heavy weather that often brings on the distress necessitating search and rescue, which is why the Coast Guard acquires specialized equipment to perform these heroic tasks.

Coast Guard helicopters are equipped with specialized hoists that allow the crew to lift victims from rough seas as efficiently as possible.

By Peter Buxbaum

The maritime environment is demanding on electronic displays, but industry is up to the high standards required.

The selection of displays and consoles for Coast Guard boats and cutters is a complicated business, involving a variety of technical requirements to ensure performance in tough conditions, as well as economic considerations.

By Henry Canaday

Ports and harbors represent strategic points of vulnerability and, without vigilance, could be points of compromise. The Coast Guard relies on high-tech tools to meet the critical and complex task of securing U.S. ports and harbors from potential terrorists, weapons of mass destruction, illegal immigration and other threats.

By Scott Nance

Departments

July 2013 Volume 5, Issue 2

Industry Interview

2 Editor’s Perspective 3 Nav Notes/People 14 On The Horizon 27 Resource Center

Eric Nicholson

Advanced Program Manager General Dynamics NASSCO

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16 Rear Admiral Robert E. Day Jr.

Assistant Commandant for C4IT, CIO & Director CG Cyber Command

“While each program claims to have unique requirements, the question is, can we collapse down from seven to two, and by doing that, achieve some economies of scale?”

- Rear Adm. Robert E. Day Jr.

EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE

U.S. Coast Guard Forum Volume 5, Issue 2 • July 2013

Dedicated to Those Who Are Always Ready Editorial Editor-In-Chief Jeff McKaughan jeffm@kmimediagroup.com Managing Editor Harrison Donnelly harrisond@kmimediagroup.com Copy Editors Sean Carmichael seanc@kmimediagroup.com Laural Hobbes lauralh@kmimediagroup.com Correspondents Peter Buxbaum • Henry Canaday • Kelly Fodel Cheryl Gerber • Steve Hirsh • William Murray Scott Nance

Art & Design Art Director Jennifer Owers jennifero@kmimediagroup.com Senior Graphic Designer Jittima Saiwongnuan jittimas@kmimediagroup.com Graphic Designers Scott Morris scottm@kmimediagroup.com Eden Papineau edenp@kmimediagroup.com Amanda Paquette amandak@kmimediagroup.com Kailey Waring kaileyw@kmimediagroup.com Account Executive Rena Pensky renap@kmimediagroup.com

KMI Media Group Publisher Kirk Brown kirkb@kmimediagroup.com Chief Executive Officer Jack Kerrigan jack@kmimediagroup.com Chief Financial Officer Constance Kerrigan connik@kmimediagroup.com Executive Vice President David Leaf davidl@kmimediagroup.com Editor-In-Chief Jeff McKaughan jeffm@kmimediagroup.com Controller Gigi Castro gcastro@kmimediagroup.com Trade Show Coordinator Holly Foster hollyf@kmimediagroup.com Receptionist Vania Jones vaniaj@kmimediagroup.com

Seventy years and 40 feet of ice are all that separate the Coast Guard and a World War II mission that cost it two of its own.

In 1942, while attached to the cutter Northland, Lieutenant John Pritchard and Petty Officer First Class Benjamin Bottoms crewed a J2F-4 Grumman Duck off the east coast of Greenland. In early November, an Army Air Force B-17 crashed on a glacier. Some 20 days later, Pritchard and Bottoms arrived on the scene and rescued two of the survivors. The next day they returned to the crash site and picked up an additional survivor and were returning to the cutter when the Duck went down. Rescuers were unable to reach the crash site and all three Jeffrey D. McKaughan were listed as missing in action.

Editor-IN-CHIEF Interest in locating the crash site and recovering the bodies regained steam in 2008 and the “Duck Hunt” was born. Starting with basic research through archival materials, the investigation gained momentum over the years and included assistance from expert historical aircraft searchers, the U.S. Navy and the National-Geospatial Intelligence Agency. With video and details gained from a site visit seemingly locating the wreckage, enough evidence was on hand to convince the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command ( JPAC) to fund a larger and more capable expedition to the site that ultimately pinpointed the aircraft.

On June 25, the Coast Guard issued a streamlined solicitation for services in support of the recovery operation of the crew and aircraft. The location is described as being “in an austere arctic location” and the excavation and extrication will be under the guidance of a JPAC anthropologist using non-invasive technologies/techniques and light equipment. As with other recoveries in similar conditions, water will be one of the main tools. It is hoped that once the team is in place at the crash site, they will successfully bring the human remains and the aircraft to the surface within 32 days.

This mission is reflective of the commitment of the Coast Guard to its people. The hard work of building the case for the mission was long and challenging—and honorable.

Operations, Circulation & Production Operations Administrator Bob Lesser bobl@kmimediagroup.com Circulation & Marketing Administrator Duane Ebanks duanee@kmimediagroup.com Circulation Barbara Gill barbg@kmimediagroup.com Data Specialists Summer Walker summerw@kmimediagroup.com Raymer Villanueva raymerv@kmimediagroup.com

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NAV NOTES

Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Coast Guard Navy Cross Winner Laid to Rest Retired U.S. Coast Guard Commander Ray Evans, 92, was laid to rest June 5 with full military honors.

Evans was the final Coast Guard survivor of a dramatic rescue of a group of Marines pinned down by machine gun fire during the Guadalcanal Campaign, September 1942, where he earned the Navy Cross.

Among those who attended the memorial service were his wife of more than 70 years Dorothy, his children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren, and Coast Guard Vice Commandant Vice Admiral John Currier.

Members of the Marine Corps Security Force Battalion Bangor performed a three-volley salute at the funeral signifying the bond Evans and the Marine Corps have shared since the darkest days of World War II. Evans joined the Coast Guard alongside Medal of Honor recipient Douglas Munro in September 1939. “[I] came out of high school and looked for a job all summer in 1939, and it was a very poor time for jobs, and went to the Coast Guard and they said they had not taken a recruit in seven years,” said Evans in an oral history recorded in 1992. “They called me back in September and said, ‘Are you still interested? We’ve got seven openings.’ I said, ‘Yes, I am.’ And that’s how it started, as an apprentice seaman at $21 a month.”

After joint assignments that took Evans and Munro from Washington State to New York City, the two shipmates found themselves aboard the U.S. Army transport ship Hunter Liggett. It was during a trip to India, 250 miles south of Cape Town, South Africa, on a quiet December morning in 1941, they heard over the radio that bombs had fallen on Pearl Harbor.

In less than a year Evans and Munro were reassigned as coxswain and crew of Higgins boats that were responsible for transporting Marines to and from Guadalcanal. In the Second Battle of the Matanikau, part of the Guadalcanal Campaign, after successfully taking Marines from the 1st Battalion 7th Marines 1st Marine Division ashore, the two Coast Guardsmen returned to their previously assigned position. Almost immediately, they learned that conditions ashore were different than had been anticipated, and the Marines were surrounded by enemy Japanese forces on the beachhead. It was necessary to evacuate the Marines immediately.

Both men volunteered for the job and brought their boats to shore under heavy enemy fire, then proceeded to evacuate the men on the beach.

Evans remained at his post during the entire evacuation. He maintained control of his boat with one hand on the wheel and continued to fire his weapon with the other until the last boat cleared the beach. For his actions, Evans was awarded the Navy Cross.

Evans’ friend would not fare as well. When the majority of the Marines were in the boats, complications arose in evacuating the last men, whom Munro realized would be in the greatest danger. He placed himself and his boat in such a way that they would serve as cover for the last men to leave.

“I saw that Doug was facing forward, and I was standing up by the coxswain looking back. I saw this line of waterspouts coming across the water, and I yelled at Doug to get down,” said Evans during his oral history. “He couldn’t hear me over the engine noise, and it hit him.”

Munro remained conscious long enough to say four words: “Did they get off?”

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“He said, ‘Did they get off?’ and that’s about all he said. And then he died. I don’t think he ever heard me answer him.

Evans remained humble about his contribution during his service on Guadalcanal.

“We just did a job,” said Evans. “We were asked to take them over there, and we were asked to bring them back off of there, and that’s what we did. That’s what the Coast Guard does. We do what we’re asked to do.”

His humbleness turned to awe as he remembered the Marines and his close association with them so many years ago.

“Got to admire those guys,” said Evans. “I really feel a great deal of pride that when they received the Presidential Unit Citation for Guadalcanal, First Marine Division, that they gave to all us Coast Guard that were there with them. And that was, that was great.”

In 1962, Evans retired after 23 years of service in the Coast Guard and passed away peacefully in his home May 30, 2013. And though another chapter of a heroic World War II veteran has closed, his sacrifices will never be forgotten.

PEOPLE

Lt. Cmdr. Justin Kimura

Lieutenant Commander Justin Kimura, the commanding officer of Coast

Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Guard Cutter Hollyhock, spoke during a change-ofcommand ceremony June 14, 2013, at the Coast Guard Moorings at Waterworks Pier in Port Huron, Mich. Kimura assumed command of the Hollyhock from Commander Timothy Brown, who is being assigned to the Coast Guard Academy as the planning officer.

­CGF 5.2 | 3

Modernization of the Coast Guard fleet brings added capabilities and efficiencies.

By Peter Buxbaum, CGF Correspondent maritime homeland security, law enforcement and national defense The U.S. Coast Guard’s modernization program has been ongoing missions.” for nearly two decades. The Coast Guard will be investing a total of $30 Each NSC is 418 feet long with an operational range of 12,000 billion to modernize its ships, boats, aircraft and systems. The Coast nautical miles, a top speed of 28 knots and a 60-day endurance. “The Guard’s multifaceted missions—ensuring public safety, enforcing laws, NSC is the first Coast Guard cutters to feature both a helicopter flight protecting natural resources, and providing for maritime homeland deck and a small boat stern launch,” said Olexy. “The NSC’s advanced security—require that the Coast Guard invest in and maintain a variety command and control communications systems greatly improve of operational vessels. its interoperability and information sharing with the Department of The scope and extent of the Coast Guard’s recapitalization program Homeland Security, Department of Defense and other operational is evident in the frequency of its vessel ordering and delivery announcepartners.” ments. Just in recent months, the Coast Guard awarded a $487 million The NSC is also equipped with automated weapons systems, contract to Huntington Ingalls Industries for the production of the advanced command and control equipment, detection sixth national security cutter (NSC) and a $9.4 million and defense capabilities against chemical, biological or contract to Marinette Marine Corporation for the proradiological attack, and advanced sensors systems to duction of four response boats-medium (RB-M). The provide enhanced maritime domain awareness.

Coast Guard also took delivery of two RB-Ms and one Huntington Ingalls emphasized crew quality of life fast response cutter in May 2013. At the same time, the features when designing the NSC, noted French. “The Coast Guard is conducting an ongoing competition for maximum size state room accommodates six persons,” the design of the offshore patrol cutter (OPC), a nexthe said. “All rooms accommodate the local area netgeneration ship that will complement the Coast Guard’s work and video entertainment and each has its own fleet to extend the service’s operational capabilities. head and showers. The Coast Guard has 40 percent The national security cutter is the largest and most mixed gender crews, and this allows for the versatility advanced of the Coast Guard recapitalization program’s to mix crews with separate spaces for all personnel. cutters and is replacing the 378-foot High Endurance Jim French There is also an enlisted crewmember lounge so they Hamilton class cutters which have been in service since don’t have to go to the mess deck to get together. We also added fitness the 1960s. The first NSC was commissioned in 2008. center into the vessel so crewmembers can work out while at sea. No The NSCs are designed to execute the Coast Guard’s most chalother ship has a built-in, specifically designed a fitness center.” lenging missions, such as supporting joint U.S. combatant commandHuntington Ingalls has received interest in the NSC from interers and exerting jurisdiction over foreign-flagged ships transiting U.S. national coast guards and navies, including groups from Canada and waters. Expected to remain in service for 30 years, the NSC is able to Saudi Arabia. “We think it is because it has been designed to be easily operate at higher speeds, in higher sea states, and with greater enduradaptable to mission requirements,” said French. “The C4I suite is ance and range than its predecessor. plug and play and the electronics and weapons packages can be conThe Coast Guard plans to acquire eight NSCs, noted Brian Olexy, figured to meet specific requirements.” a program analyst at the U.S. Coast Guard. Three NSCs, the Bertholf, the Waesche and the Stratton, are operational and homeported in Alameda, Calif. Two NSCs are currently in production. The fourth NSC Response Boats is 44 percent complete and is expected to be delivered in September 2014, according to Jim French, NSC program manager at Huntington The recent response boats-medium contract brings the total Ingalls. The fifth NSC is 20 percent complete and is scheduled to be number of RB-Ms under contract to 170 with deliveries scheduled delivered in June 2015. French expects the sixth NSC to be delivered through 2015. Since March 2008, 124 RB-Ms have been delivered to in December 2016 and to soon receive the order for the seventh cutter Coast Guard stations around the country. The RB-Ms are designed to long lead time material followed with a production contract by the end meet Coast Guard mission requirements for search and rescue, ports, of this year. waterways and coastal security, and drug migrant interdiction. The “The NSC is the most capable vessel of the Coast Guard’s recapiRB-Ms replace the Coast Guard’s 41-foot utility boats [UTBs] and other talized surface fleet,” said Olexy. “It features robust capabilities for large nonstandard boats.

4 | CGF 5.2

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Mission Ready

Proven Performance

National Security Cutter

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The Legend Continues Semper Paratus

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gunner’s platform provides 180-degree firing capability. Metal Shark “The 41-foot UTBs are at the end of their 25-year economic service has delivered 40 boats thus far. life and are experiencing escalating maintenance costs and reduced Willard Marine manufactures a product line of boats operational availability,” noted Olexy. “The new platin both aluminum and fiberglass from 16 feet to 60 feet. forms bring improvements in performance, efficiency “We manufacture a line of rigid inflatable boats in the and reliability.”

25- to 36-foot range as well as a line of cabin patrol boats The 45-foot, all-aluminum RB-M boasts an improved from 24 feet to 60 feet,” said CJ Lozano, Willard Marine’s design, new ergonomics and enhanced safety features, director of government products. “All of our boats are making boat crews more effective in performing their built to the stringent military specifications as well as multiple missions. The RB-M’s features include a deep the options chosen for the final outfitting of the boats.”

V-shaped hull for a balance of speed and stability, “When Willard Marine built the original prototype fore and aft weapons mounts, and shock-mitigating LRI [long range interceptor] for the USCG national seats in the pilothouse. “They are equipped with twin security cutter we were plunged into the world of diesel engines with waterjet propulsion, eliminating situational awareness, both visual and technical,” said propellers beneath the boat to make it safer to retrieve Dean Jones Lozano. “From a visual and human factors standpoint someone from the water and protect the engines from debris,” said Olexy. The RB-M can reach a maximum djones@metalsharkboats.com we came to understand and adopt the lessons taught by these practices. Height clearances, human movements speed of 42.5 knots, has a range of 250 nautical miles at and reactions as well as boat reactions in different sea 30 knots and one-day endurance, and accommodates a states all must be taken into account when designing and building crew of four. boats for critical homeland security missions.

“The RB-M project has worked closely with operational comAdding the technical awareness to the mix can make it more chalmanders to develop a more capable response boat,” said Olexy. “Its siglenging. Operating laptop computers and touch screen radar screens nificantly increased speed improves response time for missions, while a while underway in a heavy sea state can prove extremely difficult if design that incorporates human factors systems engineering decreases not designed and built properly. The simple placement of switches and crew fatigue on extended patrols.” Two new RB-Ms were delivered in control knobs becomes very important to be able to function under all May 2013 to Islamorada, Fla., and Niagara, N.Y. conditions.

The Coast Guard is also replacing its response boats-small and Willard’s designs have taken into account the ride, stability and to that end awarded a $192 million contract in 2011 to Metal Shark crew safety when designing their boats.

Aluminum Boats for the construction of up to 470 boats for the Coast “There has been a lot of effort from the industry to provide product Guard fleet and an additional 30 boats to be available to U.S. Customs to help mitigate these effects,” said Lozano. “From shock mitigating and Border Protection and the U.S. Navy. The current RB-S program seating to deck padding to help absorb some of the shock associated replaces the first generation of response boat-small. with operating boats in rough seas. Besides providing these types of “This is one of the largest boat buys of its kind for the Coast Guard,” products we try to implement other simple upgrades that help mitigate noted Dean Jones, Metal Shark’s national sales manager. the shock or protect the occupants from getting injured. Seat belts, The 28-foot RB-S is powered by twin 225-horsepower Honda outfoot straps, overhead clearance and padding are just a few of the things board engines which can achieve speeds exceeding 40 knots and has a we design into our boats construction to help overcome the hazards.” minimum range of 150 nautical miles. “The RB-S is ideally suited for Lozano also explained that most of the majority of the options and port and waterway enforcement, search and rescue operations, drug components used in the building of Willard boats utilize COTS making and coastal interdiction, environmental and other law enforcement logistics and support much easier. missions,” said Jones. “RBS also includes a full complement of communications and navigation gear, as well as shock-mitigating seats for enhanced crew comfort.”

Fast Response Cutter The crew is protected from enemies and the elements by a fullyenclosed cabin enhanced with ballistic materials. The vessel’s side The fast response cutter (FRC), also known as the Sentinel class and rear windows drop down to improve crew communication and patrol boat, is replacing the 110-foot Island class patrol cutters to ventilation. “The biggest difference from the earlier RB-S is the window conduct missions such as port, waterways and coastal security; fishery system,” said Jones. “The entire cabin is glass which gives the crew patrols; search and rescue; and national defense. Sentinel’s enhanced 360-degree visibility. The windows drop into the hull converting the C4ISR systems are interoperable with existing and future Coast Guard vessel from an open cabin to a center console type of boat.” assets as well as with those of the Department of Defense and the The 360-degree visibility provides additional visibility and safety to Department of Homeland Security. The Sentinel is being equipped with the operator and the entire crew when approaching or coming aboard an enhanced bridge suite that better facilitates information sharing as other vessels, noted Jones. “The more you can see the safer you are,” he well as more secure and encrypted communications. As many as 34 said. “The convertible features allow you to button the boat up in cold Sentinels are planned. weather and drop the windows in hot weather.”

The first Sentinel was delivered to the Coast Guard by Bollinger The second-generation RB-S measures 29 feet, 4 feet longer than Shipyards in 2012 and five more have since been delivered, most its predecessor. “We chose to go longer to extend the range of the boat, recently in May 2013. Bollinger is currently under contract for 18 so that it could handle rougher waters, to increase its mission capabilivessels, with another six expected to be ordered within the next few ties, and to add to crew comfort,” said Jones. months. The maximum allowable under the current contract is 34. The RB-S is equipped with multiple weapons racks and an integrated Coast Guard is expected to re-compete the program at some point and weapons-ready mounting system at the bow. The forward-mounted is expected to acquire a total of 58 FRCs. 6 | CGF 5.2

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P R O V I D I N G “ G A M E - C H A N G I N G ” C 4I S R S Y S T E M S TO THE U.S. COAST GUARD

Photo courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard. Use of this photo does not constitute endorsement by the USCG.

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L-3 is proud to provide the Coast Guard with integrated C 4ISR systems that deliver formidable operational advantages and are scalable to meet any size platform within its new cutter fleet. Designed for a broad range of missions, these cutters will feature the L-3 Symphony TM and MarCom® integrated and automated interior/exterior communications systems, as well as the Coast Guard’s SEAWATCH C 2 system on the Fast Response Cutter, allowing full integration with DoD and DHS tactical voice, data and networking systems.

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experts in other critical shipbuilding areas to meet the unique challenges of the OPC, and have worked with them over the past three years on our design and production plan.”

Vigor’s partners include design agent CDI Marine, propulsion system integrator DRS Power & Control Technologies, C4ISR systems integrator L-3 Communications Systems-East, HVAC specialist York Navy Systems, habitability specialist US Joiner, aluminum fabricator Kvichak Marine Industries, as well as Service Chris Bollinger Steel and Norwegian companies Ulstein Design & Soluchrisb@bollingershipyards.com tions and VestDavit.

Vigor recently completed a major $57 million renovation of the Coast Guard’s only operational heavy icebreaker, the Polar Star, returning her to service for an additional 10 to 12 years. “Vigor also has a multi-year maintenance contract for Coast Guard Cutter Healy,” said von Ruden. “Vigor has performed routine and emergent repairs on every major cutter class on the West Coast, including the National Security cutter, the 378-foot high-endurance cutter, the 210-foot mediumendurance cutter, and the 225-foot and 175-foot buoy tenders.” On the shipbuilding front, Vigor, in the past Bob Montgomery three years, delivered three 274-foot roll-on/roll-off bob.montgomery@l-3com.com ferries for the state of Washington and is currently building two larger ferries measuring 362 feet in length.

Vigor’s proposed OPC design features the Ulstein X-Bow hull form which allows for greater speed and improved fuel efficiency in moderate to heavy seas. “The X-Bow design will allow the Vigor OPC, along with its helicopters and small boats, to perform more effectively in the offshore environment than conventional hull forms,” said von Ruden. “To maximize capability, Vigor tapped the experience of a number of seasoned Coast Guard cuttermen to design in other mission-enabling Offshore Patrol Cutter Matt von Ruden and proprietary features throughout the vessel. The Still in competition is the offshore patrol cutter, matt.vonruden@vigorshipyards.com Vigor OPC is based on a commercial vessel design, which will help reduce the cost of the ship.” which will eventually replace legacy 210-foot and “L-3 is working extremely hard on the offshore patrol cutter acqui270-foot cutters. “The offshore patrol cutter will feature increased range sition program, the largest acquisition in Coast Guard history,” said and endurance, powerful weapons, a larger flight deck, and improved Montgomery. “We are working with a number of shipyards as their C4ISR equipment,” said the Coast Guard’s Olexy. “The OPC will accomC4ISR teammate, highlighting the commonality benefits and streammodate aircraft and small boat operations in all weather.” lined logistics provided by the FRC and NSC platforms. We feel we are The Coast Guard is using a two-phased design and build strategy to the ideal C4ISR partner for the shipyards due to our experience as the acquire the OPC. “This approach establishes stable requirements and only company that has integrated the USCG SeaWatch Command and design early on in the life of the acquisition, which helps mitigate cost Control system, currently on the FRC and specified on the OPC, as well and schedule risks,” said Olexy. “The first phase includes preliminary as our experience and performance in TEMPEST, Information Assurand contract design, and the second phase will include detail design ance and ABS requirements.” and construction.”

Vigor’s teammate for propulsion systems is DRS Power & Control The award for the first-phase contract is expected in September and Technologies Inc. “Our approach is to evaluate state-of-the-market syswill be awarded to up to three vendors. “The Coast Guard will evaluate tems to meet the necessary affordability and mission requirements,” these designs and select one vendor for detail design and construction,” said Matthew Rhinehart, the company’s OPC program manager. “We said Olexy. Vigor Shipyards, NASSCO, Bollinger, Eastern Shipbuilding are acting as a propulsion procurator for Vigor in addition to being and Huntington Ingalls are among the companies vying for phase-one their propulsion system integrator.” contracts.

Ulstein, Rhinehart noted, has delivered over 40 vessels with the “Vigor’s primary shipbuilding strengths are the high quality of our X-Bow design, each with a different propulsion system. “We evalusteel fabrication, project management, and customer satisfaction,” said ated both Ulstein’s existing designs and other fielded propulsion and Matt von Ruden, program manager at Vigor Shipyards, and a retired power generation solutions for applicability to the U.S. Coast Guard Coast Guard captain. “We’ve assembled a team of complementary Bollinger Shipyards built 49 110-foot Island-class vessels beginning in 1984. “By comparison, the Sentinel is exponentially bigger, better, faster and smoother. The capabilities are almost not even comparable,” said Chris Bollinger executive vice president of Bollinger Shipyards.

“The FRC has a contract speed of 28 knots and we are seeing it do over 30 knots. The FRC has a 25 mm chain gun and several 50 caliber machine guns on different areas of the vessel and a whole new high-tech C4I suite.”

The C4I suite, built for Bollinger by L-3 Communications, can be integrated with all Coast Guard assets. The 154-foot FRC crews 24 and has an endurance of five days at sea with a range of 3,000 nautical miles.

“We built our shipyard to be more of a manufacturing facility than a shipbuilder,” said Bollinger. “Modules are fitted into sub-assemblies and into larger assemblies.

That is not how ships are typically built one off.”

L-3 provides the integrated communications systems and overall C4ISR integration for both the national security cutter and the fast response cutter. At the core of these systems are the L-3 MarCom Integrated Communications System and the L-3 Symphony Automated Communications Manager. L-3 also integrates the Coast Guard’s SeaWatch command and control system on the FRC. “The Coast Guard feels the C4ISR system on the FRC adds formidable operational advantages, and in some respects surpasses other major cutters currently at sea,” said Bob Montgomery, L-3’s director of homeland security programs. “The Coast Guard calls the FRC a game-changer, with the impressive C4ISR suite fully integrating with the Department of Defense’s and the Department of Homeland Security’s tactical voice, data and networking systems.”

8 | CGF 5.2

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“With an original design there is more flexibility to requirements,” he said. “The team tackled ship-wide make changes when you finally get customer input,” propulsion equipment trade-offs based on requireNicholson added. “We believe ours is a lower-risk design ments, risk and affordability, resulting in a baseline and we think it will provide the Coast Guard a higher cutter design that addresses Coast Guard missions.” quality cutter at a much more affordable price. We have DRS companies have designed, delivered and integrated devoted a program manager and dedicated design team power distribution equipment, power conversion equipto this project for the last four years and have spent ment, and control systems for both combatants and significant company resources. Our proposed OPC is rugged marine environments, with equipment on every the fifth design spiral.”

U.S. Navy combatant since World War II. Eastern Shipbuilding Group has also not built for Huntington Ingalls’ approach to the design of the Matt Rhinehart the Coast Guard before. The impetus for entering the OPC is the build on the success it enjoyed with the national security cutter. “The Ingalls OPC shares com- matthewgrhinehart@drs.com OPC competition was a business decision, said Mike Yriondo, the company’s OPC program manager. “It is mon equipment, training and logistics with the NSC,” the perfect size for us,” he said. “We routinely build vessaid Christie Thomas, the company’s capture manager sels of this size.” for OPC. “This will drive the affordability of the ship Eastern’s 1,500-man workforce is currently building and drive down acquisition and life cycle costs. We have 20 Platform Supply Vessels for three different customprovided a low-risk and fully compliant solution for the ers in the oil industry, 18 of them in the 300-foot range Coast Guard.” and two that are 327’ LOA. “These are very high-tech The OPC’s missions and requirements are “more and sophisticated vessels,” said Yriondo, “comparable in similar than not” to those of the NSC, according to many ways to the sophistication required for the OPC. Thomas. “Our OPC incorporates the best practices of They are all being equipped with diesel/electric propulthe NSC as far habitability and capability,” she said. sion systems, dynamic positioning systems, omnidi“Both vessels have the capability of operating in Sea Christie Thomas rectional Z-drives, two or more large bow thrusters, State 5, including the launch and recovery of helicopIntegrated Bridge System, Firefighting 1 or 2. They are ters and small boats. Our shipyard has the production fully automated below decks, and are fully ABS complicapability to build the OPC with no investment requireant. We are currently launching and delivering one of ment and the production of the OPC will align with our these sophisticated vessels every six weeks.” work on the NSC.” Eastern’s proposed OPC includes two diesel engines The key innovation in the OPC design submitted by supplemented by two 1,000 kilowatt electric motors NASSCO is that it is original and not based on a “parent inputting into a common reduction gear. “The Coast craft,” noted Eric Nicholson, NASSCO’s program manGuard can operate either or both, in any combination of ager. “We used a cadre of production personnel in the configurations” said Yriondo. “They can use the electric design process and we essentially have a ready-to-build motors at lower speeds and a single diesel engine when design,” he said. “This reduces the costs and scheduling they’re going the endurance speed, and both diesels/ risks of dumping the entire process on design personnel.

Eric Nicholson both electric drives when going flank speed. A large perWe have a high degree of production ownership and we enichols@nassco.com centage of OPC missions are performed below 12 knots, have taken a similar approach in our commercial work.” according to the Coast Guard’s mission profile.”

“We have done repair work on similar class ships for both the Coast A gyroscope stabilization system, supplied by Seakeeper Inc., subGuard and the Navy,” added Nicholson. stantially improves seakeeping through roll reduction and allows the The downside of using a design based on a parent craft is that the launch and recovery of boats and helicopters at higher sea states than parent design may have inherent limitations with respect to the Coast specified, according to Yriondo.

Guard’s requirements, according to Nicholson. “Changing one charac“Over the last 10 years, Eastern has built and delivered 113 ships teristic in the parent craft could mean changing a lot of other things [average of one a month], only one of which was not on or ahead of in the materials and the production of the new vessel,” said Nicholson. schedule,” Yriondo added. “The Coast Guard has been impressed with “You can take the best parent craft design you can find, but you still that in our discussions.” have to modify it to produce it in your yard.”

Eastern possesses all required manufacturing facilities required to NASSCO’s design process contrasts to the traditional way this efficiently execute the OPC program, and has exclusive teaming agreeprocess is done, according to Nicholson. “Normally shipbuilders hire ments with Northrop Grumman Maritime Systems (C4ISR), Quantic design agents who are presented with a parent craft for the requireEngineering and Logistics/Engility (ILS and HFE/HSI), STX Canada ments, production and sourcing,” he explained. “We bring production Marine (engineering and design), Seakeeper Inc. (stability solutions), personnel into the design process. These are people building ships for and Babcock International (detail design and production engineering).

40 to 50 years. We do all engineering work in house with production Bollinger Shipyards’ proposed OPC is focused in meeting Coast personnel present. The resulting design enjoys team ownership and Guard requirements in an affordable package. “I think we have a great facility ownership.” vessel great design and I am excited about it,” said Bollinger. O Design agents create a barrier between engineering and production, according to Nicholson. “We short circuit that process to produce a more mature design,” he said. “We have 100 percent of the design and For more information, contact Editor-In-Chief Jeff McKaughan jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or planning work done at the start of production. We have 100 percent of search our online archives for related stories at www.cgf-kmi.com. material on hand.” www.CGF-kmi.com

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By Peter Buxbaum CGF Correspondent

The hoist is the thin lifeline virtually every rescue depends on.

powered rescue hoists to OEMs and operators around the world. “We Search and rescue has long been one of the Coast Guard’s core have been manufacturing this hoist for 25 years,” Koons added. “It’s a missions. Search and rescue units rarely operate in fair weather condiproven design and is extremely reliable, which is why the Coast Guard tions; it is heavy weather that often brings on the distress necessitating still operates it today.” search and rescue, which is why the Coast Guard acquires specialized The Breeze-Eastern hoist is a level wind hoist. “From our perspecequipment to perform these heroic tasks. tive, the biggest advantage is our reactive overload clutch, which can Coast Guard helicopters are equipped with specialized hoists that handle not only steady overload conditions, but also shock loads, withallow the crew to lift victims from rough seas as efficiently as possible. out breaking the cable. This greatly enhances safety in that it protects There are two companies that supply this equipment to the Coast the operators in both situations,” said Koons. “Our hoist has been Guard: UTC Aerospace Systems (UTAS), a newly formed company qualified by the Coast Guard to operate at up to 30-degree fleet angles.” integrating Goodrich and Hamilton Sundstrand; and Breeze-Eastern The use of dual hoists is a growing requirement in search and resCorporation. cue, especially for organizations operating in extreme environments, UTAS manufacturers hoists that are used by the U.S. Coast Guard Echeverria noted. “Some SAR operators equate a dual hoist system to as well as international coast guards, armed forces, and law enforcehaving a second helicopter on the scene that can immediately take over ment and firefighting organizations. “UTC Aerospace Systems is the the mission, should a cable on the primary hoist be damaged or have to only hoist manufacturer that produces both traditional level wind be sheered to protect the aircraft and crew,” he said. “Rather than abort and unique translating drum cable management systems,” said Alex a mission, the operator simply switches to the secondary hoist system.”

Echeverria, business development director at UTAS. “Each design folKoons agreed that operators are interested in the dual hoists and lows a basic concept. A guided cable is dropped then wound back up to added that they are looking for improvements on the basics. “They execute a rescue.” don’t want to add a lot of technology,” he said, “but they are interested Translating drum rescue hoists were developed, according to Echin a robust design that is reliable and maintainable.” everria, to overcome the operational challenges generated from high The features Breeze-Eastern has added to its hoist in the last couple winds, obstacles, pitching decks and swift water where fleet angles can of years include a more reliable and durable type of mechanical brake, become extreme. “The cable rolls off of a drum and as it is reeled out or as well as its reactive overload clutch. The company is focused on in the drum translates back and forth, allowing the cable to enter and providing customer service through increasing spare parts inventory, exit from a single point,” Echeverria explained. “The benefits include a reducing O&R turn times and adding additional staff to provide better more consistent layering of the cable, reducing loads and wear and the technical support. Under development is an engineering program with possibility of a miswrap.” the Coast Guard that will make the hydraulic controller more reliable This means more consistent, reliable operation in extreme and and easier to maintain. unpredictable rescue situations. Translating drum “The controllers, which were originally supplied by hoists are significantly faster than level wind hoists. another manufacturer, have been coming off the aircraft “We see at least three times longer cable life with the at least once a year for maintenance,” said Koons. “The translating drum hoist,” said Echeverria. new box that we are developing has the same footprint, Traditional level wind hoists are also reliable, but the same shape, and the same interface as before. There are designed for less usage and in environments that are will be no impact from the operator’s perspective. But less challenging. “We make both level wind and transfrom a maintenance perspective, it will be more reliable, lating drum hoists powered by AC, DC or hydraulics,” more maintainable and more cost-effective because said Echeverria. “The power source depends on the they won’t be serviced as frequently.” power available on the aircraft. AC power works quickUTAS has produced higher efficiency and lighter est in high sea states.” UTAS rescue hoists have been Alex Echeverria motors and controller for its hoists. It has patented a integrated on the Coast Guard’s HH-60 Jayhawks and on many other helicopters around the world, according alexander.echeverria@utas.utc.com cable jam detection system and has incorporated load sensors and flood lights on the mechanisms. In the to Echeverria. works at UTAS is the integration of video recording for training and “We make a hydraulically-powered hoist for the Coast Guard HH65 after-action review and an investigation of new materials to make cables Dauphin helicopter,” said Mike Koons, vice president of contracts and more rugged. O customer support at Breeze-Eastern Corporation. The company has sold the Coast Guard 120 of its hydraulic hoists, to equip the 102 Dauphins in the Coast Guard fleet.

For more information, contact Editor-In-Chief Jeff McKaughan jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or Breeze-Eastern designed and manufactured the first helicopter ressearch our online archives for related stories at www.cgf-kmi.com. cue hoist and for nearly 70 years, has supplied AC, DC and hydraulically 10 | CGF 5.2

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The maritime environment is demanding on electronic displays, but industry is up to the high standards required.

By Henry Canaday CGF Correspondent Strickland said standardized systems are called out in statements of Selection of displays and consoles for Coast Guard boats and cutters work and specifications for acquisition of new vessels. is a complicated business, involving a variety of technical requirements To maintain a manufacturer’s stated levels of water-proofing, to ensure performance in tough conditions, as well as economic conresiliency against vibrations and shocks, and protection against electrosiderations. magnetic interference, builders of new boats or cutters must adhere to Selection starts when the C4IT Service Center conducts an acquisimanufacturer installation requirements and any additional guidance tion for electronic systems that the Coast Guard intends to standardize provided by the Coast Guard. across the fleet, explained Tim Strickland, chief of business operations The Coast Guard is beginning to update operational requirements at the C4IT. “These would include radios, radars, and other communifor integrated short-range radar, chart plotter, position sensor, depth cations and navigation sensors,” Strickland said. “Acquisition efforts sounder and heading sensor for its next-generation scalable inteare based on operational requirements defined by facility managers, grated navigation system. These requirements apply across all vessels, CG-731, CG-751 and CG-761. Operational requirements drive the with boats being the most numerous. Vessel-specific development of functional requirements and system requirements are recognized, especially for small boats specifications.” that sustain repeated pounding and ice breakers that Specifications are typically set by industry standards encounter constant vibration. organizations such as the International Organization Private firms offer a variety of displays, some that for Standardization, the International Electro-Technical emphasize ruggedness at affordable costs while others Commission (IEC) and the National Marine Electronics meet the most demanding military standards.

Association. “Infrequently, we call out military stanAydin Displays has been in the rugged-display busidards, for example MIL-STD 1310, Electro-Magnetic ness since 1967, noted Craig Armstrong, vice president Emission Mitigation Practices,” Strickland said. for federal government. It is U.S.-based, important The Coast Guard heavily uses International Maribecause governments often seek to buy from hometime Organization (IMO) requirements and standards Avi Shefet country manufacturers. set by IEC Technical Committee 80 (TC80). For examAydin makes rugged displays from 6.5 inches to ple, the recent AN/SPS-50 surface search radar is based shefetd@d3inc.net 65 inches in diagonal measure and from 15 inches to on IMO requirements and IEC TC80 standards. And the 24 inches for civil-marine applications. The company fast response cutter (FRC) is based on IMO’s High Speed is the largest supplier of displays to the U.S. Navy with Craft Code. installations in combat information centers, bridge and Once systems are acquired and operational testing engine rooms. complete, the Coast Guard standardizes them through Aydin civil-marine displays are in the process of a Department of Homeland Security approval process. meeting IMO specifications. Aydin mechanical and elecThis enables the Coast Guard to tightly control configutrical engineers regularly design for both full military ration of standard systems across various acquisitions. and civil-marine requirements.

Standardization improves crew safety by increasing crew Aydin equipment is liquid-crystal displays (LCD), experience and familiarity with complicated systems generally backlit by light emitting diodes (LED). The that operate in highly stressful or hostile environments.

Craig Armstrong firm is developing next-generation organic LED, OLED Standardization also yields interoperability of systems and assets, common tactics and optimized logistics. carmstrong@aydindisplays.com rugged displays, which provide sharper images and www.CGF-kmi.com

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The Coast Guard may be satisfied with avoiding explosions in some purer colors and eliminate smear or flicker on screens. To reduce cost, parts of a vessel. the company has teamed with a prime OLED manufacturer, bringing Other important requirements are MIL-STD 461 for EMI and MILits own experience in rugged designs that meet military standards and STD 167 for vibration. “We meet all those,” Holder noted. extreme environmental requirements.

Holder said the Coast Guard is setting stricter requirements Also partnering with Aydin in approaching the Coast Guard is as some missions become more combat- and defense-related—for Marine PC. President Bob Lyons said his firm has supplied marineexample, dealing with drug runners and terrorists who may have fast grade computers and rugged, waterproof, sunlight-readable displays boats, big guns, missiles and even submarines. “The enemy has stepped to many users, including 25- to 33-foot Coast Guard and Customs and up their game. We see the Coast Guard asking for the same equipment Border Protection patrol boats, and 15.4-inch displays for the outdoor the Navy has.” fly-bridge of 110-foot patrol boats.

The Coast Guard also seeks energy efficiency, and Intergraph has “We started collaborating with Aydin to improve the brand and developed a sealed computer system that uses considerably less power make a broader range of products,” Lyons said. “We stop at 15 inches, than conventional computers. It will be deployed on existing and new they start at 15. They are the number-one supplier of LCDs to the Navy; cutters. When a new computer is sold, accessories like keyboards and we focus on computers and displays for smaller vessels.” display monitors are usually sold along with it.

Both Marine PC and Aydin displays offer multi-function screens Intergraph’s rugged displays are chiefly commercial technoloobtaining data from computers, cameras or other sensors. Marine PC gies, modified and integrated into modified consoles to meet military has made displays for infrared sensors and developed a solid-state DVR requirements. “Rather than designing and developing a very expensive system that stores camera images, integrated within the monitor. system from scratch, we can often modify commercial technologies to Marine PC’s professional displays do not have military connectors meet warfighter requirements,” Holder explained. but in other ways meet tough environmental requirements costThe firm’s displays are currently LCD, and it is investigating LED effectively. Displays work in a broader temperature range than civilian for possible future use. “The Navy and Coast Guard like to have the displays because the Coast Guard does. They are not built to the same latest and greatest technology,” Holder said. “But if existing technolextreme electromagnetic interference (EMI) standards because they ogy fits in the box and does the job, they may prefer that to waiting to need not be as stealthy as Navy equipment is to work with special operahave something new certified, training conducted and parts ordered tions. Marine PC equipment is tough, but does not meet the extreme through DLA.” shock and vibration requirements of Navy displays.

Intergraph makes 10- to 52-inch displays for ships. Some have IMO standards are coming to U.S. civilian vessels and the Coast metal hoods that can be folded down to protect both display and operaGuard will enforce them. “They may want to meet them and use the tor when the display is not in use. Hoods also help deal with sunlight same hardware and software standards,” Lyons said. outdoors. The displays have control knobs that can adjust contrast for Lyons argued Aydin’s experience with Navy military specifications, lighting conditions. plus Marine PC’s experience with commercial and Coast Guard requireThe company offers a display for the bridge wing, which vessel comments, puts the partners in a unique position. “Aydin knows how to manders must use when docking or maneuvering in design, manufacture, do records, and meet quality and locks and narrow waterways. Bridge-wing displays must reliability standards for the Navy. We can help them meet very tough environmental requirements. with the Coast Guard and commercial users. We are Rockwell Collins has displays on most U.S. Coast U.S.-based, giving our government the opportunity to Guard aircraft and ground stations, noted Principal buy American.”

Program Manager Robert Koelling. For vessels it has The firms will introduce Aydin’s Omega product developed, in collaboration with the Coast Guard, a line for electronic chart display and information sysmore commercial-type display to meet reduced requiretems that comply with IMO standards. They are looking ments and lower price points. at integrating high-definition camera images into dis“Unless they are fast cutters, their ships typically do plays. These products will be certified by the American not require stringent environmental capabilities. They Bureau of Shipping (ABS).

Russ Holder request more commercial displays and want better price Navy and Coast Guard equipment can differ, but points,” Koelling said. “Many times, their displays are the differences are usually small, said Russ Holder, vice russ.holder president of complex systems engineering and integra- @intergraphgovsolutions.com inside or in the hold in a more conditioned environment.” tion at Intergraph Government Solutions. Intergraph The collaboratively tested Rockwell Collins display makes computers and displays for larger Coast Guard is 15-inch touchscreen, with extended graphics array vessels like the 210- and 270-foot medium endurance and night-vision capability. There is also a 19-inch vercutters. sion, but customer emphasis has been on the 15-inch “There are unique issues on ships: salt water, fog, model. The display would be at a very competitive price humidity and extreme temperatures,” Holder explained. point if ordered in large numbers.

Both Navy and Coast Guard observe MIL-STD 810, Azonix Director of Military Products Pete Alexander which covers areas such as rain, shock, vibration, said his firm is offering the Coast Guard its Nautilus humidity, salt water, fog and extreme temperatures.

NR5000 19-inch and Barracuda Lite 19-inch HMI workMIL-STD 901 is absolutely required by the Navy, station displays. Applications for these include machinbut not as stringently applied by the Coast Guard. The Robert Koelling ery control, propulsion control, sensor control, damage Navy wants Grade A compliance, meaning equipment can function and avoid exploding after hard impacts. rhkoelli@rockwellcollins.com control, weapon systems and bridge wings.

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“All are fully ruggedized and tested to MIL-STD-901 D Grade A, MIL-STD810G, MIL-STD-167, MIL-STD-461 and IP- [Ingress Protection] 67 levels,” Alexander said. “Currently, they are being used aboard Freedom Class littoral combat ship, Arleigh Burkeclass guided missile destroyer and CVN [nuclear aircraft carrier] platforms.”

Daisy Data Displays (D3) provides Pete Alexander the Coast Guard a 10.4-inch x-terminal designed to meet, and tested peter.alexander @cooperindustries.com for, a variety of military standards, noted President David Shefet. “The display itself was modified such that it complies with both the sunlight-readable and night-vision requirements,” Shefet said. “With a single press of a button one can toggle the display between modes of operations. In addition, both the display and CPU card were equipped with heaters to enable the display to turn on in -40 degrees Centigrade.”

Kelly Hulse D3 offers a variety of displays and kelly.hulse@nauticom.com computing solutions that have been qualified for use on Navy vessels. The latest addition to D3’s product line is a 19-inch rack-mounted display.

Tognum America represents MTU in the United States. Tom Lewis, senior manager of government and naval at Tognum, said MTU supplies commercial marine LCDs ranging in size from 15 to 23 inches and available in both touchscreen and non-touchscreen versions. For the Coast Guard, MTU primarily supplies 15- and 17-inch displays.

MTU displays are qualified to Det Norske Veritas, Lloyds, Bureau Veritas, Germanischer Lloyd and ABS requirements and are designed to be installed in a console or other enclosure to provide adequate ingress protection in a variety of environments. The displays are compatible with most automation equipment and have digital video graphics array and red-green-blue inputs to support a variety of interfaces such as camera systems and high-definition graphics. An MTU display is on the Coast Guard’s FRC. “With the introduction of MTU’s new FAL-6 PLC-based systems, we are adding Panel PC-based displays that provide more installation flexibility and require less space in the console,” Lewis said.

Nauticomp has a variety of displays suitable for Coast Guard use, depending on the application, said Sales Manager Kelly Hulse. These range from 10.4-inch displays suitable for pilot houses to 26-inch LCDs for larger vessels.

Nauticomp’s entry-level displays are its Titan line, 10.4 inches, 15 inches and 19 inches, with up to three inputs and suitable for inside use. Titans could be used for navigation or security.

There are two other lines, Genesis and Signature, with the only difference being that Signature displays take six inputs, Genesis fewer.

Both can run on decks and are 15 to 19 inches diagonally.

Another Nauticomp display line is controlled remotely so these can be integrated. “Press a button and bring them all to the same level of brightness,” Hulse said. These run from 12 to 21 inches.

Then there are Centric displays, fully certified IMO products, ranging in size from 15 to 26 inches. Hulse said small displays used to be www.CGF-kmi.com

the standard, but the industry is moving to larger screens now. All Nauticomp displays take a number of inputs, digital and analog.

“In the past years Coast Guard and military displays were very different from commercial, but now they are making an effort to move to commercial, international standards,” Hulse said. “They enforce these on U.S. waters, so it makes sense.” These international standards require ruggedness against shock, vibration, water and mist and EMI limits.

Nauticomp makes both certified and non-certified equipment.

Certification can limit feature sets, in order to prevent inexperienced commercial crews from making mistakes. The Coast Guard, with much more experienced crew, uses both certified and non-certified equipment.

Nauticomp makes a very broad product line and has analog dimming controls, yielding very fine control over displays so they can be viewed in any light conditions. Its new Platinum series puts a light control button on both front and back. “We are also driving costs down,” Hulse said.

Further in future are two other technologies. OLED should yield lower power consumption, higher contrast and the flexibility to build in curves to fit in curved sections of ships. And transparent LCD will enable heads-up displays that can be seen through but also show symbols. O For more information, contact Editor-In-Chief Jeff McKaughan jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.cgf-kmi.com.

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ON THE HORIZON USCG Foreign Military Sales Program Willard Marine Inc. recently announced that the company has completed acceptance trials with the USCG FMS of eight 11-meter open console and cabin, rigid inflatable hulls (RIBs) for the USCG Foreign Military Sales Office (FMS). The acceptance trials were conducted in Long Beach, near the Anaheim manufacturing facility. Delivery is scheduled later this summer 2013 to Beirut, Lebanon.

The deep V-hull propulsion package for the Seaforce 11 meter is powered by dual 600 horsepower Cummins inboard diesel engines and twin 292 Hamilton water jets. According to the company, “The 11 meter is an excellent platform for our military customers and is built to the highest of standards. All of the same manufacturing processes, testing, evaluations, and quality assurance are used in the production of these boats.”

Willard Marine currently provides the 7 and 11 meter standard Navy RIBs on all U.S. Navy combatant ships, as well as a large number of support vessels in the U.S. naval fleet.

CJ Lozano, director of government sales, said Willard Marine is excited for this opportunity to work with the United States Coast Guard FMS and provide them with military quality platforms.

Fifteenth HC-144A Delivered and Maintenance Trainer Purchased The U.S. Coast Guard took delivery of its 15th HC-144A Ocean Sentry maritime patrol aircraft from prime contractor EADS North America.

The Ocean Sentry is based on the Airbus Military CN235 tactical airlifter, more than 230 of which are currently in operation by 29 countries.

The Coast Guard plans for a fleet of 36 Ocean Sentries. The HC-144A achieved initial operational capability with the Coast Guard in 2008.

Separately, the Coast Guard Aviation Logistics Center has purchased the prototype CN235 aircraft and plans to transform it into an HC-144A maintenance training unit. The transformation will configure the CN235 with systems from the HC-144. The systems will have built-in faults that will allow maintenance personnel the opportunity to learn troubleshooting on actual HC-144 aircraft.

“It is very satisfying to see this airframe being used as an integral part of the HC-144A program,” said Sean O’Keefe, chairman and chief executive officer of EADS North America. “We look forward to its performing many years of service in training the technicians who will keep the fleet safe in the air.”

The USCG Aviation Technical Training Center, located in Elizabeth City, N.C., currently has similar training aids for other fleet aircraft including the EADS Eurocopter MH-65 Dolphin helicopter. The HC-144 maintenance training unit will be the first of its kind for an Airbus Military aircraft when the transformation is complete.

The United States Coast Guard operates 14 HC-144A Ocean Sentry Maritime Patrol Aircraft and has four additional planes on order scheduled for delivery in 2013 and 2014. With the ability to remain airborne for more than 10 hours, the Ocean Sentry is performing a wide range of maritime patrol missions for the Coast Guard, including drug and migrant interdiction, disaster response, and search and rescue. The HC-144A achieved initial operational capability with the Coast Guard in 2008, and today is operational from Coast Guard air stations in Mobile, Ala., Cape Cod, Mass., and Miami.

Elizabeth City Aviation Logistics Center MRO Contract DRS Technologies Inc., a Finmeccanica Company, has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Coast Guard to continue its maintenance, repair and overhaul work at the U.S. Coast Guard Aviation Logistics Center in Elizabeth City, N.C. Under the contract, DRS’s Technical Services group will continue to provide maintenance, repair and overhaul services to Coast Guard C-130 aircraft for one year with yearly options to extend up to an additional four years. If all of the options are exercised by the Coast Guard, the contract could be worth up to $200 million.

For more than three years, DRS’s top-of-the-line MRO facility in Elizabeth City has been servicing the Coast Guard’s C-130 fleet and ensuring the aircraft are kept mission-ready. The DRS North Carolina site includes two modern aircraft modification, repair and overhaul facilities, each over 100,000 square feet.

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“We look forward to renewing our commitment to provide safe, on schedule, mission-ready aircraft for our valued Coast Guard customers with the highest quality workmanship to meet all mission requirements,” said Don Davis, vice president of operations for DRS’s Technical Services group.

“It is a privilege to support the men and women of the USCG and we take great pride in our service and delivery of aircraft ready to fly the mission.

Over 240 DRS employees contributed to this award by performing with excellence over the past 41 months.”

“DRS continuously strives to exceed expectations in its Technical Services Group with the facilities, tools and skilled workforce required to perform at the top of the industry for its aircraft customers, and the company looks forward to enhancing that level of service for the USCG in support of its vital mission,” said Mitchell Rambler, president of DRS’s Technical Services group. www.CGF-kmi.com

Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Latest Fast Response Cutter Delivered Bollinger Shipyards Inc. has delivered the Paul Clark, the sixth fast response cutter (FRC) to the United States Coast Guard.

The announcement was made by Bollinger executive vice president of new construction, Chris Bollinger. “We are very pleased to announce another successful on-time and on-budget FRC delivery to the Coast Guard. The Paul Clark was delivered to the 7th Coast Guard District in Key West, Fla., and will be stationed at USCG Sector Miami. We are all looking forward to the vessel’s upcoming commissioning, as well as honoring and celebrating the heroic acts of Paul Clark.”

The 154-foot patrol craft Paul Clark is the sixth vessel in the Coast Guard’s Sentinel-class FRC program. To build the FRC, Bollinger Shipyards used a proven, in-service parent craft design based on the Damen Stan Patrol Boat 4708. It has a flank speed of 28 knots, state of the art command, control, communications and computer technology, and a stern launch system for the vessels 26 foot cutter boat.

The FRC has been described as an operational “game changer” by senior Coast Guard officials.

The Coast Guard took delivery May 18th, 2013, in Key West, Fla., and is scheduled to commission the vessel in Miami in August, 2013.

Each FRC is named for an enlisted Coast Guard hero who distinguished him or herself in the line of duty. This vessel is named after Coast Guard Hero, Fireman First Class Paul Clark, who displayed fierce bravery in the highest traditions of military service during the allied assault on French Morocco during World War II. Clark served as a landing boat engineer and beach master on the USS Joseph T. Dickman.

Clark displayed extraordinary devotion to duty in the face of enemy fire as he transferred an injured fellow crewmember to safety from the USS Joseph T. Dickman to the USS Palmer, then courageously returned to his station at the beach to complete the mission.

Portable Explosive Detection EADS North America has completed development of the Sonex-P portable explosive detection device, a new technology that determines whether suspicious objects contain chemical, radiological, nuclear or explosive threats.

The man-portable Sonex-P is able to identify in as little as 90 seconds both the presence and location of chemical, radiological, nuclear and explosive threats located in parcels, luggage, ordnance or abandoned bags.

A Cooperative Research and Development Agreement was started in 2011 with the Naval Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division (NAVEODTECHDIV). The CRADA provided EADS North America access to NAVEODTECHDIV munitions for testing and refining of the systems detection algorithm to improve detection of live ordnance and inert ordnance. Testing and demonstration of performance were conducted at NAVEODTECHDIV and results were documented.

The system has a separate algorithm for law enforcement, homeland security and first responders who deal with suspicious packages, abandoned bags and non-ordnance explosive threats.

“With the push of a button, Sonex-P allows first responders including explosive ordnance disposal teams to identify and characterize material threats concealed in everyday objects,” said Sean O’Keefe, EADS North America chairman and CEO. “We are working with the Navy to customize the product and provide the greatest possible protection for disposal teams, first responders and the general public.”

Weighing 50 pounds, Sonex-P is comprised of only two elements: a portable detection head and a companion laptop computer. The portable unit can be quickly deployed in urban environments to scan unattended bags or other similarly-sized threat objects. The system projects neutron particles at an object to quickly identify the type, location and mass of suspicious material.

The Sonex-P operator receives an automatic indication of a threat or no-threat condition with supporting 3-D images to aid in the response. Detection is automatic; no operator determination is required other than initial setup and placement of the unit. The system signals either a red light (threat) or a green light (no threat) in as little as 90 seconds.

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Mobile Offshore Drilling Units to be Better Regulated U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Joseph Servidio, Assistant Commandant for Prevention Policy and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) Director James Watson signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for regulating mobile offshore drilling units (MODU) on the outer continental shelf (OCS).

“The Coast Guard and BSEE share the goal of keeping our oceans clean and offshore workers safe,” said Servidio. “This agreement solidifies the commitment of each of our agencies to work across agency boundaries to promote safety and most effectively use government resources.”

Under the current regulatory system, both the U.S. Coast Guard and BSEE have shared responsibilities for the regulation of safety management systems on the OCS. This MOA ensures a comprehensive joint approach in the regulation of MODUs by clearly outlining the responsibilities of each agency for inspection and oversight of the systems and sub-systems associated with mobile offshore drilling units engaged in offshore drilling operations. The Coast Guard and BSEE will use this MOA to better align policies and procedures while also collaborating on future regulatory projects.

“MODUs are unique and dynamic vessels that are an important part of the offshore oil and gas industry’s exploration efforts, but as we learned from the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, these highly complex drilling units with their state-of-the-art equipment and ultra-deepwater drilling capabilities must be closely monitored,” said Watson. “This agreement between BSEE and the Coast Guard serves as a significant milestone in achieving coordinated oversight of MODUs while continuing our joint effort to improve offshore safety.” ­CGF 5.2 | 15

Efficiency Driver

Q& A

Standard Configurations are the Foundation of the Future Rear Admiral Robert E. Day Jr. Assistant Commandant for C4IT, CIO & Director CG Cyber Command Rear Admiral Robert E. Day Jr. assumed the duties as the assistant commandant for Command, Control, Communications, Computers & Information Technology and the director, Coast Guard Cyber Pre-Commissioning Detachment in July 2009. Day graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the United States Coast Guard Academy in 1980. His first tour of duty was in Portland, Maine, where he served aboard Coast Guard Cutter Duane as the damage control assistant until April 1982. He was then assigned to U. S. Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington, D.C., as the electronics project officer for the construction of the 270 foot medium endurance cutters and 110 foot Island Class patrol boats.

In 1986, Day attended the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., where he obtained a Master of Science degree in telecommunications systems management and was awarded the Chief of Naval Operations Communications Award for graduating first in his class.

From June 1988 to May 1992, Day was assigned as the telecommunications officer for the Thirteenth Coast Guard District in Seattle.

During this tour, he performed extensive temporary duty including assignment as the administrative officer to the federal on-scene coordinator for the Exxon Valdez disaster. In 1992, he was assigned as commanding officer, Communications Station Boston, where he prepared the facility for remote operations under the Communication System 2000 project. Again, he performed numerous temporary duty assignments including communications officer for the Harbor Defense Command assigned to Port Au Prince Haiti during Operation Uphold Democracy.

From June 1995 until May 1999, he was assigned as the chief of planning and budget for the Electronic Systems Division at Maintenance and Logistics Command (MLC) Pacific. From June 1999 until June 2002, Day commanded the Coast Guard’s largest electronic systems support unit, ESU Boston. During this tour he and his command provided electronics and communications support to the John F. Kennedy Jr. aircraft crash, the Egypt Air 900 air disaster, and the response to the September 11th World Trade Center terrorist attack. From July 2002 until May 2007, Day was assigned as the Chief of Pacific Area’s Command, Control, and Communications Division in Alameda, Calif.

Additionally, he traveled throughout the Pacific Rim as a key United States representative to the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum. From June 2007 until June 2009, he served as the deputy and eventually the commander of MLC Pacific.

Day’s military awards include two Legion of Merit, three Coast Guard Meritorious Service Medals, the 9-11 Medal, three Coast Guard Commendation Medals, Letter of Commendation, and six Meritorious Team Awards.

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Q: Let’s start with the Coast Guard budget and specifically how it might impact your IT programs.

A: We’ve seen, not just in fiscal year 2014, but in FY11-13, that IT has been a significant target for what is called ‘efficiencies.’ Just in those years, I’ve taken $58 million worth of efficiencies, which represents about 10 percent of my aggregate budget, and we’re going to continue to see that occur in 2014 and 2015.

These efficiencies tie right back to the OMB [Office of Management and Budget] 25 point plan, as well as some initiatives at the Department [of Homeland Security] that are looking to restructure information technologies. For example, if you took and consolidated all of the components into centralized systems and centralized capabilities, there should be efficiencies there.

It’s a real challenge for us because we live in two different worlds—we live in the .mil world predominantly, and thus I have to have alignment particularly with DoD. I also have to have alignment with the federal component as well. Sometimes trying to mix those two worlds is difficult.

Let me give you a couple of examples: One of the efficiencies that’s being generated is to move to an enterprise email system.

This means I would close down all of my email servers and move to almost a Gmail-like service from DHS or DoD. That makes sense and www.CGF-kmi.com

there are probably some efficiencies there, but I also have a number of customers, mainly 250-plus Coast Guard cutters, who live on very limited-bandwidth pipes that will not be able to use that type of capability, because they just don’t have enough bandwidth to reach back to a centralized service to do all that. Not only that, if the cutters lose their satellite capability, they still need to be able to do email internally to the ship, so I can’t turn my architecture on a dime until we solve the shipboard problem This is the same problem the Navy has, and we’re working with them and DISA on trying to figure it out. Eventually my plan is to move to DISA and to use their defense enterprise email as our overall service, which we have started to do on our SIPRNET side already.

However, I can’t achieve the efficiencies that are sought—and in some cases already taken out of the budgets—because of these architectural issues.

It’s much like our data center consolidation; my plan is to consolidate all of the Coast Guard data centers down to one—Martinsburg, W.Va. But it’s going to take time, and the timelines for achieving the efficiencies are probably tighter than I can achieve. I’ve informed the department of what my schedule looks like, but these efficiencies are being sought now, and in some cases taken out of budgets knowing that we are going to find them.

A good example is the Coast Guard centralized help desk. Back in FY11, we were told to find efficiencies, so I wanted to collapse our nine regional help desks down into one central help desk. I was asked by the CG CFO for an estimate on how much this would save. The

www.CGF-kmi.com

consolidation had actually been planned for the following year, so I told them that I really hadn’t refined the number yet. ‘How much do you think?’ was their general reply. I told them between $4 and $6 million—which was immediately removed from my budget even before we started the actual consolidation. As it turns out the project saved us $3.9 million, which was great, but not the $6 million they had taken.

I expect I’ll continue to have constant pressure on my budget line, which is forcing some action—some I am taking now, some that will come in the next couple of years.

I’ve been out talking about this for some time. In 2011, the ‘niceto-haves’ went away; in 2012, some of the ‘should-haves’ went away, and in 2013, some of the ‘must-haves’ are going to have to go away.

We just can’t afford them.

It’s a challenge. I still think we can achieve some of our core objectives, but this is going to force a new level of discipline in the organization that we haven’t seen in a decade.

Q: What are your flagship programs for FY14?

A: Over the last three years I’ve been building what I call new governance processes. These processes align with the governance processes that have come out of OMB and the department, what are called portfolio reviews and tech stats.

Portfolio reviews look at all the like programs in a portfolio to see if there are any options to collapse those programs further. A good

­CGF 5.2 | 17

example is that I have over seven different project management systems in the U.S. Coast Guard. All existed for various reasons, because a civil engineering project is a little different than a naval engineering project, which is a little different than an electrical engineering project. While having their differences, there are common components from each that are the same. While each program claims to have unique requirements, the question is, can we collapse down from seven to two, and by doing that, achieve some economies of scale?

When times were good, many of these programs built their own stovepipes, which worked then but not so much now. We are bringing them all back together, figuring out what’s common amongst them and telling them to work with a 70 percent solution. As for their unique requirements, it may be better to change their business processes a little to better align themselves so we can get back to a one or two project management system.

One of the big target areas right now that we have to fix is our financial system. It’s probably the most broken piece of program software that we have, and the one that’s at the highest risk. The financial system is the foundation of any federal agency. If you have weaknesses in your financial systems, you have weaknesses all the way around your house—why would you be remodeling the kitchen when your foundation is about to fall out from underneath you?

A major focus is going to be to get off of this legacy financial system and move on to a modernized one, and that’s resulting in several major efforts that are ongoing right now. One is a project to move to a new financial system, which will likely be a shared service provider environment, meaning that somebody else will run our financial system. It will either be a federal entity that services multiple organizations or it could be a commercial entity that meets all federal financial standards to service multiple federal organizations.

Over decades based on our own financial processes—some of which were flawed—we’ve dramatically customized Oracle Financials to the point where it can’t be fixed. We’re also going to do a business process re-engineering, meaning we’re going to revamp the way we do business and financials. This is absolutely critical, because again, it’s foundational in nature, and it interfaces with almost every single other business system out there, whether it’s a logistics system that you’re buying parts, managing parts, whether it’s our military HR and civilian HR systems by which we pay people, it all comes back to the foundation of the house. Each of these systems impacts the others, so we need a system that operates in an environment where it draws all of the systems together in an integrated manner.

The next piece is then to continue to look in all of the portfolios and start culling them down from numerous systems down to several. The challenge to do this is not from a technology standpoint but from a cultural standpoint.

The third big focus is my configuration. With the advent of Cyber Command, we took a look at each of our systems as a whole and quickly saw that my entire platform was not in configuration. I now have a major effort underway to get all of our IT platforms back into configuration.

Another reason we worked our way out of configuration is that there are many parts of the Coast Guard, from an IT standpoint, that did not report directly to the CIO. They built their own budgets, they had their own infrastructure and they had their own capabilities that I really had no say about. I’m slowly bringing them under my purview of my control via service-level agreements with those entities and taking over the management of their IT systems.

18 | CGF 5.2

There are a lot of reasons why this is important but perhaps the most obvious is that, from a security standpoint, I need a standardized system to be able to defend it. If it works differently everywhere, it’s impossible to defend. I have to have standardized processes, I have to have a standardized command and control capability such that when I say ‘Do this,’ then it seamlessly goes down the chain of command, and everybody reacts to it in the same exact process.

Another point is that from a configuration management standpoint, it’s cheaper to own and operate a standardized platform.

Q: The configuration realignment will drive security and efficiency?

A: The realignment will allow me to vigorously defend it, draw some efficiencies and then really speed the delivery of service.

Defending an out of configuration system has been a challenge.

There are times when I push a security patch out, only about 70 percent of it takes automatically; the rest has to be handled manually based on specific, different configurations.

In this day and age of cyberthreats that are moving at the speed of machines, I have to be able to push something and know that it’s 100 percent patched in minutes—not days, not weeks ... minutes. We have to move at machine speed. When I see an abnormality happening on a computer in, say, Seattle, I need to be able to take that box offline in minutes. Not days, not weeks. If I don’t have that reaction time, the threat could go laterally and infect hundreds of workstations instead of just one.

The thing to keep in mind is that for much of this, it’s as much a technological issue as it is a cultural one.

We have to take the whim out of IT. It’s so easy for someone to grab the government credit card from whatever station they’re at, run down to the office supply store, pick up a printer, hitch it up to the system.

But that printer might not be an approved printer and may have some inherent weaknesses to the point that we don’t want it on our system.

By eliminating the whim, we can better define what IT is needed for each position to do its job. The marine inspector in Portland, Maine, does the same job as the marine inspector in Portland, Ore., yet there is not a standard IT capability list that would standardize what IT capabilities these positions would be provided. Today, the same job in different areas likely has different capabilities. In the future, they will be standard. From both an inventory control and configuration standardization perspective, we need to do better. I’m trying to pull everything back and centralize it, virtualize it, create efficiencies and maybe even get some money back from it.

Q: What about the price tag?

A: I’m hoping that the efficiencies I create can be reinvested back into the system to generate even greater savings and efficiencies. I’d like to be able to cut a deal so that for every efficiency we achieve, we get to keep half to reinvest in new capability.

One of the core problems here is that we’re trying to recapitalize a billion dollars worth of IT out of our operating budget. We have an AC&I [acquisition, construction and infrastructure] budget that recapitalizes our ships, aircraft and facilities, but if you take a look at it, there is very little there for IT recapitalization.

We need to get in the area between $50 and $100 million a year to recapitalize these big systems—not just the IT infrastructure, but the big systems ... our HR systems, our financial systems, our logistics systems, these big data systems. www.CGF-kmi.com

We can’t do it the way we have in the past. We’ve been feeding it some O&M [operations and maintenance] dollars to do these little incremental upgrades along the way. When the investment is small, the return is usually small as well—plus, you don’t have as much focus from year to year, and you end up taking a few steps forward and a step backward.

We need to get an AC&I line item to recapitalize. We’re bleeding our operating budget by trying to do it internally. Unfortunately, IT recapitalizes on a much faster cycle than big steel and big aluminum.

For IT, if it’s over five years old, it’s probably a dinosaur. We have just not had the [financial] support to do that type of refresh.

Whether it’s radars on cutters or whether it’s IT on desks or the big systems that go behind them, trying to do it out of your operating budget is eventually going to eat you alive.

The environment we’re in has its operating budget shrinking.

Offices need to figure out, ‘What do you own? How important is it?

And what would you do without it?’

As I’ve said, this coming year, some of the ‘must-haves’ are going to go; there are just not adequate resources to do everything.

A: Yes. Because we are recapitalizing inside of our O&E budget, we are making what I would consider to be some bad decisions.

Here’s a perfect example. Our military HR system called Direct Access has been going through a technical refresh for over six years.

A tech refresh should take two years at the max. But [the delay is] because we’ve been leaking money into it from our O&E. If it had been done with a capital infusion, we probably would have been done within two years. On top of that, we’ve probably paid three times more for the project.

We’ve put the mechanisms and governance into place for the stakeholders to realize that they can’t afford to keep everything and to have the discussions about how to proceed. This is not a CIO discussion; this is a CIO-facilitated discussion. The stakeholders have to be the ones that are making the decisions on their priorities. I then look at the enterprise architecture and the strategy, and sometimes throw the yellow flag on the field saying ‘no,’ because it either violates the architecture or it’s not a worthwhile investment.

The governance councils I mentioned, even though it takes time and even though it’s overhead, my belief is that they’re helping us make much smarter decisions.

Q: Tell me about the Coast Guard’s enterprise architecture plan.

A: Well, enterprise architecture is probably one of the more abused concepts that I’ve seen.

We’ve been at enterprise architecture for over a decade now. We need to determine what we have and what the roadmap to the future is. Part of that equation is trying to understand where technology is going and factor that in. We’re two years into [something that] literally started as a [list on a] little yellow piece of paper of ‘how do we blend requirements that are being generated?’

For this I have two councils. The first is the C4ISR Resource Council, which is really focused on operational systems—the radars, the radios, the big data systems that are directly operationally related.

The second is the Mission Support IT Resource Council. They’re the ones that are helping us inventory everything that we have, placing them into the portfolios, then looking at the portfolios against the enterprise architecture and coming up with roadmaps to start consolidating down to achieve the enterprise architectural goals.

We are getting much more robust with that, to the point now where I believe I have 90 percent of the systems that are out there into the portfolios, and looked at against the enterprise architecture.

Anything that comes in that wasn’t under my office gets reviewed by an enterprise architecture board. If it doesn’t fit into the enterprise, it’s not approved and has to be re-engineered until it is standardized.

We’re having to take this system by system. We are looking at my strategic plan, looking at the enterprise architecture, and looking at the requirements coming out of Coast Guard strategy as well as coming out of the individual stakeholders, the operators, the other mission support entities, and score them for how it aligns with everything.

Because I don’t have adequate resources to fund all of them, it’s forcing us to use the architecture and to use these portfolios to prioritize amongst them. For some, we might have to decide not invest any more money there to be able to move funds to a higher-priority program.

Q: And many of these programs are the programs you must fund through your O&M budget. www.CGF-kmi.com

Q: During Hurricane Sandy, were there surprises about the Coast Guard’s ability to communicate with other responders?

A: Well, Sandy was a really good test for us. At the same time, it taught us a couple of things Our primary system for communicating with the maritime public is Rescue 21, which I think is probably one of the best Coast Guard success stories.

Rescue 21 is an IP-based network that very much relies on commercial infrastructure. It was operating fine until the New York area tunnels and parts of South Manhattan flooded, including some of the Verizon main exchanges, where the circuits for all of the Rescue 21 system for New York ran through. We immediately lost connectivity with all those radio sites throughout the New York region, including the upper part of New Jersey, which left the operational commander without radio connectivity to the public.

Luckily, because we’ve developed disaster response capabilities, we’re able, within four or five days, to get back up. We moved the radio watch to OSC Martinsburg, W.Va., where we have a disaster response capability.

We demonstrated the survivability of the Rescue 21 system, even with its hard-core reliance on commercial infrastructure. The radio sites now have disaster response capabilities through a VSAT satellite system. If a circuit to the radio site is lost, we can use the VSAT satellite connectivity to re-establish the connection. If the sector itself is immobilized and can no longer perform its function, we can re-establish that capability out of Martinsburg.

The problem in the case of Sandy is that as the storm moved up the coast, we didn’t know who was going to go first. We can only handle one sector’s worth of communications equipment out at Martinsburg; I can’t do multiple sectors. It takes about 14 to 24 hours to reconfigure the networks to get a system back up through Martinsburg.

Other learned lessons definitely came from Deepwater Horizon, where you had federal, state and local. Is there still more work to be done there? Absolutely.

If you go to one region, you understand one region’s worth of interconnectivity, and because the locals all use different radio systems, the states sometimes use different radio systems—it’s always different. ­CGF 5.2 | 19

This is the main reason why we are a key stakeholder in a DHS project called TACOM [tactical communications], which is looking at moving away from land mobile radios and all these disparate radio systems, and going to wirelessly-enabled tablets and other smart devices. By doing this, you could take and break everything down into an IP packet, a wireless 3G-4G environment.

In the president’s priorities is a national broadband capability for emergency responders. It’s going to take a long time, because that’s a significant investment, but the spectrum has already been allocated to create this national broadband system.

There’s a working group, which we’re a member of, led by CBP [Customs and Border Protection] under that TACOM program, as well as programs out of DHS NPPD [National Protection and Programs Directorate]called OneNet under the Office of Emergency Communications. The group is looking for the next-generation emergency communications system.

Instead of having an emergency responder with a mobile phone in one pocket, a VHF radio in another, a walkie talkie in a third and none of them link together, I think moving to this next generation of 4G broadband capability, where you’re leveraging IP, is probably going to be where we’re heading. Even then you can still bring in legacy land mobile radios and those types of things into that environment.

Q: Are you satisfied that the cutters have all the communications capabilities they need or do they need more?

A: When you talk about Coast Guard cutters and connectivity, and you talk about satisfaction, I can guarantee you that the end-users aboard our national security cutter or any of our legacy assets are never satisfied with the amount of connectivity they have. Because guess what? We’ve moved to an electronic world. Everything is done, pretty much, on data.

The demands and the expectations on the cutters to push information in in real time—whether it’s voice, data or video— they would gladly take all the bandwidth they can get.

Here, we’ve invested a lot of money. We’ve recently upgraded to fleet broadband on our major cutters, as well as installed brandnew Ku-band satellite capability. Some of the cutters are starting to enjoy and use upwards of a megabyte per second of connectivity.

In a world where for now, for $29.99 a month from Verizon, you can carry a 4G phone where you’re getting 5 gigabytes of connectivity in a minute, the expectations are higher, but the cutters would have to tow a spool of fiber optic cable behind them to get that.

We’re constantly trying to defy physics to provide more capabilities—which seem to be doubling every three or four years. Literally, it was only five years ago that they had only 64 kilobytes of connectivity to a major cutter. Now, say a national security cutter is enjoying potentially up to a megabit per second.

I will tell you, the national security cutter, the FRCs and the OPCs, when they come along, are going to be highly capable, much more so than the legacy platforms that they’re replacing.

When you push an NSC up into an environment like the Arctic, where they have to be totally self-sufficient, and they are the only communications platform there to provide connectivity to everything else, it becomes a floating cell tower for that kind of connectivity.

20 | CGF 5.2

Q: Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel recently said ‘the devastatingly destructive potential of cyber-attacks has become the security challenge of our age.’ Can you talk about Coast Guard’s countercyber efforts?

A: I could talk about that for hours.

The Secretary of Defense statement is spot on, and I think that’s reflected in everything you hear—just look at the news stories recently. It’s a persistent threat, and it’s one that we underestimated maybe a little bit five, six years ago, and maybe did not invest adequately into.

The threat comes from multiple different vectors. It comes from obviously the nation-state vector, plain criminal groups, and even activists just trying to get in and create havoc in a federal space.

Our challenges are numerous. There are also threats, as you can see from recent events, from the inside. And sometimes, some of the threats are—from my discussion going back before—just people who say, ‘Well I’m just going to change the configuration on this because it makes it easier for us,’ when realistically they’re potentially opening up a massive hole in my network that allows this threat to come in.

So we’ve dedicated some resources—it’s taken me a long time to build just what I would call initial operating capability/cyber command. Cyber Command at Coast Guard is 22 people. Now, there are some virtual organizations that are working with us very, very closely, most of them in my world of the CIO. This is somewhat beneficial in that I have both hats, as the CIO and the cyber commander.

I need a lot more growth in this area, because there are other demands out there that the Coast Guard is responsible for. One of them is, we are the sector-specific agent under federal law for maritime critical infrastructure. We are looking at the potential threat factors into our maritime critical infrastructure.

A great example is our ports. The Maritime Transportation Safety Act requires us to check and make sure that their fences and their perimeters are secure, and give them transportation worker identification cards so we know who’s coming in and out of the port.

Yet the biggest threat that’s probably going into that port is the DS3, a high-speed telecommunications circuit, which is used to control cranes, and which is used to tell which truck to get in which line, and where to distribute the various goods.

Other examples are military outload facilities, chemical plants and rail systems. All of these facilities are embedded with industrial control systems. We’re not so sure that everyone has taken a look at the threat that portrays to our nation from a cyber perspective.

So that’s another area that I need to grow into, and it’s not going to be a regulatory one, because we do not want to put more regulations on the industry. It’s more of, ‘How can I help you?

How can I build some expertise in the Coast Guard and at the Department of Homeland Security that if you want somebody to come take a look at your plant, we can tell you the weaknesses?’ Or ‘You want us to scan you? Okay, we’ll scan you and tell you where your vulnerabilities are.’ And to provide advise and assist, because guess what? The Coast Guard is already trusted by the ports; we’re already there inspecting the fences, we’re already there inspecting the security plant, we’re already there inspecting TWIC [Transportation Worker Identification Credential] compliance, we’re already there looking for vessels coming in for safety discrepancies. What if I just added ‘cyber’ as another checklist, say, ‘Hey, we’ll look at this for you?’ www.CGF-kmi.com

This is going to be a massive growth area for us. The question is whether the budget will support that growth. I think it will, and I think it may be one of the very few growth areas that I see, that we will request from the department that aligns very loosely with mission four of the department.

Ourselves, TSA and DoT—we really are the transportation sector agencies that really need to look at this cyberthreat.

I’m focused on defending my own networks first, because I need to maintain my par with my DoD service providers, because one moment, if I show any weakness at all, General Ronnie Hawkins at DISA and General Keith Alexander will give me a call and say, ‘You’ve got four days to fix this or I take you off the net, because you’re a threat to us if you don’t fix it.’

Other focus areas are how do I start leveraging some expertise and providing that into the maritime critical infrastructure? How do you start looking at cyber, much as DoD looks at it, as a war fighting space? How would I look at that for some operational advantage for the Coast Guard?

Q: The new headquarters will start receiving its first occupants in a few months. Are the IT elements of the move in place?

A: Well, this has been a complex project, and we’re in the throes of it as we speak. Originally, you have to understand, St. Elizabeth’s was designed to be a DHS campus, and thus the designs for all of the IT were based on a standard DHS platform. When that changed and we were going to be the primary occupant we had to rethink everything.

The system that was put in there was very, very complex and very, very expensive to be able to host multiple components as well as the department itself. We’ve had to scale the scope way back based on our budget and the fact that we are the only initial occupant.

General Dynamics, the contractor who has been building the campus out and will operate the campus from an IT perspective, will be responsive to the Coast Guard as we take over contractor/technical oversight.

We will be taking and operating our own servers versus being DHS servers, so our people will see and have everything they have today, the first day when they show up in the new offices.

Q: Three systems: WatchKeeper, Coast Watch and Sea Watch. How do those systems communicate and share data?

A: The greatest piece was that it was envisioned as an integrated system, and when it was started, the vision was that it was going to be integrated. The other piece is that we’ve built it, and we build it using commercial off-the-shelf and government off-the-shelf components and architecture. We made sure it used the same architectural backbone; it was going to leverage our enterprise. It has a centralized data source, our enterprise service bus, which now links it to everything else across our spectrum.

We’re taking that same architecture into the systems going into our aviation and maritime platforms, including the national security cutter.

The beautiful thing about it is that you’ve got a common architecture using commercial off-the-shelf and government off-the-shelf components, which simplifies training and improves the supply chain support.

And not only that, you can train them all the same—it’s almost identical training, in that if you go to an FRC, all you’re seeing is www.CGF-kmi.com

a smaller version of what’s on a 270, and on a 270 is just a slightly smaller version of what’s on a 378, so the components are all exactly the same, the software is all exactly the same, the user interface is the same. So in another year or two, we’re going to have this beautiful thing that it doesn’t matter if you’re in a command center or you’re aboard a cutter, your command and control system looks, acts, interfaces exactly the same. And great kudos to the architecture that came out of CG7, our requirements shop and our operational capability shop, which had this vision that was called EMC squared, to take and drive these systems to a common platform and a common communications environment.

We still have a ways to go on WatchKeeper. That program has taken a little hit in the AC&I funding stream. But I think we have a 75 percent product that will get the job done, and it is integrated with these backend data systems, so we don’t have to build a data system in every single command center.

Q: Does your office routinely meet with industrial developers and contractors to find best practices?

A: Absolutely. Just like every flag officer, I get 20-30 requests a week for an office visit and, of course, there’s no way my schedule could accommodate that.

Every year since I’ve been here, we conduct an industry briefing day. We brief every single project including the schedule, funding, contracting mechanism and other project details. It’s been a great success both for us and for industry. I’ve done over 200 public engagements talking about Coast Guard C4IT, what we’re working on, and fielding questions. I’ve tried to be totally transparent to all by showing them where our money is going and what we are looking for.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

A: If you can’t tell, I love my job. I was grown to do this, and my goal is to make sure I’m positioning the Coast Guard to survive this downturn, and get some discipline back into our systems and our capabilities such that they can survive, not only from a budget threat, but also from a cyber threat. As well as just from a good business practice. I’m a Yankee from Vermont; I want to run the place like a business. I’m not here to make a profit, but realistically I’m here to get you the best capability you can for the taxpayer’s buck.

And at the end of every day, I go home feeling like I’ve accomplished that, along with having a team of unbelievable people.

People just drool over the talent that I have in the Coast Guard, and they try and steal them on a regular basis. But these are people that want to be in the Coast Guard. They want to serve.

In the Coast Guard right now you’ve got the most collegial and collaborative group of senior leaders that has ever existed in this organization. We genuinely like each other, we like working with each other, and we allow each other to add our level of expertise to solve really, really hard problems. I see a collaborative effort to do what’s best in a very tight, tight environment, and a very challenging environment. I think that’s one reason that I enjoy coming to work. I genuinely enjoy doing business with my colleagues, and I think they genuinely enjoy doing business with me and having my expertise available to them, to advise them on what are very challenging issues and problems. That’s what makes my job so enjoyable. O ­CGF 5.2 | 21

Ports and harbors represent strategic points of vulnerability and, without vigilance, could be points of compromise.

By Scott Nance, CGF Correspondent

The Coast Guard relies on high-tech tools to meet the critical and complex task of securing U.S. ports and harbors from potential terrorists, weapons of mass destruction, illegal immigration and other threats. The available technologies likely will only grow in the coming years as companies roll out a variety of innovative systems to protect against potential threats from on the sea, underwater, and from the air.

Technology plays an important role—but within an overall mission context, said Kenneth McDaniel, program manager within the Coast Guard Office of Counterterrorism and Defense Operations.

“I would say in general that the Coast Guard, as a whole, recognizes that technology is a game-changer, when appropriately applied within the system of systems,” he said. “Just having technology alone isn’t going to solve our problems.”

Technology has to fit within the Coast Guard’s “authorities, our capabilities, our competencies, and our partnerships. When we put all of those together, that’s how we try to make America safer,” McDaniel said.

If the Coast Guard has a technology, but “if we don’t have any authority to use that technology, then the technology is useless,” he said. “We have to have an authority, or we have to be working with a partner who has the authority to take advantage of the information that the technology brings to us, to be able to exploit that to our benefit. … So it’s a delicate balance that we’re constantly working with to determine what technology is the right technology to use at the right place, at the right time. And we have to keep in mind the current resource constraints that everybody’s operating under.”

Lakeland, Fla.-based underwater technology firm Coda Octopus Group worked with the Coast Guard to develop a 3-D, underwater, real-time sonar, said Blair Cunningham, chief technology officer of the company.

“That sonar is different from multibeam and some [other] imaging products that are available on the market in that it will give you a real-time, volumetric image in one single ping of sound,” he said. “The alternative is that you would construct a 3-D image 22 | CGF 5.2

over multiple pings. That’s what multibeam does.”

The Coda Octopus can image both stationary and moving objects, Cunningham said. “You can image divers moving. We can see, if we survey over an area, was that a real object, or a fish, for example? Or some other kind of environmental feature moving around?” he said. The system affords “a far greater ability to detect targets,” he added.

With the Coast Guard, Coda Octopus used the technology to create a system called underwater inspection system (UIS) to detect underwater security threats.

The UIS created the means for oftenyoung Coast Guard personnel to effectively use “what would be the world’s most advanced sonar … and be able to quickly collect and assess data with no hydrographic experience,” Cunningham said. “For us, it’s all about creating real-time decision-making on the vessel.”

Kongsberg has been in the defense business since 1814 and has been active in diver detection since 2000.

“We utilize a number of different technologies including active and passive sonar,” said Phil Andrew of Kongsberg. “Kongsberg has the capability through multi-sensor integration (MSI) to evaluate and combine signals from different types and frequencies of sonar.”

The current DDS 9000 system is Kongsberg’s second generation system, which was developed from the very successful SM2000.

Kongsberg underwater surveillance systems are scalable from mobile single node systems through to coastal surveillance systems incorporating radar, electro-optical systems, and even satellite data. “Our diver detection systems have been part of the U.S. Coast Guard Maritime and Security Team program going back a number of years,” said Andrew.

“We also have systems deployed and performing well in civilian port applications and for a number of NATO navies.”

There are some challenges, not the least of which is biological noise generated by animals from shrimp to sea lions. “Another challenge lies in that increasing some performance measures can degrade others,” said Andrew.

“For example, reducing classification times can increase alarms, in general.”

The Coast Guard also employs complex data-analysis software called ComputerAssisted Maritime Threat Evaluation System (CAMTES), which analyzes a variety of information about ships at seas—such as where it has been, who owns it, who operates it, and what flag it sails under, among many other factors—and produces a risk level for the user, said Paul Kerstanski, vice president of defense and intelligence at Greenline Systems.

“We call it green, yellow or red: low risk, medium risk or high risk. Then the analysts are the ones who look at those ships and make the determination if there should be anything further done with them,” he said.

The software works by collecting data from a variety of sources, including automated identification system (AIS), a shipboard anti-collision system which has “also turned into a security tool that people can track ships via AIS,” Kerstanski said.

“We bring all of that together. We also look at watchlists,” including those from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, he said.

The software runs all of this data about ships through what Kerstanski calls a rules engine, which uses “subject-matter expertise and rule sets that help determine” the risk level assigned to any given vessel, he said.

What’s unique about CAMTES is that the software automates the analysis on a huge amount of information about a large number of ships, Kerstanski said.

In the future, the port security operators could benefit from Port-Guard, a comprehensive security system developed by Elta Systems Ltd., an Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) subsidiary.

“Port-Guard is a very complex system [which is] a turnkey solution … trying to detect everything that moves above the sea, under the sea, stopping everything [that could be a threat], analyzing all types of threats, integrating all of the information to one command and control post [and] could be sent to all kinds of additional monitoring places …” explained Yossi Marko, director of homeland security affairs at Elta.

Designated ELI-3320, Port-Guard integrates “all types of sensors into one www.CGF-kmi.com

interchangeable payloads. working sensor, and one workAccording to AAI vice presiing system of sorts,” Marko dent of business development said, including coastal sea surand CUSV program manager, veillance radar, a day and night Ryan Hazlett, the unmanned electro-optical sensor, ground vessel is fully capable of hanmovement detection radar, dling a variety of “dull, dirty sonar, ground fence with penand dangerous assignments.” etration location indication, For port security, the and an above/below-the-water CUSV is able to monitor a fence with penetration locaRyan Hazlett given area, look for oncomtion indication. ing potential threats, either “The integration here is a through radar or visual conmajor task and requires expetacts, and then respond and rience and operational knowlengage the potential threat, edge,” he said. or allow a human operator to One of the things that take control and steer the vesmakes Port-Guard unique is sel directly toward the hostile not only that it seeks to detect threat, Hazlett said. and prevent such a wide range “The vessel has the capabilof threats, but that it is capable ities to perform in these sorts of detecting swimmers that are of environments with sliding “very small targets, [where] Joseph Battaglia autonomy ranging from the only their head is sticking up out of the water, and/or div- jbattaglia@telephonics.com vessel operating completely autonomously with its detect, ers,” Marko said. sense and avoid capability—or on the other Port-Guard also can deal with the threat end where the operator [can] control the vesposed by very high-speed boats, including sel and control the payload, much as UAVs are those “that might use some very sophisticated done today,” he said. methods, like using two or three boats,” where The CUSV could replace Coast Guard or the first boat is meant to clear the way for an other manned craft patrolling harbors and attack by the second or third boats, he said. other waterways because it “has the ability to “We’re taking care of those, also. It’s not monitor sonar; it has ability to monitor radar easy an easy task to [deploy] something [to pictures; it has visual [capabilities with] muldefeat something] with a very high velocity tiple cameras onboard,” Hazlett said. …” Marko said.

“One operator could go out and identify a Port-Guard also handles such potential threat from one of the sensors and then interthreats from the air as “very small air targets rogate that threat by maneuvering the USV like UAVs or ultralights … from fairly large directly toward that threat to get a better idea distances and at various altitudes,” he added. of its intentions,” he said. “This could be the Its underwater components also make first warning sign. Instead of having personnel Port-Guard unique, Marko added. on-station and supporting people in dull jobs, “There are some other underwater fences for example, the USV could do port and harbuilt of fiber optics, but only ours is made of bor security, and be that first line of defense additional elements that make it very hard to on-station for 24 hours at a time, with just a cut or tear,” he said. single operator.”

Elta has just begun fielding Port-Guard AAI has begun talking with the Coast internationally. Recently, the company estabGuard about CUSV, but nothing more solid lished a subsidiary outside Baltimore, Md., than that now, Hazlett said. to better support Elta’s products in North Truly securing a port or harbor, however, America, he said. also means securing it from its landside, and Meanwhile, AAI, part of Textron Systems, radar provider Telephonics Corp. plans to hopes its common unmanned-surface vessel soon approach the Coast Guard about buying (CUSV) someday revolutionizes port security its truck-mounted radar system, said Joseph in a way similar to how UAVs have been revoBattaglia, president and chief executive officer lutionizing the U.S. military. of the Farmingdale, N.Y.-based company.

AAI’s CUSV combines the company’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection has unmanned systems command and control been using these truck-mounted radar sysexpertise with modular architecture that tems with excellent results in its effort to accommodates platform reconfiguration and www.CGF-kmi.com

prevent illegal immigration across the southern border of the United States, he said.

“They go within a certain distance of the border and park the truck … they elevate the mast, and they start to surveil the border.

Their mission is to intercept anyone coming across the border illegally,” Battaglia said. “It is a force multiplier and it’s been very successful.”

The Telephonics Mobile Surveillance System consists of a telescoping mast which rises about 30 feet above the bed of a Ford F-450 pickup truck. A stabilized platform containing the radar sits atop the mast, Battaglia said. It also contains a forward-looking infrared camera and other sensor equipment.

“We’re one of only a few companies around the world that have a high performance, radar-based system like this deployed and operational,” he said. Battaglia said he recently met with Coast Guard representatives, and providing a maritime variant of this system to them “is an avenue that I will be pursuing.”

Visual information is one of the most valuable security tools. As part of its port protection portfolio, the Coast Guard utilizes geospatial imagery for preparedness planning and situational awareness. “Laserchrome has been providing the U.S. Coast Guard Command Center, Contingency Planning and Force Readiness Branch with high resolution geospatial imagery for three year,” said Emily Kubica, president of Laserchrome Technologies.

Laserchrome technology ingests digital files from satellite, aerials and aerial oblique images and transforms them into high definition tools to prepare and protect ports. “The imagery is produced with a unique set of positional navigation design grids 4 feet by 6 feet indicating landmarks, streets, and routes for Coast Guard command centers and identical flexible design grids with a white board compatible surface for field assessment teams,” said Kubica.

“With a military veteran designing our technology, we know mission critical applications and can make real-time changes as field teams and command centers request,” Kubica said. “Our imagery is perfectly designed , engineered and produced for Coast Guard teams taking it to the field and command center decision making for protection and security of our ports.” O For more information, contact Editor-in-Chief Jeff McKaughan jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.cgf-kmi.com.

­CGF 5.2 | 23

Special Section

Coast Guard efforts aim to develop an effective IT strategy to commonality and integration across the spectrum.

By Cheryl Gerber, CGF Correspondent The U.S. Coast Guard is in the process of evaluating its portfolio of technology products and services to determine exactly where and how modernization makes the most sense. Establishing where best to apply virtualization, mobile data convergence and cloud computing is a critical move on the course toward infrastructure modernization.

“The development of our service catalog is the first step to the cloud,” said Commander Kevin Keast, product line manager of Enterprise Information Systems Infrastructure (EISI). “We’ve been working on a portfolio of everything we have right now, how much it costs, how many people we can deliver the service to and whether the cloud can meet operational requirements.” EISI, along with TISCOM (Telecommunications and Information Systems Command) and OSC (Operations Systems Center) falls under the C4IT Service Center, which is subdivided into product lines.

Cloud computing refers to an online computing infrastructure based on Internet technologies, used to achieve economies of scale through shared remote resources, similar to an electric utility. It can provide significant savings on the cost of developing expensive data centers that don’t deliver enough return on investment. Cloud computing assumes something is provided as a service, whether it’s connectivity, software or infrastructure.

Virtualization creates a virtual version of physical hardware, generally through operating system software. “Going from a physical to a virtualized infrastructure, we see many cost savings. But we have service level agreements [SLAs] for IT services in the Coast Guard, so we must collect metrics to determine if we are meeting our SLA targets,” said Keast.

The metrics and SLAs reveal which areas are best suited for virtualization and cloud computing. Mobile data convergence and expanded connectivity are occurring in part through advances in radio technology that provide mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET) and save on the high cost of satellite communications. (See sidebar on page 25) However, effective it can be, cloud computing is not an automatic panacea. “There might be cost savings in going to the cloud, but it shouldn’t be done willy nilly. Moving to the cloud without making sure you are meeting your SLAs is risky,” Keast cautioned. “If the operational requirements drive up the cost too high, then we take a second look at whether it’s cost effective to go to the cloud,” he said.

There is no scientific or technically agreed-upon definition of the colloquialism cloud computing. As a result, the defining lines vary. Virtualization is sometimes considered synonymous with cloud computing, or at least part of it. Regardless, moving from physical to virtual hardware represents improved efficiency and cost savings.

24 | CGF 5.2

“Traditionally, every service was on an individual server, in data centers that were geographically dispersed. We’re trying to get away from standing up data centers and go to IT distribution points as part of the physical to virtual transition,” said Keast.

Cloud computing is also considered synonymous with software as a service (SaaS). SaaS can provide a remotely located infrastructure of virtual servers with software accessed by thin, mobile or fixed clients with web browsers. Some concerns remain about the impact of centralization inherent in cloud computing and the presumption of continuously available connectivity, which is not always possible.

“You centralize acquisitions when you go to the cloud and some mid-sized and small shops may not have control,” Keast said. The lack of control at a local level could be a factor during an emergency, search and rescue operation or when sensitive information is involved.

Many situations define their own computing concerns distinctly, obviously. Owing to their dependence on satellites, Coast Guard cutters naturally must be self-sustaining, similar to the Navy. The Coast Guard uses Microsoft Windows Exchange Server for email, calendaring and contact management aboard each large cutter.

“We have more than 225 cutters that each hold up to 150 crewmembers. The cutters all need email, but they are bandwidth constrained. Almost all of them are connected via satellites. Having that single point of failure is a constraint, as they charge by how much data we use. And redundant systems are very expensive. That unique operational requirement needs to be considered when you determine the extent to which you go to the cloud,” said Keast.

Keast uses four metrics of warranty to assess whether cloud computing can meet operational requirements. “We look at availability, continuity of service or backup, capacity—how many users we need to handle—and security in compliance with DoD directives,” he said.

To manage increasingly diverse technology environments, Keast uses Microsoft System Center Configuration Management (SCCM).

SCCM manages diverse infrastructures across data centers, private, hosted and public clouds, client computers and various mobile devices.

The USCG’s .mil network, CGOne, is part of the DoD’s Global Information Grid (GIG). As such, the USCG follows Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) mandates. “We use the Global Command Control Systems (GCCS), the DoD system of record to communicate situational awareness,” said Keast. “We follow what DISA is doing as part of the DoD Joint Information Environment [JIE] to save resources, centralize and leverage IT services,” said Keast.

Since 2006, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has had an enterprise license agreement (ELA) in place with Esri, so the www.CGF-kmi.com

Special Section

Mobile Data Converger After years of development, radio technology advances released in the past year have begun to realize the promise of mobile data convergence. The result for the Coast Guard is expanded connectivity with more data and savings on the cost of satellite communications.

“The new technology in radios today establishes an automatic link to send data using high frequency, point-to-point communications. HF long-range radio has been around a long time, but now it is possible to send more data over longer distances,” said USCG Commander Kevin Keast, product line manager, Enterprise Information Systems Infrastructure (EISI).

The introduction of wideband, mesh networking has delivered high-bandwidth, concurrent communication of voice, video and data. Mesh networking is one example of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET), known to be reliable for several reasons. For one, MANET and mesh networks are self-healing, reconfiguring themselves around broken or blocked paths to allow for continuous connections. Since mesh networks are based on dedicated, point-to-point configurations, identifying and isolating faults is relatively straightforward.

The Harris Adaptive Networking Wideband Waveform (ANW2) is one such example. “ANW2, in essence, creates a secure mobile, wireless tactical, Internet-like network,” said Lisa Forkin, Coast Guard account manager, Harris RF Communications.

“The Harris ANW2 waveform offers advanced mesh networking of both voice and data with range extension and seamless connectivity. The high bandwidth capabilities of this waveform enable high speed data as well as the streaming and situational awareness applications that are the reality today,” she said.

The ANW2 radios can realize savings in the cost of satellite usage. Instead of transmitting up to a satellite and back to earth to communicate 25 kilometers away, the radios can be used when the line of sight is clear. “The ANW2 waveform can reach 20-40 kilometers, depending on the operational environment,” a Harris spokesman said.

To modernize its radio technology, the USCG has acquired Falcon III advanced radios from Harris through the five-year $3 billion Department of Homeland Security Tactical Communications, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract vehicle. “The AN/ PRC-117G and AN/PRC-152A Harris radios are part of the Coast Guard’s tactical radio modernization.

Advances in radio technology have expanded connectivity by including the Project 25 waveform in the117G and 152A radios. The P-25 standards for digital radio communications—in use by federal, state and local public safety agencies in North America—allow interagency communications during emergencies.

A Coast Guard officer using the 117G or 152A can communicate both with DoD using military waveforms as well as with state and local authorities via first responder radios that are also equipped with the P-25 waveform.

The Falcon III AN/PRC-117G multi-band, manpack radio is smaller, consumes less power and is half the weight of its predecessor. It offers streaming video, simultaneous voice and data feeds, and collaborative chat with continuous coverage in the 30 MHz to 2 GHz frequency band. “It is the first to be Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS)-certified,” noted a Harris spokesman. In addition, the 117G can host the Mobile User Objective System waveform, the next generation satellite for tactical communications, when it comes online.

DataDoors and GAME are Web Map Service (WMS)-comCoast Guard’s geospatial enterprise system is based on Esri’s ArcGIS pliant. WMS is a standard protocol created by the Open Geotechnology. “The DHS ELA gives the USCG access to all Category A spatial Consortium (OGC) for providing geo-referenced map products on our GSA schedule. This includes ArcGIS server, desktop, images on the Internet that are generated by a map server mobile, runtime and discounts on other Esri products, services and using data from a GIS database. What WMS compliance means to training. It also provides access to Esri cloud services via ArcGIS end users is the ability to overlay additional, missionOnline,” said Mike Mastracci, Esri Coast Guard and specific details on an existing base map.

Navy account manager.

“We made it easy with DataDoors to search and “Category A products are generally non-royaltyfind traditional geospatial information—whether bearing products, so Esri is able to offer them at a it’s aerial, satellite-based or terrain and elevation significant discount on our GSA schedule. Category maps—and bring it locally to the desktop or mobile B and C products are generally royalty-bearing proddevice. It is SaaS, hosted in our secure, redundant ucts, so Esri cannot offer them at significant disfacilities,” said Jeff Dahlke, i-cubed director of marcounts below our commercial pricing,” he said. keting. I-cubed is part of the GEO-Information As a result of using both DHS and DoD technolDivision of Astrium Services, an EADS (European ogy, the Coast Guard has access to a variety of prodAeronautic Defense and Space) company. ucts and services. The Army Geospatial Center uses I-cubed also provides a wide array of mapi-cubed’s DataDoors platform for commercial imagery Jeff Dahlke ping data. “We have a vendor-agnostic approach and data-on-demand. jdahlke@i3.com to acquiring data, so there are many archives and DataDoors manages huge volumes of geospatial products available, with geospatial satellite and aerimagery data that can be used in many other GIS proial imagery from high to low resolutions,” said Dahlke. The grams such as the company’s GAME (Geospatial Asset Management company offers access to many satellites such as GeoEye and Digital Environment) product. GAME supports nontraditional geospatial Globe (which are now merging), the Astrium Services Pléiades sateldata, such as FMV (full motion video) from drones, photographs, lite series, and Astrium Services catalog of imagery products.

PowerPoint presentations, video and other types of files. www.CGF-kmi.com

­CGF 5.2 | 25

Special Section Drawing a polygon of an area of interest (AoI) in DataDoors brings up satellite imagery of the AoI, including the associated metadata. DataDoors also offers collaboration tools to abet the process of geographically dispersed, team decision making, streaming imagery and automated processing of raw satellite data feeds.

The product saves a project where it stopped from one session to the next. It includes alerts for change detection in a designated AoI. The platform also provides automated geo-processing of many different formats, such as Intergraph Corp.’s Erdas Imagine geospatial data authoring software and National Imagery Transmission Format. NITF is a suite of standards for the exchange, storage and transmission of digital imagery products. In addition, DataDoors automatically geo-processes PCI image analysis. PCI Geomatics is a geo-imaging products and solutions company.

“The type of automated processing we can do on a product depends on the product. A mosaic product would have a different set of processes and formats we would run on it than a raw satellite scene,” said Dahlke.

GAME was built on Microsoft Silverlight, an application framework for writing and running rich Internet applications for streaming media, multimedia, graphics and animation. “GAME can embed on a map a Twitter feed, YouTube or just about any html widget that’s out there. We embed any electronic file on the map and there is rich metadata associated with each asset on the system, whether it’s FMV or other data types,” said Dahlke.

“GAME users can add keywords to expand search capability and a change log to show metadata modification. A feature called Advanced Criteria can build and save dynamic queries. It can collect information in the geospatial cloud in a constantly updating library,” he said. “When anybody adds information to the system, it sends an email notification to users,” he added.

GAME includes tools to manipulate geo-data and rich geospatial multimedia in Esri’s ArcMap and ArcGIS Explorer. The GAME ArcMap add-in provides search, discovery, download, editing and the uploading of digital assets and associated metadata while connected to GAME servers.

GAME and ArcGIS Online also work together. “We have the ability within the GAME cloud to publish geospatial multimedia assets out to Esri’s ArcGIS Online environment,” added Dahlke.

For disconnected field use, i-cubed offers GAME Fugitive and the GATOR (Geospatial Appliance Targeted for Operational Response) encapsulated, portable geospatial server. GATOR is designed to give first responders and field operators flexible access to streaming raster data in GIS or mission planning software when they are disconnected. GATOR can reconnect to broadcast information over a local area network. The appliance is built on an external USB hard drive which can be connected to a portable host for access to GATOR’s MUGG (Multiprotocol Universal Geospatial Gateway) server technology and content services.

“While i-cubed builds cloud applications that are leveraged by defense, intelligence and homeland security, we understand that the cloud is not appropriate for all missions. Therefore, we developed products like GATOR and GAME Fugitive for users who need to leverage the data and applications from the cloud in a disconnected environment,” said Dahlke.

In June, i-cubed released GAME Version 3.0 with a GAME Esri ArcGIS Add-in. Among the new features are partial content video 26 | CGF 5.2

streaming, allowing for instant geographic access to any portion of a video clip, and a new HTML uploader page for very large file sizes, also accessible from mobile devices.

Additionally, before uploading video assets, users may select an application platform—such as Android, Apple, Microsoft and others—to preconfigure video encoding for only the mobile devices users need to reach, saving on storage and processing resources.

Further addressing resource management in Version 3.0, video encoding has been separated from the GAME application server and can be off-loaded to a single or clustered remote host to allow for more efficient processing of large video/audio ingest requests.

The GAME 3.0 ArcGIS Add-in can now function as a stand-alone application when disconnected from the GAME server with editing, caching selected assets for disconnected use, adding video assets with companion files and photo assets with GPS and other metadata. The Add-in can be synced up when an Internet connection becomes available again.

In addition to satellite image services, Astrium offers private, secure cloud services to manage and distribute geospatial data and processing. Astrium cloud services is a bundled offer, built on the DataDoors platform that includes Instant Satellite Tasking, which allows users to log on the Astrium GeoStore web portal and select specific areas.

Astrium also offers Oceanway information services for maritime activity and GO Monitor for land-based situations. “We collect large imagery over oceans. There are bandwidth constraints on vessels so we review the data, pull out only the relevant information, package it and deliver it in a variety of formats, depending on whether it’s a Coast Guard agent or a geospatial analyst,” said Drew Hopwood, technical sales engineer, GEO-Information Division of Astrium Services GO Monitor provides regular monitoring of specific designated sites, such as shipping containers in ports. “For example, the first of every month, GO Monitor will determine how many containers have been removed or added in a site during a period of time,” said Hopwood. “We use higher or lower resolution Pléiades satellites depending on the requirement.”

Esri is releasing a replacement and rewrite of its tracking server, called ArcGIS GeoEvent Processor for Server, currently in beta testing and available in the next release of ArcGIS this summer.

ArcGIS GeoEvent Processor for Server can connect to any sensor, including in-vehicle GPS devices, mobile devices and social media providers. It accommodates multiple streams of data flowing through filters and user-defined processing steps. The new technology monitors assets on a map, whether they are dynamic assets that change location—such as vehicles, air craft or vessels—or stationary assets built into physical networks and infrastructure. When locations change or critical thresholds are met, GeoEvent Processor automatically and simultaneously sends alerts to key personnel, updates maps, appends databases and interoperates with other enterprise systems. O

For more information, contact Editor-In-Chief Jeff McKaughan jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.cgf-kmi.com.

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July 24-25, 2013 ASME/USCG Workshop on Marine Technology and Standards Arlington, Va. workshop@usg.mil August 27-28, 2013 Fleet Maintenance and Modernization Symposium San Diego, Calif. www.navalengineers.org

October 9-11, 2013 WorkBoat Show New Orleans, La. www.workboatshow.com December 3-5, 2013 TechNet Asia-Pacific Honolulu, Hawaii www.afcea.org February 11-13, 2014 AFCEA West San Diego, Calif. www.afcea.org

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OUR INAUGURAL ISSUE will support the Navy with the latest program developments in air and sea for Congress, the executive branch, other services and industry.

Contact Nikki James at nikkij@kmimediagroup.com or 301-670-5700 to participate in the inaugural issue!

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­CGF 5.2 | 27

INDUSTRY INTERVIEW

U.S. Coast Guard Forum

Eric Nicholson Advanced Program Manager General Dynamics NASSCO Q: What is the most important thing for any shipyard selected to participate in OPC’s Phase I period?

Q: What are your primary business areas with the USCG? A: The offshore patrol cutter [OPC] program is our primary area of interest with the U.S. Coast Guard.

As a builder of high-quality commercial and government ships, NASSCO is well positioned to provide the Coast Guard a purpose-built ship with some unique capabilities while leveraging commercial shipbuilding practices to maximize affordability. Our past experience on government programs such as mobile landing platform and the line of U.S. Navy T-AKE auxiliary ships—where we enhance commercial shipbuilding design and production standards to meet highly specialized military vessel requirements, such as aviation, weapons, ammunition storage or communications capabilities—will allow the Coast Guard to get the most bang for their buck.

The Coast Guard needs these ships on time, on budget and ready to sail from day one—all in a fixed-price program—and NASSCO has a proven record of meeting those requirements with other demanding customers.

Q: How have you adjusted your USCGrelated business area to maximize efficiencies and help keep costs down?

A: In addition to our legacy as an auxiliary ship provider for the Navy, NASSCO is accustomed to competing for commercial shipbuilding contracts that require a high degree of cost performance and workforce flexibility.

We are fortunate to have a mix of commercial and government new construction programs, which helps keep our overhead at an absolute minimum for the government programs by sharing with the commercial work. In other words, while we have the infrastructure and experience needed to execute large-scale, complex government shipbuilding programs, we can minimize the impact of that overhead on the Coast Guard with a flexible workforce and world-class performance in the commercial shipbuilding arena. Having a 28 | CGF 5.2

1,900-person strong repair organization also enhances that flexibility and gives our workforce exposure to some of the higher-end government vessel features like thin plate steel or C4ISR systems.

Our partnership with a Korean shipyard and our involvement with international shipbuilding allow us to benchmark with the rest of the world’s shipbuilding community, giving us the ability to measure our efficiency against the world’s best shipyards and incorporate international best practice.

Q: How do you coordinate business development effects to make sure they match what the USCG is looking for?

A: We spent as much time with the customer and former operators as we could in order to understand what a cutter is and what it needs to do. From the beginning it was clear that we weren’t just building a ship, we were building a cutter: significantly different than the ships we had built in the past.

We did as much as we could to understand the DNA of a cutter straight from operators’ mouths. Former USCG cuttermen reviewed our designs over and over to help our engineering and production personnel get it right from the beginning and then make the design even better.

As a former USN surface warfare officer, I knew how critically important it was to get a ship design in front of the people who have been wet, seasick and tired using the end product. Perspective counts in ship design.

We tried hard to get it while developing our concept design.

A: The most important thing for any shipyard awarded a Phase I contract will be to establish affordability from the start of their design.

Often the ship design goes after all the bells and whistles a customer could possibly want only to exceed the cost threshold of what the customer can actually pay for.

One of the biggest contributors to early design affordability is making sure you have producibility from the start. Your production workforce has to have as much input to the design as early as possible.

At NASSCO we give production personnel signatory authority on all design products, so that when it’s time to transition to construction we have a high degree of ownership.

Basically you have a production team that says, ‘This is the design I wanted to build.’

The results of this effort, called design-build at NASSCO, speak for themselves. On MLP1, we had less than 3 percent rework, which exceeds the international benchmark for a first-of-class ship.

Q: Is partnering with other companies an important part of your approach to OPC? A: Partnering is an essential element to NASSCO’s approach to OPC, and we’ve got a world-class team. For example, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems is our partner on C4ISR and automation systems. We selected AIS for their open architecture, open business model approach to C4ISR system integration, which means that, as on the Independence-class LCS, the best of breed C4ISR solutions from across industry are available, helping ensure the customer gets what they need and can afford.

This approach results in the best possible value to a customer for exactly the capability they require. We have been working with General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems over the last four years on OPC to make sure C4ISR is right from the start. O

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Compliant and Affordable OPC Design

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