Context-based models to overcome operational challenges in maritime security

Piracy and smuggling are major international problems which not only threaten maritime security but also affect the global economy. Even though NATO and international forces have been relentlessly fighting maritime crime in East Africa (Gulf of Aden), the problems still persist and maritime crime has moved to West Africa (Gulf of Guinea). In the same vein, the Joint Interagency Task Force-South (JIATF-S) has had substantial operational success, controlling the vast geographical spread of smugglers in the East Pacific and Caribbean Sea. Due to limited number of maritime assets available, every resource needs to be efficiently allocated, both in time and space. This poses a great operational challenge requiring the integration and fusion of disparate information relevant to the mission and dynamic allocation of resources under uncertainty. Operational planning and execution for counter-smuggling and counter-piracy operations involve surveillance (to search, detect, track and identify potential threats) and interdiction operations (to intercept, investigate and potentially apprehend the suspects) in a dynamic and uncertain mission environment. In this paper, we present context-based models for counter-smuggling and counter-piracy missions, where the smuggling and piracy activities are represented in the form of color coded heat maps built using Intelligence information (INTEL), meteorological and oceanographic (METOC) information and other mission-specific attributes (sensor observations, target types and their behavior, etc.); these maps are interpreted as probability of activity (PoA) surfaces. These PoA surfaces form an input to the decision support module discussed in this paper.