Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Air and Marine (AMO) says it’s goal over the next nine years is to develop a domain awareness capability that better links its sensors and related assets to enable real-time information sharing.
“AMO will share real-time, actionable information by linking a vast network of sensors and sensor-equipped aircraft and vessels through a thoroughly modernized Air and Marine Operations Center (AMOC),” AMO says in its Air and Marine Operations Vision 2025 document. “By 2025, we will have developed and integrated one of the world’s most advanced domain awareness and information networks, enabling rapid, informed decision-making by operators and commanders in the field.”
The AMO has more than 1,200 front line agents conducing operations in the air, land and maritime environments with a fleet of aircraft and vessels.
AMO says that its domain awareness is lagging in the land and maritime domains versus the air domain, adding “we will pursue and operationally proactive concept to mature our capabilities within those domains.”
Among its objectives for sensor technology, Vision 2025 says for the air domain “AMO will identify, deploy, incorporate, and network additional foreign and domestic sensors.” In the maritime domain, AMO wants to further develop its requirements in coastal border regions and beyond. For the land domain, the office way it will work with other CBP offices and interagency partners “to integrate ground domain awareness technology into the AMO domain awareness network.”
The 36-page vision statement says that for the past 10 years AMO has focused efforts and resources on interdiction, which has been effective against overt smuggling and illegal migrant activity but less so when more sophisticated organizations use deception, concealment or emerging technologies to counter its efforts. It says emphasizing the mission areas of investigation and domain awareness in the “coming years” will help the office disrupt the activities of criminal networks.
Another objective in the vision is to network existing sensor systems, intelligence and law enforcement databases, and other information, to “create domain awareness and situational awareness.” It also says the network will link to other CBP and DHS systems and share data with other federal agencies.
Other objectives are intelligence and information sharing within the entire AMO domain awareness network, including the ability to push and pull information from aircraft and vessel crews, developing a network architecture that contributes to common operating pictures.
In addition to sensor data, AMO says that its domain awareness network includes law enforcement information, including human sources and case information, and intelligence and open source information.