By Geoff Fein
The Coast Guard might take delivery of its lead National Security Cutter (NSC) while continuing to certify some of the vessel’s command and control systems, a Coast Guard official said.
However, any system related to the crews’ safety or to navigation will be certified before the CGC Bertholf (NSC-1) is underway, Capt. Leonard Ritter, office of cyber security & telecommunications, told Defense Daily in a recent interview.
The Bertholf has completed both its machinery and builder’s trials and is expected to begin acceptance trials in a few weeks before the Coast Guard takes delivery before the summer.
At this point in time the Coast Guard hasn’t done its final testing of the systems, Ritter noted.
“We won’t know what systems are or are not going to be able to be turned on and operated,” he said.
Bertholf is the first NSC built under the Deepwater Integrated Coast Guard System, a partnership between Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Northrop Grumman [NOC].
One issue that continues to swirl around the Bertholf has been the concerns regarding information assurance (IA). The ship will be outfitted with numerous technologies, classified and unclassified systems, that have to be examined for problems such as interference with other electronic systems and signal emanations.
Because some of these systems can take time to examine, the Coast Guard has opted to place the Bertholf under a special commissioning status, Ritter said.
“We are putting this in special commissioning status so we can get it to Alameda (Calif.). Then there will be a period of 12 to 18 months or so that the ship will be going through final tests, shakedown, and additional corrections,” Ritter said.
Bertholf will be homeported in Alameda.
Prior to the Bertholf joining the fleet, it must go through a standardized IA process based on federal and Department of Defense (DoD) policies, wherein delivered equipment and installation procedures are certified for compliance by the Coast Guard, according to the service. “This process includes such activities as TEMPEST testing and inspections of emission security requirements. These, along with other IA activities, are conducted and documented forming the preliminary basis for the Coast Guard’s decision to allow some or all of the systems aboard Bertholf to operate. This initial approval is called an Interim Authority to Operate (IATO), which is a ‘qualified’ certification to operate designated C4IT (command, control, communications, computing, and information technology) systems,” the Coast Guard said.
Ritter acknowledged that some systems may not work exactly the way they were anticipated to work and there may need to be changes. “We give that special commissioning status so we have an opportunity to be able to test those remaining systems while still being able to have access to the systems that are critical to navigation, safety and stuff like that.”
He added that navigation systems and those related to crew safety will be examined first and systems for mission support will follow, because Bertholf won’t be in an operational commissioned condition. “Those systems are not as critical as systems like a navigation system would be, or communications.”
Ritter couldn’t say if the Coast Guard might not accept the Bertholf, but he believes the ship will get underway.
“Is it going to be certified and accredited in all systems, and operating before it gets underway? We don’t anticipate that, because we know there is still a lot of work to be done,” he said. “We also don’t need all those systems to be up and running in order for us to make that transit.”
There is always the potential the Coast Guard could turn down delivery, Ritter said. “If there was a situation where we couldn’t approve any of the IA systems…let’s say nothing passed the inspections and certification…that could be problematic. The Coast Guard would probably want to say we are going to hold [off],” he added.
But for now, the Coast Guard has no plans to reject delivery of the Bertholf.
“Press reports indicating the Coast Guard refused to take delivery of the first NSC are simply wrong. In fact, any discussion regarding delivery is premature as the NSC continues to go through a series of at-sea trials leading up to scheduled delivery this spring,” Cmdr. Brendon McPherson, Coast Guard spokesman, told Defense Daily. “The Coast Guard will not even begin to consider taking delivery until acceptance trials and other evaluations are complete.”
Another issue that has shadowed the Bertholf is TEMPEST.
TEMPEST deals with the protection of signals. Last year, concerns were raised when a lengthy list of items needing correcting surfaced.
Ritter said some people often think IA and TEMPEST are the same. “They are not.”
TEMPEST, he added, is a subset of IA. “It is one of the requirements of IA. It deals with the emanation of electronic devices and the reduction of those emanations to prevent any type of compromises from that equipment.”
In July 2007, the Coast Guard conducted a Visual Tempest Inspection (VTI). Personnel go through the ship, armed with the TEMPEST manual, and use the book as a guide to look for potential issues such as bonding and grounding of wires, Ritter added.
“If a component isn’t properly grounded and bonded then it could emanate electronic signals, just like any other type of electronic device,” he said.
Personnel from the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) center assisted in the TEMPSET VTI and validated some of the things the Coast Guard had seen.
“We see where we should put our emphasis. That worked good for us. The fact that we used SPAWAR is important too. We have used them for a number of years because they are really experts in TEMPEST certification and running instrumented tests,” Ritter said.
TEMPEST examines the physical aspects of protecting information, Ritter added.
“[TEMPEST has] certain things you have to do, like the bonding and grounding. There are also things like distances, where if you’ve got classified and unclassified information in the same room, or on components, that are in the same room or within a certain proximity, that proximity can only be a certain distance.”
But what happens when there are space constraints, Ritter added.
“Let’s say you are in a space and you are required, according to TEMPEST, to have a three-foot separation and you don’t have three feet,” he said. “TEMPEST identifies things that are allowed for remediation. ‘If you can’t get this far apart then do X, use this type of shielding and bonding if you have to have it close, but don’t make it any closer than Y.'”
It’s not a black or white issue, Ritter said. “There are instances where there are other options for mitigating those things. “
But that isn’t always the case, he added. “There are some things in there that say: ‘Thou shalt do this…end of story.'”