6th Fleet Focus: Building the Model For International Partnerships at Sea

Between the obligations of Operation Active Endeavor and UNIFIL, the Eeastern Mediterranean has become a test bed for NATO driven Martitime Domain Awareness, or what Thomas P.M. Barnett reported in last month Esquire as Ulrich's Sea-Traffic Control.

"When I got to the eastern Mediterranean last year, I was tracking sixty ships," Ulrich says. "We were relying on this old-fashioned Navy model of using sensors on ships to track what's in the ocean. We networked it through Link-11, which was built in the 1960s -- very crude. And we linked that together, and I could tell you where those sixty contacts were, but they were twenty minutes to seventy-two hours late. So then I networked all the AIS receivers and local radars around the rim of the eastern Mediterranean: Same picture, except now I have 1,538 contacts, and they're only one to five minutes late, and for each I can tell you its last port of call, its next port of call, its course of speed, and where it is within fifty feet on the earth's surface.

"All the classic systems integrators wanted to create the network, but it would have taken several hundred million dollars and six to eight years to develop. So I went to the Volpe Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and I said, 'Can you help me with this?'

" 'Yes, when do you want it?'

"I said, 'As soon as is practical.'

"And they said, 'How about tomorrow?' "

Instead of hundreds of millions, Ulrich's network cost $150,000. The shore-based receivers are small, roughly the size of a radar dish you might find on a pleasure craft. Most can be attached to tall buildings or existing cell towers along the coast.

Integrating into the network, NATO operations in the Eastern Mediterranean have been able to quietly track ships in and out of Lebanon and Syria following the Israeli-Lebanon conflict last year. At the center of those operations is the Deutsche Marine.

Strategypage ran an article the other day regarding Italian and German Type U212s deployed in counter-terrorism operations (HT Eagle1). The Italian submarine Salvatore Todaro (S526) made its first deployment earlier this year for a two month tour between February and April. This would be its second deployment if the Strategypage article is accurate.

The other Type U212 submarine is the German U33 reported to be operating in theater. Additionally, U18 (a Type 206A submarine) is there as well. Between these 3 submarines and the ELINT services provided by the German intelligence vessel Oste (A423), when combined with the "Sea-Traffic Control" network the concept of Joint International Maritime Domain Awareness capability is realized. This is the 1000-ship Navy in action.

When you consider the amount of intelligence gathered regionally it is much easier to draw the picture regarding the success of Operation Active Endeavor and UNIFIL. I have been hard on Admiral Ulrich, two posts and no love in the past, but in regard to providing security through information awareness this accomplishment cannot be understated. Good information is an enabler in action, Ulrich's sea traffic control system allows the US Navy to contribute to international partnerships with an invisible footprint, as a data provider to other nations services acting in the security role. This is a model for other theaters, not only in MDA, but additionally as a framework for the US Navy to build upon in the role as a service provider (enabler through information) in the 1000-ship concept moving forward.

Success effects relationships. Consider the rhetoric from Russia from a military perspective this year, then consider Russia engaged in Operation Active Endeavor last month. Security Cooperation builds relationships, and Russia would be truly foolish not to participate in the security partnership considering the gains.

Between the stealth submarine pickets and active sensors, a flotilla of warships in two international operations, NATO has realized the potential in action of total information awareness at sea, a powerful tool not only to monitor and engage illegal activity, but to deter it simply by existence.

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Note. Credit due to Kato, a contributor in various online locations with excellent insights to the Deutsche Marine. Kato started a blog yesterday, Rear Echelon, and with his first two entries hit a couple Grand Slams, excellent reads. He details the White Paper 2006 from a Deutsche Marine perspective, and it is very interesting to note how a Navy without an amphibious ship, and no desire to acquire one, embraces an Expeditionary strategy with recognition the world is moving into an Expeditionary Era.