Leveraging
TEChNoLoGY TRENDS
FOr MarItIMe DOMaIn aWareness (MDa)
U
nderstanding what is oc-
curring on our oceans is of
critical importance globally.
Whether it be monitoring
shipping on behalf of global
markets, timely awareness of emergencies
at sea, determining environmental haz-
ards, tracking illegal activities, or gathering
intelligence regarding potential threats to
national security, access to timely and ac-
curate understanding of what is happening
in our maritime environments – known as
20 FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018 www.vanguardcanada.com
BY ANDRE DuPuIS AND MARIA REY
Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) – is
essential.
However, the oceans remain one of the
last 'wild west' frontiers. Once ships leave
port, our ability to track their activities be-
comes severely limited.
Today's MDA capabilities are heavily
reliant on shore-based surveillance, ship
self-reporting, an Automatic Identifica-
tion System (AIS), and space-based AIS
(S-AIS) data sources. While AIS and S-AIS
have been extremely beneficial in provid-
ing improved MDA capabilities on a global
scale, these technologies suffer from a va-
riety of issues including gaps in coverage,
data latency, errors in track association, and
increasingly deliberate AIS spoofing or in-
terference. Also, the majority of small ves-
sels do not carry AIS transponders and are
therefore invisible to AIS-based systems.
As a result, current MDA systems can-
not provide timely, complete, and trusted
awareness of maritime activity off our
coasts. To improve MDA, commercial and
