Info and intelligence sharing all through the 5 zones of the Yaoundé Code is essential to the Code’s success in guaranteeing regional maritime safety and stability. By means of workouts like Obangame Categorical, accomplice nations leverage maritime infrastructure, assigned forces, and technological developments and improvements to offer a maritime image that may be simply understood throughout nationwide and regional boundaries. Key to this understanding is the usage of a program referred to as SeaVision.
“SeaVision is the U.S. Navy’s unclassified, web-based maritime situational consciousness software that permits African companions to view and share maritime info to enhance operations, enhance safety, and construct partnerships inside the maritime group,” stated Alvin Yu, a Maritime Intelligence System skilled at Naval Info Warfare Heart (NIWC) Pacific. “It permits for MOC [Maritime Operations Center] to MOC chat and file sharing and permits nationwide and regional communication.”
Initially developed with African companions by the U.S. Division of Transportation’s Volpe Heart in partnership with U.S. Naval Forces Africa (NAVAF), SeaVision has been in use on this space for years. It stays an integral part of the NAVAF-facilitated Categorical sequence of workouts, in addition to every day operations in Africa’s maritime area.
SeaVision is just not solely utilized in Africa, although. Since its inception, SeaVision’s use all through the world’s oceans and waterways has continued to develop at a blistering tempo. It’s now utilized by over 100 nations, together with all of this 12 months’s Obangame Categorical contributors. This system stays the first maritime area consciousness (MDA) software for collaboration and communication as a result of its accessibility, ease of use, and collective functionality.
“SeaVision enhances MDA by visualizing vessel motion on a typical working image in close to actual time,” stated Yu. “Monitoring of economic vessels through the automated identification system (AIS) and vessel detection from satellite tv for pc imagery will increase efficient understanding of the maritime area.”
To spur additional developments in SeaVision use and total MDA efforts by accomplice and allied nations, Yu and different members of the Obangame Categorical SeaVision planning crew have centered their efforts this 12 months on transitioning companions from operators to analysts, empowering them to make use of analytical features inside the system itself. This permits finish customers to see past mere dots on the map to investigate info and generate intelligence, based on Yu. Additional, the addition of satellite tv for pc electro-imagery on this 12 months’s iteration of the train helps detect “darkish” vessels, or these not transmitting on AIS.
The SeaVision output is barely pretty much as good because the sensor enter, although. Throughout Obangame Categorical 2024, accomplice and ally floor models throughout Western Africa will feed info and intelligence into this system, boosting collective consciousness and understanding of the important waterways of Western Africa. This info, as soon as obtained in accomplice MOCs, can then be communicated all through the area through the Yaoundé Code, offering a basis for shared evaluation, prosecution, and, if wanted, response.
A number of companions, from Africa and overseas, offering tracks and targets from their natural floor platforms to a typical maritime image is an unmatched functionality Obangame Categorical brings to the area. As companions and allies proceed to carry new and revolutionary applied sciences into the fold, the utility and functionality of the SeaVision program will solely proceed to broaden.
“Obangame Categorical workouts African companions on successfully utilizing SeaVision to handle illicit maritime actions of their unique financial zones. For this train, success for SeaVision is enhancing that MOC communication and data sharing in quite a lot of distinctive and difficult eventualities,” Yu concluded.
Throughout train Obangame Categorical 2024, the thirteenth iteration of the train, accomplice and ally forces collaborate to boost collective maritime legislation enforcement capabilities, bolster nationwide and regional safety in West Africa, and foster larger interoperability amongst U.S., African, and multinational companions. The U.S. routinely workouts with our companions in Africa to construct enduring relationships and mixed capability to make sure the security and safety of the regional maritime setting.
For extra info on Obangame Categorical, go to https://www.dvidshub.web/characteristic/obangameexpress2024 or https://twitter.com/usnavyEurope/. Please direct any questions or requests to cne_cna_c6fpao@us.navy.mil.
