Source: United States Navy
Information and intelligence sharing throughout the five zones of the Yaoundé Code is crucial to the Code’s success in ensuring regional maritime security and stability. Through exercises like Obangame Express, partner nations leverage maritime infrastructure, assigned forces, and technological advancements and innovations to provide a maritime picture that can be easily understood across national and regional boundaries. Key to this understanding is the use of a program called SeaVision.
“SeaVision is the U.S. Navy’s unclassified, web-based maritime situational awareness tool that enables African partners to view and share maritime information to improve operations, increase security, and build partnerships within the maritime community,” said Alvin Yu, a Maritime Intelligence System professional at Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Pacific. “It allows for MOC [Maritime Operations Center] to MOC chat and file sharing and enables national and regional communication.”
Initially developed with African partners by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Volpe Center in partnership with U.S. Naval Forces Africa (NAVAF), SeaVision has been in use in this area for years. It remains an integral component of the NAVAF-facilitated Express series of exercises, as well as daily operations in Africa’s maritime domain.
SeaVision is not only used in Africa, though. Since its inception, SeaVision’s use throughout the world’s oceans and waterways has continued to grow at a blistering pace. It is now used by over 100 countries, including all of this year’s Obangame Express participants. The program remains the primary maritime domain awareness (MDA) tool for collaboration and communication due to its accessibility, ease of use, and collective capability.
“SeaVision enhances MDA by visualizing vessel movement on a common operating picture in near real time,” said Yu. “Monitoring of commercial vessels via the automated identification system (AIS) and vessel detection from satellite imagery increases effective understanding of the maritime domain.”
To spur further developments in SeaVision use and overall MDA efforts by partner and allied nations, Yu and other members of the Obangame Express SeaVision planning team have focused their efforts this year on transitioning partners from operators to analysts, empowering them to use analytical functions within the system itself. This enables end users to see beyond mere dots on the map to analyze information and generate intelligence, according to Yu. Further, the addition of satellite electro-imagery in this year’s iteration of the exercise helps detect “dark” vessels, or those not transmitting on AIS.
The SeaVision output is only as good as the sensor input, though. During Obangame Express 2024, partner and ally surface units across Western Africa will feed information and intelligence into the program, boosting collective awareness and understanding of the critical waterways of Western Africa. This information, once received in partner MOCs, can then be communicated throughout the region via the Yaoundé Code, providing a foundation for shared analysis, prosecution, and, if needed, response.
Multiple partners, from Africa and abroad, providing tracks and targets from their organic surface platforms to a common maritime picture is an unmatched capability Obangame Express brings to the region. As partners and allies continue to bring new and innovative technologies into the fold, the utility and capability of the SeaVision program will only continue to expand.
“Obangame Express exercises African partners on effectively using SeaVision to address illicit maritime activities in their exclusive economic zones. For this exercise, success for SeaVision is enhancing that MOC communication and information sharing in a variety of unique and challenging scenarios,” Yu concluded.
During exercise Obangame Express 2024, the 13th iteration of the exercise, partner and ally forces collaborate to enhance collective maritime law enforcement capabilities, bolster national and regional security in West Africa, and foster greater interoperability among U.S., African, and multinational partners. The U.S. routinely exercises with our partners in Africa to build enduring relationships and combined capacity to ensure the safety and security of the regional maritime environment.
For more information on Obangame Express, visit https://www.dvidshub.net/feature/obangameexpress2024 or https://twitter.com/usnavyEurope/. Please direct any questions or requests to cne_cna_c6fpao@us.navy.mil.