In general, the Coast Guard’s COP can be described as an information display that provides the position and additional information on vessel and aircraft contacts (called tracks) to the Coast Guard and other decision makers. The Coast Guard’s concept for the COP includes a complex interplay of data, assets, technology, and multiple organizations at multiple security levels helping to populate and share information within the COP. As shown in figure 1, entities outside of the Coast Guard are also integral parts of the COP. According to the Coast Guard, the COP comprises four elements: (1) track data feeds, (2) information data sources, (3) command and control systems, and (4) COP management procedures. Track data feeds. The primary information included in the Coast Guard’s COP is vessel and aircraft position information—or tracks— and descriptive information about the vessels, their cargo, and crew. Track information may be obtained from a variety of sources depending on the type of track. For example, the COP includes automatic identification system (AIS) tracks, as well as fishing vessel tracks from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Vessel Monitoring System. The COP also includes track information or position reports of Coast Guard and port partner vessels. The Coast Guard receives aircraft location information from Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations Center. In addition to vessel-related information, the COP also includes information and data that can be geographically referenced, such as the boundary lines of Coast Guard units’ areas of responsibility or U.S. territorial waters, and weather information, among other things. See figure 2 for an example of vessel tracks on a COP display. Information data sources. The information data sources provide supplementary information on the vessel tracks to help COP users and operational commanders determine why a track might be important. The COP includes data from multiple information sources that originate from the Coast Guard as well as from other government agencies and civilian sources. Internal sources include intelligence inputs and Coast Guard databases such as the Marine Information for Safety and Law Enforcement (MISLE) and the Ship Arrival Notification System, among others. External information sources include the Department of Defense, Joint Interagency Task Force South, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. All of these information sources are fused with, or overlaid on, the track information to provide more complete information to COP users about the nature of the identified tracks. Command and control systems. These are the systems used to collect, fuse, disseminate, and store information for the COP. Since the COP became operational in 2003, the Coast Guard has provided COP users with various systems that have allowed them to view, manipulate and enhance their use of the COP. Among these systems have been the Global Command and Control System (GCCS), Command and Control Personal Computer (C2PC), and Hawkeye. See appendix I for additional information on the various systems and applications that COP users identified as providing access to COP information. In addition to the technology needed to view the COP, the Coast Guard has also developed technology to further enhance the information within the COP and its use to improve mission effectiveness. This has occurred in part through its former Deepwater Program C4ISR system improvements. This technology acquisition was intended to create an interoperable network of sensors, computer systems, and hardware to improve MDA. Specifically, C4ISR was designed to allow the Coast Guard’s new vessels and aircraft, acquired under the Deepwater program, to both add information to the COP using their own sensors as well as view information contained within the COP, thereby allowing these assets to become both producers and consumers of COP information. In July 2011, we reported that the Coast Guard was developing C4ISR infrastructure that it expected to collect, correlate, and present information into a single COP to facilitate mission execution. Similarly, as we reported in February 2012, the WatchKeeper software that was developed as part of the DHS Interagency Operations Center program was intended to increase the information available to the COP by having port partners add information from their data bases while increasing the port partners’ access to Coast Guard information. Coast Guard Sectors were expected to give their port partners access to the software, which was to act as a two way conduit for information sharing. At that time we reported that the Coast Guard had been installing the software in all 35 of its Sector locations. COP management procedures. These procedures address the development and the use of the COP. This would include, for example, the Concept of Operations document, which identifies the basic components, use, and exchange of information that are included in the COP. It would also include the requirements document, which identifies the essential capabilities and associated requirements needed to make the COP function. It also includes other documents such as standard operating procedures on how the Coast Guard uses the COP, agreements with others using the Coast Guard COP on how information is to be shared or exchanged, and the rules for how data are correlated and also how vessels are flagged as threats or friends. The Coast Guard relies on GIS, which is an integrated collection of computer software and data used to view and manage information about geographic places, analyze spatial relationships, and model spatial processes, in order to share information related to the people, vessels, and facilities in a mapped display. GIS allows Coast Guard personnel the ability to easily see the different aspects of ongoing events on a map, and, if necessary, deploy Coast Guard assets to address the issue. As a result, Coast Guard-wide GIS is an important capability for enabling Coast Guard personnel to view and analyze COP information. The Coast Guard’s first agency-wide GIS vehicle was to add a GIS viewer to the existing MISLE database. This later evolved into what the Coast Guard refers to as Enterprise GIS, or EGIS. These GIS-based applications with their incorporated viewers are not limited to viewing the COP, but can also be used to receive, correlate, and analyze a variety of information from multiple sources to provide situational awareness. For example, CG1V is being developed to allow Coast Guard personnel to have a single viewer to interface with COP information and other Coast Guard GIS databases, as seen in figure 3. In 2004, the Coast Guard implemented the SDLC process for non-major IT acquisitions—those with less than $300 million dollars in life cycle costs—to help ensure IT projects are managed effectively and meet user needs. The Coast Guard’s SDLC process is documented in the U.S. Coast Guard SDLC Practice Manual. According to the Practice Manual, the SDLC process provides consistent framework for IT project management and risk evaluation to help ensure systems are developed and maintained on time and within budget, and that they deliver the capabilities necessary to meet user requirements. In addition, the SDLC process provides guidance describing the actions necessary, including event sequences, to ensure compliance with Coast Guard-wide polices, the Office of Management and Budget Circular No. A-130, Management of Federal Information Resources, and DHS Acquisition Directive 102- 01 (AD 102-01). The SDLC has seven major phases, beginning with the Conceptual Planning phase and ending with the Disposition phase, as seen in figure 4. Figure 4 summarizes the activities that must be completed within each phase. According to the SDLC manual, to proceed from one SDLC phase to the subsequent phase, activities and products from each phase must be completed, reviewed, and approved by the designated authority. Each project is managed by an Integrated Project Team that includes representatives from the CIO’s office and representatives of the Coast Guard headquarters directorate responsible for the mission. The project team works with customers, users, and stakeholders to deliver successful and supportable IT systems. The CIO is responsible for designating projects into the SDLC and the Asset Manager within the CIO’s office is tasked with guiding, overseeing, and monitoring the execution of SDLC for the assigned system to ensure alignment and compliance with the SDLC process. Another role under the SDLC is the sponsor, who defines and validates functional requirements and accepts capability needed to support Coast Guard mission or business performance. We have previously reported on challenges the Coast Guard has experienced in meeting goals of COP-related systems, such as C4ISR and WatchKeeper. Some of the shortcomings with these technology systems have included the inability to share information as intended. In July 2011, we reported that the Coast Guard had not met its goal of building a single C4ISR system—intended to enable the sharing of COP and other data among its offshore vessels and aircraft. Specifically, we noted that the Coast Guard repeatedly changed its strategy for achieving the goal of its $2.5 billion C4ISR project, which was to build a single fully interoperable command, control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system across the Coast Guard’s Deepwater vessels and aircraft. We found that not all aircraft and vessels were operating the same C4ISR system, or even at the same classification level and hence could not directly exchange data with each other. For example, sharing information gathered by an aircraft operating with a classified system was difficult during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill incident. In addition, we reported that the Coast Guard may shift away from a full data-sharing capability, and instead, use a system where shore-based command centers could be a conduit between assets while also entering data from assets into the COP. This could increase the time it takes for COP information gathered by a vessel operating with a classified system to be shared with an aircraft operating with an unclassified system. Because aircraft and vessels are important contributors to and users of COP information, a limited capability to quickly and fully share COP data may affect their mission effectiveness. We concluded that given these uncertainties, the Coast Guard did not have a clear vision of the C4ISR required to meet its missions. We also reported in July 2011 that the Coast Guard was managing the C4ISR program without key acquisition documents.