A Brief Analysis Of Threats And Vulnerabilities In The Maritime Domain

The attacks of September 11 exposed the vulnerability of the American homeland to terrorism. Terrorists have already expressed their intentions to continue their aggression towards United States. Their goal is to incur maximum economic damage, inflict mass casualties, spread unprecedented fear among citizens, and thus destabilize the nation to further their agenda. Many critical sites lie across U.S. maritime borders, all of which could be potential targets to accomplish these goals. All these sites are simple elements of a complex body where the vulnerability of the whole system is a function of the vulnerability of the weakest element against an adaptive adversary. Ports, nuclear facilities, liquid natural gas (LNG) facilities, urban areas, bridges, chemical plants, and other critical infrastructure are all elements of this complex system. In this paper, we review the current status of security in the American maritime realm and discuss the programs and initiatives that seek to minimize terrorism risk. Our goal is to direct attention to various possible avenues that could be used to illegally introduce weapons, explosives, and other contraband as well as to penetrate terrorists into the American homeland.