They'll Help Track Ships Up To 2,000 Miles Off Coast

If some security officials in Washington have their way, crew members aboard trans-oceanic flights will be asked to keep an eye pealed for seaborne terror threats.

So far, Jeffrey High, the Coast Guard's director of Maritime Domain Awareness, says he hasn't approached any airline with the idea. But if he gets his way, pilots flying as far as 2,000 miles from land would be asked to keep an eye out for ships. They'd radio in their findings, which would be compared with databases tracking scheduled port calls around the country.

It's a plan aimed at protecting America's ports and waterways, which are seen as especially vulnerable to attack by terrorists. It would be a mammoth undertaking, considering that some 8,000 ships make port calls in the US every year.

"What we want to do is harness the fact that aircraft fly over some of the same routes that ships take," he told Reuters. "If they can put a receiver in an aircraft, then they can (receive) a signal that goes up from the ship in all directions.. and then we would know where the ships are."

Is there any evidence that terror attacks by sea are in the works?

"There is some credible evidence that there could be attacks," he said, although he admitted there's no specific threat information right now. "We're doing our best to make sure that this vulnerable part of our system is protected the best we can."

Ships that weigh more than 300 gross tons are required to carry the marine equivalent of a transponder -- a radio transmitter that sends what's called an Automated Identification Signal in a radius up to 30 miles from the vessel. Reuters reports the AIS was initially developed to help merchant vessels avoid collision. But it's more than a simple beeper signal. It carries information about the ship's identification, size, location, speed and cargo.

"What we want to do is harness the fact that aircraft fly over some of the same routes that ships take," he said. "If they can put a receiver in an aircraft, then they can (receive) a signal that goes up from the ship in all directions ... and then we would know where the ships are."

FMI: www.uscg.mil