NEW TECHNOLOGY INCREASING SAFETY AND SECURITY OF SHIPPING TRAFFIC

The management and responsibility of overseeing the daily safe movement of all this traffic lies with the controllers at the Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service Houston.
Until recently the controllers manually tracked the ship channel traffic, using a radio, closed-circuit television cameras and radar, but on March 18 the VTS evolved the way it operates with the implementation of two interactive systems: the Automatic Identification System (AIS); the Port and Waterways Safety System (PAWSS).
These two systems combined with the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line project significantly extends the furthest point out at which the Coast Guard can detect ships approaching U.S. waters, and have greatly increased the nation’s maritime safety and security.
The AIS is composed of a VHF radio, a Global Positioning System and a Minimum Keyboard Display, with a digital text display showing data of the six closest vessels. Similar to the black box carried by aircraft, the AIS continuously transmits a ship’s position, course, speed and identification.
This information is continually updated and received by all AIS-equipped vessels in it vicinity,” said Cmdr. Edgar Wendlandt, Chief of the Coast Guard’s Vessel Traffic Services Division. “An AIS-based VTS reduces the need for voice interactions, enhances mariners’ ability to navigate, improves their situational awareness and assists them in the performance of their duties, thus reducing the risk of collisions.”
AIS will eventually allow VTS controllers to send text messages and broadcasts to mariners, and will give the controllers the ability to select whether a message is transmitted to all mariners, a select group of mariners or just a single ship.
PAWSS is a computer system that displays the AIS signals. The system is real-time and more accurate than the previous system, significantly reducing controllers’ workload, while also improving the overall accuracy of the system and enhancing maritime domain awareness.
Extending the DEW line is part of the President’s plans to push out borders and key to the nation’s maritime defense.
The Coast Guard is leasing offshore communication towers to increase the detection range of the AIS. These offshore sensors will allow VTS controllers to monitor all AIS-equipped commercial ship traffic operating within 80 to 200 miles off the U.S. coast.
Prior to the use of AIS the Coast Guards monitoring and detection capability ended at the channel entrance buoys, approximately five miles off shore. The additions of offshore towers will expand monitoring capability throughout the Gulf of Mexico from Brownsville, Texas, to Pensacola, Fla., and eventually the entire U.S. coast.

So when liberals bitch and complain about homeland security, how many of them know a damn thing about this program? I know libs, it's all about the dollars, like the dollars the feds sent to NY for transit security last year, and they didn't even spend it. Just complain to hear yourself complain. No answers, just figures and no clue.
info: https://www.piersystem.com/external/index.cfm?cid=425&fuseaction=EXTERNAL.docview&documentID=72729