maritime risk symposium
Panel 1
Tuesday, November 14, 2023
Panel 1: Calculating Offshore Energy Risks
Facilitator: Eric (Coop) Cooper, Rand
Craig Conklin, CISA, Associate Director for Infrastructure Assessment & Analysis
Paul Hobart – Assistant Director, Homeland Security and Justice
Buckley McAllister, President McAllister Towing
CAPT Schultz – Chief of Prevention, First CG District
Panel 2: Maritime Autonomy: The Future is Technology
Facilitator: RADM R. Timme, USCG (Ret)
CAPT Dan Cost, P.E. - Chief, Office of Design and Engineering Standards
Dr. Don Brutzman, Ethical Control of Autonomous Systems, Naval Postgraduate School (NPS)
Donald Scott – Director of Engineering, Submergence Group
Justin Davis - Head of Strategy, Saronic
Dr. Anu Narayan, Associate Director, Forces and Logistics Program, RAND Arroyo Center, RAND
Infrastructure is a key enabler of mission assurance, but it can be difficult to isolate the effect of degraded infrastructure on mission performance, and in turn, to appropriately value investments in infrastructure resilience. Anu will share highlights of research RAND has conducted over the past several years (primarily for the Department of the Air Force) on assessing the exposure of installations to threats such as extreme weather events, translating that exposure into mission impacts, and setting priorities for investments in infrastructure and resilience through available funding mechanisms.
Rear Admiral Sean P. Regan, Deputy Director of Operations, NORTHCOM
In a rapidly changing environment where strategic competitors possess the capability and intent to increasingly place the homeland at risk, USNORTHCOM stands ready to defend the homeland. The importance of protecting critical infrastructure and maintaining the ability to project power across the globe is rapidly evolving as kinetic and non-kinetic threats hold our homeland at risk through multiple domains. Only through a determined and focused whole of nation effort alongside our allies and partners can we assure the mission to protect the homeland, maintain the capability to deploy the joint force and sustain the fight forward. Multiple efforts across the whole-of-government align strategic seaports and related intermodal system security and readiness, establish support agreements for response preparedness of maritime systems, and synchronize maritime homeland defense against all hazard threats. USNORTHCOM continues to deter strategic competitors through campaigning in order to maintain power projection capabilities and defense of the homeland.
Ms. Theresa Whelan
The threat environment we face today is much more dynamic, multi-faceted and complex than ever before. The ubiquity of powerful 21st century technologies has enabled a wide range of potential actors—from nation states to non-state actors—to pose potentially significant asymmetric threats to the US homeland, especially our critical infrastructure. Additionally, nation state adversaries are increasingly looking for ways to leverage the private commercial sector to gain, not only day to day economic strategic advantage, but also potential advantage in conflict by controlling or influencing the production of key materials and/or the availability of labor and transportation. These types of threats are particularly relevant to US maritime security, potentially impacting our ports and civilian, as well as military, maritime transportation capabilities. The first step to mitigating these non-traditional threats is to recognize and acknowledge them, and to understand and prioritize for mitigation the systemic vulnerabilities that could be exploited. The next step is to recognize that these threats cannot be addressed by one entity in the USG or the private sector but rather require equally non-traditional public/private sector partnerships and collaboration to defeat.