August 10, 2015 – The operations center of the National Security Cutter, NSC, with all its moving parts, is awe-inspiring. This dedicated area aboard the cutter is just one of many features that distinguishes the newest white-hull from the legacy fleet.
There are systems to monitor everything: charts, computer monitors and giant screens light up the dark icy cold space. Operations specialists move quickly around this hive of information. They’re constantly receiving, uploading, downloading and decoding information from U.S. and partner nation assets. Their eyes focused on the large glowing screens.
A constant murmuring flow of voices is the backdrop as the watchstanders communicate with various interagency and partner nation assets in the air and on the water.
This capability to fuse this information here catapults the Coast Guard into the 21st century. It gives these frontline Coast Guardsmen the tools to fight modern threats to the United States.
The monitors began to flash as a transmission begins to create a buzz throughout the room – a maritime patrol aircraft detected a self-propelled semi-submersible sea craft (SPSS) July 18, 2015.
These craft lurk just below the surface cloaked by the sea. They’re hard to detect and even harder to catch. There have only been 29 prior interdictions of semi-submersibles by the Coast Guard in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Stratton stopped one of those a little over a month ago.
Capt. Nathan Moore, Stratton’s commanding officer, takes the report. He quickly directs the crew to change course and intercept.
– See more at: http://coastguard.dodlive.mil/2015/08/in-the-zone-a-crews-determination-over-the-horizon-part-2/#sthash.IcpIKJhO.dpuf