Maritime Safety and Security Team

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File:USCG MSST.svg
USCG MSST emblem

A Maritime Safety and Security Team or MSST is a United States Coast Guard anti-terrorism team established to protect local maritime assets. It is a harbor and inshore patrol and security team that includes detecting and if necessary stopping or arresting submerged divers, using the Underwater Port Security System.

MSSTs were created under the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 (MTSA) in direct response to the terrorist attacks on 11 Sept. 2001, and are a part of the United States Department of Homeland Security's layered strategy directed at protecting seaports and waterways. MSSTs provide waterborne and a modest level of shoreside antiterrorism force protection for strategic shipping, high interest vessels, and critical infrastructure. MSSTs are a quick response force capable of rapid nationwide deployment via air, ground or sea transportation in response to changing threat conditions and evolving Maritime Homeland Security (MHS) mission requirements. Multi-mission capability facilitates augmentation for other selected Coast Guard missions.

MSST personnel receive training in Advanced Tactical Boat Operations and Anti-terrorism Force protection at the Joint Maritime Training Center at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

In 2007 MSSTs became a part of the new Coast Guard Deployable Operations Group (DOG).

Mission

File:MSST 91114.jpg
A boatcrew from Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team 91114 conducts high-speed maneuvers during a security patrol south of the Port of Miami.

Modeled after the Port Security Unit (PSU) and Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) programs, MSSTs provide a complementary non-redundant capability designed to close critical security gaps in United States strategic seaports. MSSTs are staffed to support continuous law enforcement operations both ashore and afloat. In addition, MSSTs do these:

  • Jointly staffed to maximize effectiveness executing Port, Waterways, and Coastal Security (PWCS) operations (enforce security zones, port state control boardings, protection of military outloads and major marine events, augment shoreside security at waterfront facilities, detect WMD weapons/agents, and participate in port level antiterrorism exercises).
  • Provide enhanced port safety and security and law enforcement capabilities to the economic or military significant port where they are based.
  • Deploy in support of National Special Security Events (NSSEs) requiring Coast Guard presence, such as OpSail, Olympics, Republican & Democratic National Conventions, major disasters or storm recovery operations.
  • Prototype/employ specialized capabilities to enhance mission performance (K-9 program, radiation detectors, dive program, vertical insertion, running gear entangling systems, less-than-lethal weapons, etc.).
  • Deploy on board cutters and other naval vessels for port safety and security, drug law enforcement, migrant interdiction, or other maritime homeland security mission requirements.
  • Support Naval Coastal Warfare requirements during Homeland Defense (HLD) and in accordance with long standing agreements with DOD and the Combatant Commanders (protect strategic shipping, major naval combatants and critical infrastructure at home and abroad)

Capabilities

File:MSST Vertical Insertion.jpg
A Maritime Safety and Security Team member conducts a vertical insertion from an HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter.

Commissioning schedule

Personnel

Each MSST has 75 active duty personnel.

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.transportation.org/sites/security/docs/10_us_coast_guard_overview.pdf
  2. ↑ http://www.piersystem.com/go/doc/834/65859/

External links

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