Page 50: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2020)

Coast Guard rEsEarCH & dEvElopmEnt CEntEr coast guard auxiliary

Supports research efforts

By Lowell Siegel, Bruce Buckley and Dr. Joe DiRenzo nique among the nation’s armed services, the Coast pears. The coordination effort occurs on a daily basis and has

Guard’s missions include national defense, law enforce- been dubbed a successful “work-in-progress” by Capt. Bruce

Ument, natural disaster incident management, recreation- Buckley, the Auxiliary liaison to the RDC, because he expects al boating safety and environmental protection. This diversity of the partnership to continue to expand in scope and impact.

mission scope presents opportunities for the Coast Guard at the Auxiliary research support is made up of a wide range of ac- strategic, operational and tactical levels as the service works to tivities. Auxiliary members have been identifed as subject mat- make their efforts as effective and effcient as possible. ter experts for current and future projects as the RDC’s research

Contributing to the service’s overall execution effort is the leads build their project plans. In addition to providing technical

Coast Guard Research and Development Center (RDC), based expertise, Auxiliarists participate in feld experimentation -- sup- in New London, Connecticut. This 80-person command is the plying boats and boat crews for events from Long Island Sound center of gravity of ongoing applied research, development, to Alaska. Additionally, a cadre of Auxiliary members serve as testing and implementation of new technologies that enable the a virtual public affairs staff for the RDC. They have developed

Coast Guard to address the nation’s increasingly complex mari- feature articles, captured video which has been developed into time challenges. RDC opened in 1972, and has served as the tip short documentaries, and shot photos in remote regions of the of the technological spear, engaging in a wide range of projects country during feld experimentation. These Auxiliary members which the Coast Guard and other agencies in the Department of bring exceptional backgrounds … such as former members of

Homeland Security (DHS) have identifed as mission critical. The New York Times editorial board, experience with media

As part of a continuous effort to improve capability and en- relations companies, former TV news producers and videogra- hance engagement, the RDC has developed partnerships with phers. The extraordinary thing … all are supporting the RDC other organizations and research entities. The partnership with as volunteers. Here are a few examples of Auxiliary-supported the Coast Guard Auxiliary, established two years ago, has been Coast Guard research and development projects: a true force multiplier in all aspects of research.

The Auxiliary is an all-volunteer force of more than 22,000 MaritiMe Object tracking technOlOgy that was established in June of 1939, while the active-duty re- Maritime Object Tracking Technology (MOTT) was devel- serve components were mobilized for deployment overseas. oped as part of the Coast Guard’s on-going effort to thwart drug

Today, Auxiliary members nationwide support seven of the 11 smuggling. Devices were designed to drift with contraband jet-

Coast Guards missions. Auxiliary members volunteered over tisoned by feeing drug smugglers, using integrated software 3.5 million hours to the Coast Guard in 2018. technology for tracking and recovery. The Concept of Opera-

Auxiliary support for the RDC reached 1,200 volunteer hours tions: Assets (surface or air) drop the devices among the jetti- in 2019, and continues to grow. Each week a new request ap- soned cargo during a pursuit, returning later to retrieve the evi- 50 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • May 2020