Terrorist Mines in the United States Maritime Domain: A Credible Threat?

Abstract

The purpose of a threat assessment is to approximate the consequences and probability of an event as accurately as possible, in order to prioritize limited resources for maximum benefit. The economic consequences of a terrorist mine attack on the United States have the potential to be enormous, but unlike a WMD attack, they would only be temporary. The damage done would be closely related to the speed of the response effort in opening the port and channels to shipping. Navy capital ships and military sealift ships enter and exit port infrequently enough to plan coordinated force protection procedures should intelligence require it. While we should never completely discount the mine threat, or Al Qaeda's capabilities, there are ways to reduce vulnerability and mitigate the consequences with the resources already allocated.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 09, 2004
Accession Number
ADA422792

Entities

People

  • Frank J. Dowd

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Coast Guard
  • Commerce
  • Department Of Defense
  • Force Protection
  • Homeland Security
  • Information Operations
  • Marine Transportation
  • National Security
  • Security
  • Shipping
  • Terrorists
  • Threat Evaluation
  • United States
  • Uss Cole
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare
  • Weapons Of Mass Destruction

Readers

  • Cybersecurity.
  • Economics
  • Materials Science