St. Albans, West Virginia — The West Virginia National Guard’s Port Security and Resilience Assessment team is working across the country to evaluate the security of several strategically important facilities.
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Matthew Mackey stated that the PSRA team, based at the Army Interagency Training and Education Center in St. Albans, conducts drone assessments at port locations to identify potential threats and prevent attacks.
“Our team does risk and vulnerability assessments across the country for ports and other critical infrastructure for the United States Coast Guard,” according to Mackey.
Other Department of Defense units conduct security assessments, but the WVNG team is the only one in the country that uses drones for this purpose. Mackey stated that a drone view of a major port provides a comprehensive view of operations that handle up to 117 million containers per year, or more than 320,000 per day.
“It really gives you a real-time glimpse of how those operations are taking place, how those security measures are being worked on and implemented,” Mackey told reporters. “So, you get to see it in action.”
There is no emphasis on ships flagged by specific countries, and the Coast Guard is responsible for the safety and security of vessels entering, unloading, and exiting the port. The PSRA focuses solely on the cargo portion of the operation.
“It’s not really our scope to worry about where the vessel is coming from,” Mackey replied. “It’s more or less the security measures that are in place for the cargo.”
The team members can be from any Military Occupational Specialty, but they must complete Federal Aviation Administration Part 107 training. The pilots also receive classroom training, hands-on experience with drones, and mission-specific information from the Coast Guard.
Currently, there are five certified drone pilots capable of operating a variety of platforms.
“In every area we go to, there are cranes, power lines, towers, and light towers; it goes on and on,” says Mackey.
Participating in the team is an option available to all guard members. Mackey, a 17-year veteran, said this is another example of how the WVNG can provide real-world opportunities to those who want to serve.
“We don’t have a specific, I mean, you don’t have to be military police, or an engineer, or a pilot in the Air National Guard to fly the thing,” Mackey informed reporters. “You need to meet the requirements and complete the training.”
