Presidential Power to Use Military Overseas

Many posts have discussed war powers and the US military.

Brian Finucane at Just Security:

On Sept. 2nd, the Trump administration announced what it described as a “lethal strike” against an alleged drug smuggling vessel in the Caribbean. In a post on social media accompanied with a video of the strike, President Donald Trump stated that the attack was “against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists.” Trump also noted that Tren de Aragua had previously been designated as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO). The social media post also asserted that the strike had occurred in international waters and killed “11 terrorists.”

Although the facts are still emerging, the Trump administration’s extraordinary lethal attack on this purported smuggling vessel – and its vow that the strike was a start of a campaign – raise a number of significant potential legal issues. And even apart from these legal concerns, the strike constitutes a deeply troubling gratuitous use of the military that resulted in the unnecessary killing of 11 individuals.

In 2019, Navy SEALs were on a secret, possibly illegal mission to plant a listening device on the dictator of North Korea. Dave Philipps and Matthew Cole at NYT:

The mission had the potential to provide the United States with a stream of valuable intelligence. But it meant putting American commandos on North Korean soil — a move that, if detected, not only could sink negotiations but also could lead to a hostage crisis or an escalating conflict with a nuclear-armed foe.

It was so risky that it required the president’s direct approval.

For the operation, the military chose SEAL Team 6’s Red Squadron — the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden. The SEALs rehearsed for months, aware that every move needed to be perfect. But when they reached what they thought was a deserted shore that night, wearing black wet suits and night-vision goggles, the mission swiftly unraveled.

A North Korean boat appeared out of the dark. Flashlights from the bow swept over the water. Fearing that they had been spotted, the SEALs opened fire. Within seconds, everyone on the North Korean boat was dead.

The SEALs retreated into the sea without planting the listening device.

The 2019 operation has never been publicly acknowledged, or even hinted at, by the United States or North Korea. The details remain classified and are being reported here for the first time. The Trump administration did not notify key members of Congress who oversee intelligence operations, before or after the mission. The lack of notification may have violated the law.

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In 2019, Mr. Trump was making a personalized overture to Mr. Kim, in search of a breakthrough that had eluded prior presidents. But those talks collapsed, and North Korea’s nuclear program accelerated. The U.S. government estimates that North Korea now has roughly 50 nuclear weapons and missiles that can reach the West Coast. Mr. Kim has pledged to keep expanding his nuclear program “exponentially” to deter what he calls U.S. provocations

Charlie Savage at NYT:

Should the intelligence committees have been told?

That turns in part on whether the operation was undertaken under military legal authorities, found in Title 10 of the United States Code, or under intelligence authorities, found in Title 50.

A major difference is that Title 50 allows so-called covert operations, in which the United States government intends to conceal its role and deny any involvement if something comes to light. Typically those are conducted by the C.I.A., but sometimes military forces are temporarily put under C.I.A. control to carry out covert activities.

If the government is going to carry out a covert activity, Title 50 generally requires presidents to first make a written “finding” and inform the intelligence committees within 48 hours. Another part of the statute requires notice of “any significant undertaking pursuant to a previously approved finding,” but does not specify a deadline.

Other provisions in Title 50 require the executive branch to provide reports to the intelligence committees that keep them “fully and currently informed” about all intelligence activities — whether covert or not, and including any “significant failures” — no matter which agency or department conducts them.

Military Stats

Many posts have discussed the US military.

Jenn Hatfield at Pew:

As of the end of March, the U.S. military had 1.32 million active-duty members, according to DMDC figures. This is an increase of 1.5% over the year prior, when there were about 1.30 million. (Active-duty military are those who work for the military full time. They do not include personnel in the Reserve or National Guard.)

Nearly 450,000 active-duty military members serve in the Army, the most of any military branch. The Navy has the second-largest number of active-duty members (about 334,000), followed by the Air Force and Marine Corps. The Coast Guard and Space Force are much smaller, with fewer than 50,000 active-duty members each.

All branches of the military have gained active-duty members in the past year. The Navy has gained the most in overall numbers (about 7,300). The Space Force and the Coast Guard have grown the most in percentage terms (6.1% and 3.4%, respectively).

Active-duty military members are assigned to work in every state and internationally, according to DMDC data. A large majority (86%) are stationed domestically, while 14% are stationed internationally.

The number of active-duty military working in each state varies greatly, based partly on the locations of military bases. California has the most active-duty military, with about 157,500. Virginia and Texas also have more than 100,000.

Six states have fewer than 1,000 active-duty military, and Vermont has the fewest of all with 128.

Some branches of the military have an especially large footprint in certain states:Texas has about 65,400 active-duty Army members, about 16,000 more than any other state. There are five Army bases there, the second-most of any state after Virginia.

Virginia (73,500) and California (72,500) have by far the most active-duty Navy members. No other state has even half that many, even though states like Florida, Maryland and Washington have roughly similar numbers of naval bases.

Colorado has about 4,300 active-duty Space Force members, nearly three times more than any other state. Three of the nation’s six Space Force bases are in Colorado

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An Admiral and a Famous Vietnam Photo

Blake Stilwell at Military.com:

When South Vietnam fell to North Vietnamese forces in 1975, an estimated 125,000 Vietnamese refugees fled to the United States to avoid retribution at the hands of the North Vietnamese.

Among those refugees was U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Huan Nguyen, the first Vietnamese-American ever to hold an admiral's rank. Nguyen's road to becoming a distinguished Navy officer was a long and tragic one, and begins with one of the war's most iconic photographs.

"America is the beacon of hope for all of us. There is no other place in the world where a person can go for such opportunity," Nguyen said at his 2019 promotion ceremony.

Eddie Adams' photo of Viet Cong guerrilla Bay Lop being executed by South Vietnamese Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan made newspapers around the world in 1968. It became one of the most enduring images of the Vietnam War.

The photo fueled the anti-war movement back in the United States, which saw the photo as proof that the war was unjustified. But Adams' photo only tells half the story, as the former Marine Corps photographer admitted.

Bay Lop was executed in Saigon, on the second day of the Tet Offensive. He was captured after murdering South Vietnamese Lt. Col. Nguyen Tuan, along with the officer's wife, mother and six of his children. One of his children survived, however, after being shot through the arm and thigh. Another bullet pierced his skull.

Nine-year-old Huan Nguyen stayed next to his mother for two hours after the murders.

 

 

From a 2019 Navy profile:

Nguyen was taken in by his uncle, a Colonel in the Republic of Vietnam Air Force. In 1975, at age 16, they fled Vietnam, seeking refuge in the United States following the fall of Saigon.

Transported through Guam, U.S. Navy and Marine Corps personnel took care of Nguyen and his family. The U.S. 7th Fleet helped to evacuate thousands of Vietnamese refugees and transport them to safety in Guam. Seeing the U.S. Navy take care of his family would later inspire Nguyen to serve in the Navy.

“I was one of those refugees, apprehensive about an uncertain future, yet feeling extremely grateful that I was here at all. The images that I remember vividly when I arrived at Camp Asan, Guam, now Asan Beach Park, were of American sailors and Marines toiling in the hot sun, setting up tents and chow hall, distributing water and hot food, helping and caring for the people with dignity and respect. I thought to myself how lucky I am to be in a place like America. Those sailors inspired me to later serve in the United States Navy,” said Nguyen.

Rep. Luria Opening Statement

Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) at the July 21 J6 hearing:

Article II of our Constitution requires that the President swear a very specific oath every four years.

Every President swears or affirms to ‘faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States’         and, to the best of their ability, ‘preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.’

The President also assumes the Constitutional duty to ‘take care’ that our nation’s laws be ‘faithfully executed,’ and is the ‘Commander in Chief’ of our military.

Our hearings have shown the many ways in which President Trump tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power in the days leading up to January 6th.

With each step of his plan, he betrayed his oath of office and was derelict in his duty.


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I served proudly for twenty years as an officer in the United States Navy.

Veterans of our armed forces know firsthand the leadership that is required in a time of crisis: urgent and decisive action that puts duty and country first.

But on January 6th, when lives and our democracy hung in the balance, President Trump refused to act because of his selfish desire to stay in power.

Military Demographics

From the Department of Defense:

The total number of military personnel is almost 3.5 million strong, including DoD Active Duty military personnel (1,304,418); DHS’s Active Duty Coast Guard members (41,132); DoD Ready Reserve and DHS Coast Guard Reserve members (1,039,398); members of the Retired Reserve (208,032) and Standby Reserve (11,391); and DoD Appropriated and Non-Appropriated Funds civilian personnel (883,398). DoD’s Active Duty and DHS’s Coast Guard Active Duty members comprise the largest portion of the military force (38.6%), followed by Ready Reserve members (29.8%) and DoD civilian personnel (25.3%).

Active Duty Member Highlights

• Service Branches. The Army has the largest number of Active Duty members (471,990) followed by the Navy (325,395), the Air Force (321,618), and the Marine Corps (185,415). At a total of 1,304,418 DoD Active Duty members, the military force of 2018 is 4.8 percent smaller than it was in 2000, when there were 1,370,678 Active Duty members. From 2000 to 2018, the Army (-1.5%), Air Force (-8.5%), and Navy (-11.4%) all experienced a decrease in the number of members while the Marine Corps experienced an increase (+7.2%).

• Ratio of Ranks. The DoD Active Duty force is composed of 82.3 percent enlisted personnel (1,073,394) and 17.7 percent officers (231,024). Overall, the Active Duty force has 4.6 enlisted personnel for every one officer. In comparison, the Army and the Air Force have one officer for every 4.1 enlisted personnel, the Navy has one officer for every 4.9 enlisted personnel, and the Marine Corps has one officer for every 7.7 enlisted personnel.

• Gender. Women, who number 215,834, comprise 16.5 percent of the DoD Active Duty force, while 1,088,584 men comprise 83.5 percent of the DoD Active Duty force. Compared to 2000, the percentage of both Active Duty enlisted members and officers who are women has increased (from 14.7% and 14.4%, respectively, in 2000 to 16.2% and 18.0%, respectively, in 2018). Overall, the number and ratio of female enlisted members (174,331) to female officers (41,503) is 4.2 female enlisted members for every one female officer, while the number and ratio of male enlisted members (899,063) to male officers (189,521) is 4.7 male enlisted members for every one male officer.

• Race/Ethnicity. Nearly one-third (31.0%) or 404,851 of Active Duty members identify themselves as a racial minority (i.e., Black or African American, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, Multi-racial, or Other/Unknown). As compared to 2010, the percentage of Active Duty members who identify themselves as a racial minority is higher in 2018 (31.4% of enlisted members and 22.7% of officers in 2010, to 32.7% of enlisted members and 23.5% of officers in 2018). The overall ratio of racial minority enlisted personnel (350,495) to racial minority officers (54,356) is 6.4 racial minority enlisted personnel for every one racial minority officer. To conform to the latest Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directives, Hispanic is not considered a minority race designation and only Active Duty members’ race was used to determine racial minority status. Regarding ethnicity, 16.1 percent of Active Duty members identify themselves as being of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity.

• Geographic Location. While the Active Duty population is located throughout the world, the three primary areas in which Active Duty members are assigned are the United States and its territories (87.3%), East Asia (6.4%), and Europe (5.0%). The ten states with the highest Active Duty military populations are California (153,505), Virginia (122,314), Texas (117,844), North Carolina (99,193), Georgia (65,371), Florida (60,251), Washington (58,115), Hawaii (41,803), South Carolina (39,237), and Colorado (35,012). Active Duty members in these ten states comprise 70.0 percent of the Active Duty personnel stationed in the United States.

• Age. Over half (52.3%) of Active Duty enlisted personnel are 25 years of age or younger, with the next largest age group being 26 to 30 years (20.7%), followed by 31 to 35 years (13.5%), 36 to 40 years (8.9%), and those 41 years or older (4.6%). Almost one-quarter (23.7%) of Active Duty officers are 41 years of age or older, with the next largest age group being 26 to 30 years (22.9%), followed by 31 to 35 years (21.1%), 36 to 40 years (17.7%), and those 25 years or younger (14.5%). Overall, the average age of the Active Duty force is 28.2 years. The average age for Active Duty enlisted personnel is 26.9 years, and the average age for Active Duty officers is 34.4 years.

• Education Level. Most enlisted members (80.5%) have a high school diploma and/or some college experience, while fewer have an Associate’s degree (10.5%) or a Bachelor’s degree or higher (8.4%). Most officers have a Bachelor’s degree or higher (84.8%). Compared to 2010, the percentage of total Active Duty members who have a Bachelor’s and/or an advanced degree increased for enlisted personnel (from 4.8% in 2010 to 8.4% in 2018) and officers (from 82.7% in 2010, to 84.8% in 2018).

• Marital Status. Just over half (51.5%) of Active Duty military members are married, which is lower than the percentage that were married in 2000 (53.1%). In 2018, almost half (48.0%) of enlisted members and a majority (67.5%) of officers report themselves as married. Over half (52.8%) of Active Duty males and nearly half (44.8%) of Active Duty females are married. In addition, 6.7 percent of DoD’s Active Duty members are in dual-military marriages.2 In 2018, 3.4 percent of enlisted personnel and 1.5 percent of officers are estimated to have divorced.

George H.W. Bush

Two friends reflect on a man we all served:

Lloyd Green at Buzzfeed:

George H.W. Bush was the last president to distinguish between two different tasks: campaigning and governing. At his 1988 post-election news conference, Bush said, “The American people are wonderful when it comes to understanding when a campaign ends and the work of business begins.” As the then-29-year-old opposition research counsel to the Bush ’88 campaign, I was chagrined to see the president-elect draw that line so quickly.

Looking back, there is much to commend in the elder Bush’s approach. With the passing of time, the distinction between campaigning and governing has been lost. Subsequent elections have each felt like a prelude to a permanent campaign. The first Bush presidency is a reminder that country can come before party, partisanship is not insurmountable, and that there are more important things.

John S. Gardner at The Guardian:

As with so many others, the war marked Bush. The oil fields of west Texas, where he and Barbara moved to start his career after his delayed graduation from Yale, were far from the sea he loved but the same pluck and courage that propelled him to war led him to this venture rather than to safer, more conventional opportunities back east.

He had a sailor’s sense of duty and propriety. During the Malta summit of 1989, a few weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when he met Mikhail Gorbachev in the midst of a violent Mediterranean storm, he risked a dangerous helicopter landing on the USS Belknap and happily traveled to Gorbachev’s ship for dinner.

Throughout his life, he maintained a deep kinship with veterans and the families of those serving. Early in his administration, on 19 April 1989, on the battleship Iowa – the ship that carried FDR to Casablanca – a turret exploded, killing 47 sailors. For many, the sight of George and Barbara Bush hugging and speaking with the family members after the memorial service was a moment that put a man who had promised a “kinder, gentler nation” into the national consciousness.

Incompetence Update

Politico:

President-elect Donald Trump was very clear: “I will appoint a team to give me a plan within 90 days of taking office,” he said in January, after getting a U.S. intelligence assessment of Russian interference in last year’s elections and promising to address cybersecurity.

 Thursday, Trump hits his 90-day mark. There is no team, there is no plan, and there is no clear answer from the White House on who would even be working on what.

It’s the latest deadline Trump’s set and missed — from the press conference he said his wife would hold last fall to answer questions about her original immigration process to the plan to defeat ISIS that he’d said would come within his first 30 days in office.

CNN:

US President Donald Trump said he was sending "an armada" to Korean waters to potentially deal with threats from Pyongyang.

But its no-show has caused some South Koreans to question his leadership and strategy regarding their unpredictable neighbor in the north.

And as the country prepares to vote for a new president on May 9, the claim could have far-reaching implications for the two countries' relations.

"What Mr. Trump said was very important for the national security of South Korea," Presidential candidate Hong Joon-pyo told the Wall Street Journal.

"If that was a lie, then during Trump's term, South Korea will not trust whatever Trump says," said Hong, who is currently trailing in the polls.

South Korean media also seized on the conflicting reports on Trump's "armada" -- led by the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.

Washington Post:

As he nears his 100th day in office, President Trump’s efforts to appear decisive and unequivocal in his responses to fast-moving global crises have been undercut by confusing and conflicting messages from within his administration.

Over the past two weeks, policy pronouncements from senior Trump aides have often been at odds with one another — such as whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must leave power as part of a negotiated resolution to end that nation’s civil war.

In other cases, formal White House written statements have conflicted with those from government agencies, even on the same day. For example, Monday brought disparate U.S. reactions — supportive from Trump, chiding from the State Department — to the Turkish referendum this week that strengthened President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authoritarian rule.

Americans View the Military Services

Gallup reports:

Americans believe that the U.S. Army is the most important service branch to national defense, followed closely by the Air Force. Fewer than one in five choose the Marine Corps or the Navy. The Army has edged out other military branches in Gallup surveys conducted throughout the last decade.

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Importance does not necessarily equal prestige, however. While the Army has held a thin lead in perceived importance to the United States' national defense over the last decade, the Marine Corps has consistently been considered the nation's most prestigious military branch, widening its lead over the Air Force and Army during the same period. Currently, nearly half of Americans (47%) say the Marines are the most prestigious, with the Air Force a distant second, at 17%.

Bayonets

ABC News reports:

The most memorable line of Monday night’s debate was President Obama’s pointed “horses and bayonets” jab at Mitt Romney for questioning what Romney said was a shrinking U.S. Navy.

Obama responded that Romney “hasn’t spent enough time looking at how our military works. ” He added, “You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military’s changed.”

Horses and bayonets quickly became a Twitter punchline, but while they may no longer be needed for bayonet charges, it turns out the Pentagon still owns a hefty arsenal of bayonets.

The Army said today it has 419,155 bayonets in its inventory. The Marine Corps has another 195,334 bayonets that it bought in 2004 and it plans on buying 175,061 more bayonets this year. A Marine official says it’s not accurate to add the two totals together as the new ones will include replacements for ones already in service as well as additional stocks.

Aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, Staff Sgt. Leon S. Parker tells recruits how to use bayonets,  July 24, 2012:


At The Wall Street Journal, Julian E. Barnes writes:  "In 1916, Army and Marine Corps forces were relatively small, the World War I buildup having not begun. There were about 200,000 active duty Army soldiers and about 14,000 Marines, making it unlikely that there were more than the approximately 614,000 bayonets in the inventory today."

Cuban Missile Crisis: October 23, 1962

Last night, Bob Schieffer opened the debate by mentioning the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The JFK Library lays out the events of this day in 1962:

Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Edwin Martin seeks a resolution of support from the Organization of American States. Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson lays the matter before the U.N. Security Council. The ships of the naval quarantine fleet move into place around Cuba. Soviet submarines threaten the quarantine by moving into the Caribbean area. Soviet freighters bound for Cuba with military supplies stop dead in the water, but the oil tanker Bucharest continues towards Cuba. In the evening Robert Kennedy meets with Ambassador Dobrynin at the Soviet Embassy.

After the Organization of American States endorsed the quarantine, President Kennedy asks Khrushchev to halt any Russian ships heading toward Cuba. The president's greatest concern is that a US Navy vessel would otherwise be forced to fire upon a Russian vessel, possibly igniting war between the superpowers.

JFK's message to Khrushchev:

Navy to World: Do Not Talk Like a Pirate

Wednesday, September 19, was "Talk Like a Pirate Day."  In observance of its very real anti-piracy operations, the US Navy had the most awesome Facebook post of the week:

Anti-Terrorism

Tomorrow is the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The Los Angeles Times reports on a unique way in which citizens are aiding the war on terror:

Working from a beige house at the end of a dirt road, Jeff Bardin switches on a laptop, boots up a program that obscures his location, and pecks in a passkey to an Internet forum run by an Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda.

Soon the screen displays battle flags and AK-47 rifles, plus palm-lined beaches to conjure up a martyr's paradise.

"I do believe we are in," says Bardin, a stout, 54-year-old computer security consultant.

Barefoot in his bedroom, Bardin pretends to be a 20-something Canadian who wants to train in a militant camp in Pakistan. With a few keystrokes, he begins uploading an Arabic-language manual for hand-to-hand combat to the site.

"You have to look and smell like them," he explains. "You have to contribute to the cause so there's trust built."

Bardin, a former Air Force linguist who is fluent in Arabic, is part of a loose network of citizen "hacktivists" who secretly spy on Al Qaeda and its allies. Using two dozen aliases, he has penetrated chat rooms, social networking accounts and other sites where extremists seek recruits and discuss sowing mayhem.

Over the last seven years, Bardin has given the FBI and U.S. military hundreds of phone numbers and other data that he found by hacking jihadist websites. A federal law enforcement official confirmed that Bardin and a handful of other computer-savvy citizens have provided helpful information.

At CBS, 60 Minutes interviewed a member of the SEAL team that killed bin Laden.  A clip:

Flag Day 2012

From the Census Bureau:

This is Flag Day -- marking the date in 1777 when John Adams proposed the stars and stripes as the official flag of the United States. One of many ceremonies will be held at Fort McHenry in Baltimore. It was the sight of the flag still flying there after an overnight battle with the British in the War of 1812 that inspired Francis Scott Key to write a poem, which became the words of the national anthem. Flag Day events often center around reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, written by Francis Bellamy and first recited in public in 1892 by schoolchildren at a Columbus Day ceremony. Making flags, banners, and pennants is a nearly $5 billion annual business in the U.S.

The Boston Globe reports:

A Middlesex Superior Court judge has rejected a lawsuit by an atheist couple and their children who sued the Acton-Boxborough Regional School District and the Acton schools challenging the use of the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Judge S. Jane Haggerty, in a ruling released Friday, said the daily recitation of the pledge with those words did not violate the plaintiffs’ rights under the Massachusetts Constitution, did not violate the school district’s antidiscrimination policy, and did not violate state law.

The plaintiffs, while acknowledging that the children had the right to refuse to participate in the pledge, asserted that the phrase “under God” was a “religious truth” that contradicted their beliefs, Haggerty said.

The defendants argued that the pledge, rather than a religious document or ceremony, is a patriotic exercise and statement of political philosophy, according to the ruling.

The judge observed that the case presents a “familiar dilemma in our pluralistic society — how to balance conflicting interests when one group wants to do something for patriotic reasons that another group finds offensive to its religious (or atheistic) beliefs.”

The judge ruled in her 24-page opinion that the phrase “under God” was not a religious truth.
Citing previous opinions, she said that the daily flag salute and pledge in schools are “clearly designed to inculcate patriotism and to instill a recognition of the blessings conferred by orderly government under the constitutions of the state and nation.”

“The Pledge is a voluntary patriotic exercise, and the inclusion of the phrase ‘under God’ does not convert the exercise into a prayer,” she wrote.

The Armed Forces Press Service reports:

Ten Navy ships, including USS Fort McHenry, are commemorating Flag Day today at the site of the historic War of 1812 battle 200 years ago that inspired the National Anthem.
...
The War of 1812 centered on maritime disputes between the United States and Great Britain...[W]ith naval battles in North America, off South America and Great Britain, and in the Pacific and Indian oceans, the War of 1812 was predominantly a sea campaign. It served as a defining moment for the fledging U.S. Navy, which fought the British as they tried to blockade the Atlantic coast and support land forces from Lake Erie and Lake Champlain, leading to the birth of America’s modern sea services.

“The War of 1812 is significant because it paved the way for future development of the U.S. Navy,” said U.S. Naval War College Professor Kevin McCranie, author of the soon-to-be-released book, “Utmost Gallantry: The U.S. and Royal Navies at Sea in the War of 1812.”

"Challenging the most dominant naval power of the time, the less powerful U.S. Navy found ways to protract the war and incurred significant costs for Great Britain,” he said. “That’s why the War of 1812 is important for national leaders to study.”

Using the Web Against Pirates

The Navy Times reports:

Pirates may run, but they won’t be able to hide from a new Web-based application that can track their movements on a global scale.

Development is underway on a computer program that will help sailors detect pirate ships, illegal fishing vessels, drug smugglers, arms traffickers and other bad guys in the ocean, Navy officials announced May 14. It could be used anywhere there is an Internet connection.

The application will combine automated vessel detection with behavioral analysis, said John Stastny, an engineer with the International Collaborative Development for Enhanced Maritime Domain Awareness, or ICODE MDA, who is helping to design it.

Doing this will allow sailors to identify and avoid ships engaging in suspicious at-sea maneuvers, which could signal the presence of pirates.

So, what exactly constitutes pirate behavior? That’s yet to come.

Stastny said the goal is to look at data to determine what kind of behavior is typical for a regular ship versus a pirate ship.

“That can help us develop models for what pirates are likely to do,” he explained.

The program will operate like iGoogle, an online dashboard that accommodates a user’s preferences and displays personalized data for local weather, email and news. But for this dashboard, the menu will focus on locating pirates.

“You’re going to have a base map that will show anomalies that are related to the piracy problem and a widget that shows which are high-risk vessels or high-risk areas for piracy today,” Stastny said.