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Theater Ballistic Missile Defenses: An Emerging Role for the Navy?
"The end of the Cold War has brought about significant changes in the international and national security environments that present tremendous implications for the US military. The strategic threat of global nuclear war has diminished considerably. While that threat is diminished, an [sic] new threat is emerging. Ballistic missile proliferation and related weapons of mass destruction are one of the major threats to stability in the new security environment. Ballistic missile systems are seen as destabilizing weapons that are a threat to regional peace and American vital interests in certain regions. This thesis addresses the possible need for theater ballistic missile defenses in the US Navy as one element of a national strategy to defeat ballistic missiles in future regional conflicts. Specifically, it addresses the naval role for ballistic missile defenses, including an analysis of the present and future threat, an examination of how the missile defenses dovetail into the national security strategy of regional contingencies, and the means by which the defenses can be employed. The issue of the threat involves demonstrating that a threat presently exists and that technological improvements in the future will greatly increase their utility and put many more targets, including US Navy ships, at risk. The issue of the role that missile defenses fill in the national security strategy deals with their contributions to the fundamental pillars of that strategy. The issue of naval roles addresses the missions and tasks that a sea-based system can provide across the spectrum of naval warfare. The means which the defenses can be employed is addressed to demonstrate how the US Navy can be a major contributor using the Aegis construct."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Pitts, James E.
1992-12
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Port Security in the Persian Gulf
"The United States and the international community have implemented numerous measures since 2001 designed to improve the security of maritime commerce. Special attention has been paid to the vulnerability of port facilities to exploitation by terrorists or other illicit actors. While the implementation of enhanced port security measures in Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Iraq may have improved some aspects of maritime security, significant vulnerabilities remain. While strong physical security at ports and stringent inspection regimes for container cargo are important elements in protecting maritime infrastructure worldwide, port security measures may yet be undermined by a failure to provide mechanisms which verify the identities and credentials of all individuals with access to ports, secure non-container cargo, and prevent illicit actors from accessing and exploiting port facilities."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Munson, Mark
2008-06
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Maritime Terrorism and the Small Boat Threat to the United States: A Proposed Response
"This thesis examines the history and current trends of international maritime terrorism to show that terrorists may soon determine that small boat attacks may be the most cost-effective and successful terrorism strategy. This review determined that increasingly successful worldwide piracy attacks and the effective use of detection-evading drug vessels, may increase the risk of a terrorist attack in United States' waters. These reviews and lessons learned from other nations' successful responses to the maritime threat, in coordination with the goals outlined in the DHS Small Vessel Security Strategy, led to this author's recommendations that the local U.S. maritime community members must be better encouraged by Coast Guard members to become involved in observing and reporting suspicious activities, the Coast Guard and other local law enforcement agencies must investigate and prioritize those areas that might be used as a staging area for a small boat attack and increase their presence activities in those locations, the use of up-to-date technology must be a part of any small boat terrorist deterrence plan, and the U.S. must be prepared with a plan to respond to a successful small boat attack, including possible increased regulations and restrictions on the maritime community."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security; Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Hill, Brian Patrick
2009-03
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Defending U.S. National Interests in the Persian Gulf: Going Light
"Is it possible to defend U.S. interests in the Persian Gulf through the use of primarily SOF/light forces? How might implementing this type of force structure affect the perception of U.S. involvement in the region and its ability to project power on a scale commensurate with its interests? This thesis examines two ways that the U.S. might be able to secure its interests in the Gulf using a minimalist approach. The two methods evaluated are using sea bases in the Gulf and land bases in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa as forward staging bases for SOF operations in the Persian Gulf. The study looks at these two options in terms of costs and benefits both fiscally and physically in terms of the impact that these bases would have on the populations in the Gulf."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Gretz, Michael A.
2008-03
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Covering the Homeland: National Guard Unmanned Aircraft Systems Support for Wildland Firefighting and Natural Disaster Events
"Over the past decade, the United States Government has had to cope with increasingly severe large-scale natural disasters. The 2004 hurricane season alone caused 167 deaths and an estimated $46 billion in damages. The following year, Hurricane Katrina took 1,330 lives and caused an estimated $96 billion in damages. The 2007 fire season saw over 85,000 wildland fires consume more than 9.3 million acres. In Southern California alone, wildfires forced over half a million people to evacuate their homes, destroyed over 3,079 structures, and caused over $1.8 billion in damages. This thesis examines the possible nontraditional and creative use of unmanned aircraft systems to mitigate the threat and effects of natural disasters, assist with search and rescue, and aid post disaster recovery efforts. This work investigates the use of National Guard unmanned aircraft systems to provide lead agencies support prior to, during, and following major disaster incidents. The thesis also explores the benefits and challenges to setting up National Guard units operating unmanned aircraft systems within the United States equipped with specialized sensors in a similar fashion to the National Guard modular airborne firefighting system, and offers subjects for follow on research."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Moose, Robert G.
2008-12
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Operation Noble Eagle and the Use of Combat Air Patrols for Homeland Defense
"This thesis considers why the United States Air Force is still flying combat air patrols (CAPs) over the United States in support of Operation Noble Eagle (ONE) more than seven years after 9/11. The USAF is struggling to support two regional conflicts while defending the homeland and trying sustain and recapitalize its fleet of aircraft. Given these broader long-term requirements, it is time to reevaluate the need for ONE's costly airborne CAPs, in light of improvements in aviation security, together with the absence of terrorist attacks on the homeland and of no actionable intelligence indicating an imminent air threat in America. The following sub-areas were researched to help evaluate and recommend changes to the current ONE CAP policy: the history of air defense in America; U.S. air defense mistakes on 9/11 and the evolution of ONE; improvements in the intelligence community and aviation security since 9/11; specific threats to aviation and the risk of another 9/11-style attack in the United States; and the cost and impact of the ONE alert and CAP missions on the combat capability of the participating USAF squadrons. The thesis concludes by considering other, more cost effective, air defense systems available to support Noble Eagle in lieu of fighter CAPs."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Reents, Mark J.
2008-12
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Conducting the Softer Side of Counterinsurgency
"In a counterinsurgency (COIN) the local population becomes the center of gravity. Over the past three years, the U.S. military has rewritten many field manuals that focus on COIN, to include a significant change to FM 3-0, Operations, and a complete revision of FM 3-24, Counterinsurgency. These changes in doctrine have forced the U.S. military's conventional force to reconsider its use of the kinetic force and begin to understand the use of more non-kinetic means, or the softer side of COIN, in order to reach sustainable peace. If non-kinetic actions are the way forward, how should units (battalion and below) be applying the softer side of COIN? This thesis considers through context and assessment the goals that are needed to achieve the right mix of kinetic and non-kinetic actions. Practitioners suggest that information operations, situational awareness, cultural awareness and empathy are key components of effective counterinsurgency. This thesis argues further that network development and command influence have vital multiplier effects on these components. Without command influence, none are likely to take hold. Therefore, the thesis argues that command influence is the key aspect in achieving a balance between kinetic and non-kinetic actions, in order to conduct effective COIN."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Ransone, Bart D.
2008-12
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Nuclear and Solar Energy: Implications for Homeland Security
"In the eyes of many experts, the world is moving away from oil as a cheap energy source. As this future unfolds, the United States may perform a leading role as the planet's premier energy consumer. Solar and nuclear power provide possibilities for this future which represent the extremes in terms of energy supply. The question this thesis asks is: what are the security implications of a substantial shift in energy policy in either a solar or nuclear direction? The analysis begins with a question, 'What is a substantial shift?' and defines substantial in terms of energy shortage, energy independence, and climate change. The proposed energy futures to match these shifts are then judged with respect to three security criteria: resource access, nuclear weapons proliferation, and infrastructure protection. Accepting many uncertainties with future economic and technical solutions (even as proven systems are proposed), solar power provides the most stable future in terms of security alone. However, because these options are not mutually exclusive, both cases offer security challenges which are addressed in the concluding recommendations."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Thibeaux, Allen L.
2008-12
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Disrupting the Illicit Small Arms Trafficking in the Middle East
"The illicit trade in small arms and light weapons delivers a global supply of weapons and ammunition to the demand of rogue state and non-state actors. While arms do not create conflict, they increase the intensity of violent conflict. The illicit trafficking of small arms contributes to irregular conflicts in the Middle East, a region of persistent conflict and instability. The international community has attempted to regulate the global supply of small arms through non-binding agreement and embargoes, but these efforts have been ineffective in achieving the goal of preventing the flow of weapons to criminal organizations, terrorists, and other de-stabilizing non-state actors. This thesis systematically examines the illicit small arms trade to identify points of vulnerability. This study identifies a strategy to disrupt the flow of arms to specific groups or states by countering arms brokers and the networks of actors that brokers coordinate."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Snyder, Neil N.
2008-12
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Counterinsurgency Meets Soft Power: An Alternative Approach to Deterring Terrorist Recruitment in Mindanao
"Terrorist activity in Southeast Asia remains a challenge to U.S. national security. In particular, terrorist organizations in the Philippines continue to conduct deadly attacks and attract more recruits despite U.S. and Philippine government counterinsurgency (COIN) efforts. Within the last seven years following the 9/11 terrorist attack, the Philippine and U.S. governments have combined efforts to address insurgency as a threat that hinders peace and security within the Philippines as well as Southeast Asia. Despite the ongoing counterinsurgency operations in Mindanao, the southern region of the Philippines continues to exist as a hub for terrorist recruitment, training, and operations. A key aspect of hindering insurgency growth within the Philippines is deterring terrorist recruitment by first identifying the underlying conditions that promote discontent among the people of Mindanao that make them susceptible to the ideology of militant Islam and then implementing a strategy that includes a full range of activities from kinetic to non-kinetic methods. It is clear that economic conditions, poor governance, lack of adequate social and educational programs are all contributing factors to the instability of Mindanao. What's not so clear is how to disrupt the cycle that sustains the terrorists while gaining the affection of the Muslim minority who have been in opposition with the predominantly Christian government. This thesis examines the counterinsurgency strategy by recognizing effective practices and identifying shortfalls in the approach. Our findings suggest that by applying a mix of soft power, as defined by Professor Joseph Nye, as well as noöpolitik as defined by Professor John Arquilla and Dave Ronfeldt, in relation to hard power practices, an alternative approach to counterinsurgency can offer the U.S. and Philippine governments a long-term sustainable strategy that will diminish future radical Islamic threats and stabilize Mindanao."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Williams, John; Smith, Jason; Stroh, Rieka
2008-12
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NATO and U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense Programs: Divergent or Convergent Paths?
"NATO and the United States are actively pursuing missile defense policies. NATO has invested in the Active Layered Theatre Ballistic Missile Defence (ALTBMD) information network to support the Theater Missile Defense (TMD) capabilities of specific Allies for the protection of forward deployed troops, and studies of the feasibility and political-military implications of Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) for the protection of NATO territory, forces and population centers. The U.S. program includes TMD activities in cooperation with NATO Allies, such as Patriot, as well as BMD research and deployment. The U.S. proposal to deploy BMD system elements in Poland and the Czech Republic has led to more extensive discussions of BMD in the Alliance. The North Atlantic Council made BMD-relevant decisions in April 2008. The United States and its NATO Allies nonetheless seem to differ greatly on the urgency and importance of pursuing BMD. TMD generates far more cooperation and support within the Alliance than does BMD for the protection of NATO territory, forces and population centers. This thesis compares TMD and BMD policies within the Alliance in an attempt to identify the causes of disagreements on BMD policy and to propose a course of action that may meet the Alliance's goals."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Toms, Kevin E.
2008-12
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Responding to Catastrophe via Law Enforcement Deployment Teams: A Policy Analysis
"This thesis is a policy analysis of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Law Enforcement Deployment Team concept. The concept outlines the need to form specialized regional law enforcement teams to be deployed across the nation to stricken regions. As written, these teams are designed to provide a backfill to law enforcement agencies who require additional assistance post-natural disaster or post-terror attack. Many of the tenets in this DHS concept and derived from existing federal teams such as the Disaster Medical Assistance Teams and Urban Search and Rescue Teams. The concept also outlines how teams will be comprised, what their expected missions will be and the general vision for how they will be equipped, trained and transported. However, analysis of this policy proposal showed the DHS concept does not provide a proposed structure or management organization to manage this potential national resource. Additionally, it lacks detail on how teams would be monitored, administered, and readied for deployment. This gap was the basis of this thesis project. The analysis of this condition starts by outlining the debate in law enforcement over the efficacy of centralized versus decentralized police structures. A brief historical narrative of the origins of U.S. law enforcement and review of the literature was used to demonstrate the breadth of this debate. Existing law enforcement management structures were reviewed to determine potential smart practices and to outline past errors to develop guideposts to be used in formulation of the law enforcement deployment team management system."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Gillespie, Bryan M.
2008-12
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Web Services Integration on the Fly
"This thesis explores a generic, flexible, scalable, usable and intelligent web services architecture framework that enables sharing and integration of data and tools on the fly. This software framework is a key enabler for systems of systems architecture in a net-centric environment. The envisioned Web Service Architecture Intelligent Framework (WSAIF) is applied to the Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulation (MOVES) domain. Specifically, the framework is applied to provide the capability to search and retrieve visualization models and their matching behavior models in a collaborative environment. This thesis elaborates on the design, implementation, deployment and test results of web services for the Scenario Authoring and Visualization for Advanced Graphical Environments (SAVAGE) archive, which is a set of web-based 3D graphics models plus corresponding agent-behaviour models. SAVAGE web services can perform both 'find' and 'get' operations for models in the archives. SAVAGE web services operations can be composed to form business processes. These business processes can be expressed using modeling techniques such as Web Service Business Process Execution Language (WSBPEL). Future capabilities include semantic activities using Web Ontology Language for Services (OWL-S). The study and comparison of various modeling techniques that enable integration, orchestration and adaptation of composable web services is mentioned. The design and implementation approach matches industry best practices for information architectures. The modeling techniques are essential to and will eventually be used in WSAIF Orchestration and Adaptation components. This thesis further explores how WSAIF software agents, modeling data and supporting software infrastructure can someday enable web services integration on the fly and concludes with recommendations for future work."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Leong, Hoe Wai
2008-12
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What Makes Fusion Cells Effective?
"Intelligence Fusion Cells (or Fusion Centers) can be an effective means to best leverage the capabilities of various organizations and agencies in pursuit of a particular mission or objective. This thesis will examine what characteristics enable three types (DoD-led, State and Local Fusion Centers, and DOJ/OGA-led fusion cells) of fusion cells to be most effective. There is no set definition for how to measure 'effectiveness' across types of fusion cells. This fact created several research issues which are analyzed and discussed at length. After examining what makes these fusion cells effective, the authors will explore what lessons learned from fusion cells the U.S. Government can apply to the federal level to improve interagency cooperation and efficacy. The lessons from a more micro-level (fusion cells) can be applied to the more macro-level (interagency cooperation)."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Fussell, Christopher L.; Hough, Trevor W.; Pedersen, Matthew D.
2009-12
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Development of a Laboratory-Scale Test Facility to Investigate Armor Solutions against Buried Explosive Threats
"The purpose of this study was to drive a planar shock wave into a layer of sand for use in armor effectiveness studies. We proposed to use an explosively-driven flyer plate to impact the sand layer and launch a shock wave. In detail our concept is to use a slanted flyer plate, with an explosive layer underneath it, and accelerate the flyer plate by detonating the explosive. As the resulting detonation wave runs through the explosive layer, it pushes the flyer plate. If all the geometry is carefully designed and the flyer plate/explosive layers are precisely positioned, we will produce a flat flyer plate that travels on the order of 1 to 2 km/s towards a layer of sand. The subsequent impact will generate a shock wave within the sand that will eventually accelerate the sand with a flat top profile towards the intended target, thus achieving a flat sand-loading profile on the target. Success in these experiments will allow us to be able to test various armor designs for effectiveness in mitigating this threat. Since our experiments are done on a laboratory scale, armor testing can be done in a timely and cost-effective manner."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Garcia, Felipe
2009-12
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Understanding Environmental Factors that Affect Violence in Salinas, California
"When a community is plagued by violence, the natural tendency is to determine how to change or reduce the violence levels. In the process, an equally important question of why violence occurs is often overlooked. This thesis analyzes the why with respect to violence levels in Salinas, California. In order to determine specific environmental factors that affect violence in Salinas, the authors postulate nine broad independent variables (IVs) for analysis: Economy; Population; Housing; Education; Police Force; Prison Influence; Gang Rivalry; Social Service Programs; and Community Involvement. These independent variables were compared to the violence rate per capita in Salinas to determine which environmental factors influence violence in Salinas. Although data was not available for all of the IVs, the authors determined that the following factors influence violence in Salinas: the unemployment rate, average persons per household, vacant housing units, housing units per capita, the high school dropout rate, the high school graduation rate, the school average daily attendance, and the school budget. To lower overall violence levels, officials in Salinas should focus on: reducing the unemployment rate, the number of vacant housing units, and the high school dropout rate; and increasing the high school graduation rate and average daily attendance."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Clarke, Jason; Onufer, Tracy L.
2009-12
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Simulation-Based Analysis of Tactical and Evaluation of Tactical Multi-Hop Radio Networks
"For many years, the technologies involved in the newest generations of tactical communication equipment have increased the reliability and security of tactical voice communications from the highest to the lowest levels of combat command. However, the complexities inherent to wireless data networks have prevented the reach of valuable data links from extending efficiently and reliably to the lowest levels of tactical command. This thesis attempts to quantify the performance of tactical data networks using existing technologies and currently deployed mobile wireless networking devices by analyzing the results of network simulations involving currently deployed devices. By quantifying these performance metrics and comparing them to previously collected simulation results involving experimental technologies, we hope to provide a mode of comparison that will accurately reflect the degree to which newer mobile wireless networking devices will benefit our operational forces."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Smith, Howard D.
2009-03
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Succession Planning in Homeland Security- How Can We Ensure the Effective Transfer of Knowledge to a New Generation of Employees?
From the thesis abstract: "In the past five years, the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) has seen the mass retirements of tenured, experienced personnel and the hiring of new generations. Because a large percentage of the department is currently eligible for retirement, this trend will continue over the next five to seven years. The drain of experience and knowledge will directly affect the operational capabilities of the department, as well as our nation's homeland security. Through the use of case studies, the research will examine how the LAFD can maximize institutional memory, and transfer this knowledge to a new generation of employees. The practical significance of this project is to 1) identify the challenges of current succession planning of the LAFD; 2) identify solutions to these challenges through evaluating precedent cases; and 3) develop a conceptual and tailored succession planning guide based on identified solutions. In today's world, the workforce is an organization's most important asset, often differentiating highly successful agencies from those that struggle. By developing a succession planning guide that focuses on assessment, development, identification and selection, organizations can align its goals with its human capital needs and ensure it can keep pace with the complexities in homeland security."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security; Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Butler, Patrick I.
2010-03
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Integration of the Naval Unmanned Combat Aerial System (N-UCAS) into the Future Naval Air Wing
"This MBA Project investigates the use of unmanned vehicles, specifically the Navy-Unmanned Combat Air System (N-UCAS), which can be employed and deployed in novel ways to gain access in the access denied surface domain due to the proliferation of anti-ship ballistic missiles. The capabilities of N-UCAS, coupled with a new employment/deployment model, have the potential to allow the Navy to maintain the forecasted capacity of the future power projection fleet while reducing the number of carriers. The savings from the reduction in the carrier fleet could allow smaller crafts, such as the Joint High Speed Vessel (HSV) and the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), to be procured in larger numbers to aid in the shortfalls that the current Naval Force has in Maritime Security and Cooperative Engagement (MSCE) capacity."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
2009-12
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National Security Personnel System (NSPS): A History of Creation and Enactment of the Legislation Authorizing its Establishment
"The Department of Defense (DoD) National Security Personnel System (NSPS) was enacted through the FY 2004 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), signed into public law by President George W. Bush on November 24, 2003. NSPS enactment served as a key pillar of DoD's ongoing transformation effort and was an historically significant example of modern U.S. Civil Service reform. It also serves as a valuable case study for other government agencies interested in enacting their own civil service reform in the future. The overall objective of this thesis is to construct an analytical history of the creation and enactment of the legislation that authorized NSPS. The two primary research questions are: 1) how was the original NSPS legislative proposal, Section 101 of 'The Defense Transformation for the 21st Century Act,' created, and 2) how did Section 1101 of the FY 2004 NDAA, which authorized the establishment of NSPS, become law? The thesis also explores how NSPS was created and enacted through the lens of relevant policy process frameworks."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Prater, Shane T.; Timmerman, Eric W.
2008-03
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Comparative Analysis of Commercial Off-the-shelf Naval Simulations and Classic Operations Research Models
"No longer does Naval Surface Warfare merely entail battle between symmetric naval fleets conducted in large open water engagements. Today's Surface Warriors must have the training and capability to also fight asymmetric threats in congested locations of strategic value. Operations conducted within straits, choke points, and island cluttered littorals pose considerable risk and numerous challenges for today's Navy. Shore based anti-ship missiles, torpedo and missile carrying small fast patrol boats, and mines present capable threats across naval warfare areas such as Anti-Surface Warfare and Mine Warfare. In addition, conventional and midget submarines present an ever-growing threat within strategic littorals. Previous studies have generated high-end simulations to determine composition of blue force fleets, and suggested tactics for addressing various modern threats. This thesis compares how well off-the-shelf simulation software in the form of Larry Bond's HARPOON3 Advanced Naval Warfare (H3 ANW) emulates high-end simulations validated through modified Hughes' Salvo Equations. The results demonstrate the complexities involved in comparing the output of two completely different analytical tools. The mathematical nature of Hughes' Salvo Equations provides a focused deterministic aspect; while the dynamic interaction of platforms, environments, and tactics designed into H3 ANW provide a completely different aspect with potential use as a learning tool for Surface Warrior."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Field, Peter A.
2009-09
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Validating a Model of Team Collaboration at the North American Aerospace Defense Command Using Selected Transcripts from September 11, 2001
"On September 11, 2001, during an exercise at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), air traffic controllers in New York, Boston, Washington and Cleveland discovered that four American commercial airliners had been hijacked. Initially, the officials at NORAD's North East Air Defense Sector (NEADS) were confused as to whether the hijackings were real world or part of an exercise. The goal of this thesis is to investigate the teamwork and collaboration that occurred between NEADS, their counterparts at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and various air traffic control centers in order to provide military air support and ground civilian air traffic over the United States. Transcripts of recorded audio from the command and control center at NEADS were coded and analyzed in an effort to use a real world example to empirically validate the structural model of team collaboration, developed by the Office of Naval Research. The model focuses on individual and team cognitive processes used during collaboration with the goal of understanding how individuals and teams work together under stress to make decisions."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Johnson, David; Donaldson, Catherine
2008-06
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Blog Fingerprinting: Identifying Anonymous Posts Written by an Author of Interest Using Word and Character Frequency Analysis
"Internet blogs are an easily accessible means of global communications. Monitoring blogs for criminal and terrorist activity is a serious challenge, due to blogs' anonymous nature and the sheer volume of data. The intelligence community is often faced with more information than it can process. The need exists to develop methods for processing the massive amounts of data this media presents, without a significant increase in manpower. An automated tool capable of indentifying posts written by an individual, given a sample of his writing, would allow law enforcement and intelligence agencies to gather evidence that would otherwise be overlooked due to manpower and time constraints. This research focuses on identifying blog posts written by a particular author, when we do not have a model of every potential author. Previous research either builds a distinct model for every possible author, or limits itself to large documents. Neither approach is appropriate for processing blog posts. Blog posts tend to be short documents, and building a distinct model of each author is unreasonable if you are looking for one author among millions. We address this problem by combining sample posts by other authors to create a model of an 'average author.'"
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Dreier, David J.
2009-09
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Reliability of Iris Recognition as a Means of Identity Verification and Future Impact on Transportation Worker Identification Credential
"The Department of Homeland Security is deploying the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) to U.S. ports to help ensure only authorized individuals having undergone background checks have access to secure areas. Congress mandated the TWIC have a biometric authenticator; DHS chose fingerprints. This thesis argues iris scanning is a better choice because of the nature of the maritime environment and because iris scanning is a more accurate biometric. This thesis also argues there are social factors affecting a biometric--enabled identification card which must be considered for the program to be successful. To investigate the issue of biometrics and the TWIC, this thesis performed a field study of an iris scanner; a survey of biometric attitudes, and interviews with members of the PMA and the ILWU. The iris study operated the scanner in an identification mode, experiencing no false acceptances and few false rejects; however it found the scanner sensitive to sun position with respect to the subject. The pilot study of attitudes found subjects supportive of biometrics in scenarios currently requiring positive identification, but opposing them when it would create new requirements for identification. Both pilot studies were impacted by an inability to provide an incentive to study subjects."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
McLaren, Simon
2008-03
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Assessment, Survey, and Systems Engineering Design of Information Sharing and Discovery Systems in a Network-Centric Environment
"Information, and the knowledge gained from it, has been the key component to strategic planning since the earliest combat operations. Success in the Information Age is defined by the military's ability to communicate effectively in a dynamic environment and share relevant information seamlessly. Sharing information is a critical element to understanding missions that employ the operational concept of Network-Centric Operations and Warfare (NCOW). Discovering valuable information is vital towards our capacity to predict and/or prevent circumstances in our current war against terrorist organizations. This thesis describes fundamental concepts of information sharing and information discovery. Through the use of a systems engineering approach, this thesis created a common vision of an information sharing and discovery (ISD) system, evaluates the role of ISD in network-centric systems (NCS), and discusses the relationship of NCS to NCOW. This study also employs the system architecture method to establish the operational concept of ISD systems; derive requirements for future acquisitions of ISD systems; analyze the interactions that ISD systems have with external systems; and establish a functional architecture for the ISD system. This research approach provides guidance for the development and integration of future ISD systems in order to meet the needs of future DoD NCS."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
De Soto, Kristine M.
2009-12
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Effectiveness and Efficiencies of Private Military Corporations
"This study investigates private military corporations (PMCs) to examine their effectiveness and efficiency as a substitute for traditional military forces. The PMC consists of a for profit firm that provides military services that range from combat operations to training, security and logistics support. While the PMCs represent a solution to issues such as insufficient military resources to provide direct support to other nations, there remain a number of political and structural barriers to their widespread use."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Burge, Robert A.
2008-06
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Distributed Password Cracking
"Password cracking requires significant processing power which in today's world is located at a workstation or home in the form of a desktop computer. Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) is the conduit to this significant source of processing power and John the Ripper is the key. BOINC is a distributed data processing system that incorporates client-server relationships to generically process data. The BOINC structure supports any system that requires large amounts of data to be processed without changing significant portions of the structure. John the Ripper is a password cracking program that takes a password file and attempts to determine the password by a guess and check method. The merger of these two programs enables companies and diverse groups to verify the strength of their password security policy. This thesis goes into detail on the inner workings of BOINC, John the Ripper, and the merger of the two programs. It also details the work required to test the system to its full capability."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Crumpacker, John R.
2009-12
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Islam in America: Why U.S. Muslims Are Less Likely to Radicalize than Their European Counterparts
"Islam is the world's largest religion, and the second largest religion in the West. Conflicts over the past 30 years have brought Islam to the forefront of politics and Islamophobia to the western world. Islamic radicalism is on the rise, with the home home-grown terrorist quickly becoming a new emerging threat. Although western states of France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, all share common beliefs, values, cultures and religious makeup; how they integrate their minority Muslim populations varies significantly. While there are numerous explanations for this difference, this thesis looks at three specific areas where that difference may influence the population to radicalize: the history of immigration, government policies, and the ability to integrate within western society."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Mayer, Tamara M.
2009-12
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Deterring Terrorism: A Framework for Making Retaliatory Threats Credible
"To deter terrorism, U.S. deterrence strategy must threaten retaliatory responses that are appropriate to the actions by non-state actors the United States wishes to prevent. The effectiveness of those threats depends on the perceived credibility that America possesses the capability and willingness to execute them. Although U.S. policy focuses on preventive and preemptive counterterrorism strategies, this thesis argues that it contains relevant targets for retaliation but lacks credibility because its threats do not distinguish between types of attack. Instead of correlating threats to undesirable actions, it declares the same punishment for all terrorism, which is unrealistic ex post. On the contrary, the level of response should be proportionally related to the type and destructive effects of an attack and in tune with the level of public outrage the attack would generate. This thesis first provides theoretical support for the claim that recent U.S. policy documents contain valid threats for influencing non-state actors. Then, credibility is evaluated by comparing those threats to the expected U.S. response for two dissimilar scenarios: cyber and nuclear terrorism. The analysis suggests that policy threats lack credibility because the signaled response for terrorism holds constant across varying degrees of attack severity. Because the likely responses to these attacks differ in practice, the undifferentiated signals sent by recent policy weaken deterrence. As a result, the thesis recommends establishing a retaliation framework based on type of attack."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Tippet, Douglas F.
2009-12
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Computational Algebraic Attacks on the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
"This thesis examines the vulnerability of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to algebraic attacks. It will explore how strong the Rijndael algorithm must be in order to secure important federal information. There are several algebraic methods of attack that can be used to break a specific cipher, such as Buchburger's and Faugere's F4 and F5 methods. The method to be used and evaluated in this thesis is the Multiple Right Hand Sides (MRHS) Linear Equations. MRHS is a new method that allows computations to be more efficient and the equations to be more compact in comparison with the previously referred methods. Because of the high complexity of the Rijndael algorithm, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate the results of an MRHS attack in a small-scale variant of the AES, since it is impossible to break the actual algorithm by using only the existent knowledge. Instead of the original ten rounds of AES algorithm, variants of up to four rounds were used. Simple examples of deciphering some ciphertexts are presented for different variants of the AES, and the new attack method of MRHS linear equations is compared with the other older methods."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Panteleimon, Mantzouris
2009-09
