• Persistently monitoring (in the global maritime domain) vessels and craft, cargo, vessel crews and passengers, and all identified areas of interest.
• Collecting, fusing, analyzing, and disseminating information to decision makers to facilitate effective understanding of the maritime domain.

Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) is the effective understanding of anything associated with the global maritime domain that could impact the security, safety, economy, or environment of the United States. However, this does not mean that knowing everything everywhere in the maritime domain is a requirement to achieving MDA. Conceptually, MDA is the integration of Global Maritime Intelligence and Global Maritime Situational Awareness. Global Maritime Intelligence is the product of legacy, as well as changing intelligence capabilities, policies and operational relationships used to integrate all available data, information, and intelligence in order to identify, locate, and track potential maritime threats. Global Maritime Situational Awareness results from the persistent monitoring of maritime activities in such a way that trends and anomalies can be identified.

Enterprise Hubs are being developed from within existing organizations with capabilities that already make substantial contributions to MDA in one or more of the following subject areas:

• vessels;
• cargo;
• people;
• infrastructure; and
• architecture management