Q: What is Maritime Domain Awareness?
A: Maritime Domain Awareness is the effective understanding of anything associated with the maritime domain that could impact the security, economy, or environment of the United States.

Q: What does MDA do?
A: Maritime Domain Awareness:

• Informs decision makers in near real time to enable them to take action to support all of the nation’s maritime safety, security and stewardship interests,
• Allows decision makers to detect, deter, and defeat threats as early and distant from US interests as possible, and
• Enhances situational awareness across the maritime domain.

Q: Who “owns” MDA?
A: MDA is not a capability or specific system, but a state of understanding achieved by leveraging and integrating a wide range of domestic and international capabilities. This understanding facilitates the decision making process and enables operational response. As such, it is not “owned” by anyone.

Q: How does MDA aid in countering threats from the maritime domain?
A: By collecting, fusing, analyzing, and disseminating maritime related data, achieving MDA will:

• Enhance transparency in the maritime domain to detect, deter, and defeat threats as early and distant from US interests as possible.