Maritime Safety and Security Team

A Maritime Safety and Security Team or MSST is a United States Coast Guard anti-terrorism team established to protect local maritime assets. It is a harbor and inshore patrol and security team that includes detecting and if necessary stopping or arresting submerged divers, using the Underwater Port Security System.

MSSTs were created under the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 (MTSA) in direct response to the terrorist attacks on 11 Sept. 2001, and are a part of the United States Department of Homeland Security's layered strategy directed at protecting seaports and waterways. MSSTs provide waterborne and a modest level of shoreside antiterrorism force protection for strategic shipping, high interest vessels, and critical infrastructure. MSSTs are a quick response force capable of rapid nationwide deployment via air, ground or sea transportation in response to changing threat conditions and evolving Maritime Homeland Security (MHS) mission requirements. Multi-mission capability facilitates augmentation for other selected Coast Guard missions.

MSST personnel receive training in Advanced Tactical Boat Operations and Anti-terrorism Force protection at the Joint Maritime Training Center at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

The MSSTs operated as part of the Coast Guard's Deployable Operations Group (DOG) from 2007-2013, but returned to the operational control of the Coast Guard's corresponding Pacific and Atlantic Area commands upon the DOG's decommissioning at the end of 2013.

Modeled after the Port Security Unit (PSU) and Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) programs, MSSTs provide a complementary non-redundant capability designed to close critical security gaps in United States strategic seaports. MSSTs are staffed to support continuous law enforcement operations both ashore and afloat. In addition, MSSTs do these:

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