ISG SUPPORT MARITIME READINESS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - Defense Security Cooperation University

The United States takes an active role in safeguarding its maritime domain as well as maintaining a high level of preparedness within the maritime community around the globe. Two years ago, the Institute for Security Governance (ISG) began supporting the Dominican Republic (DR) by working with its Navy to increase its maritime readiness. The goal of this partnership is to advance U.S. national security and policy objectives by advancing Dominican institutional capabilities. As the Department of Defense’s leading implementer for Institutional Capacity Building (ICB), the Institute strives to improve security sector governance and core management competencies needed to effectively achieve shared security objectives. By its nature, these efforts foster sustainable and repeatable Security Cooperation with its allies and partners. 

ISG’s collaboration with the Dominican Navy seeks to increase the DR’s capacity for regional domain awareness, and to enhance its border security and citizen security by targeting illicit trafficking and increasing its interdiction capabilities throughout its maritime and land domains. ISG’s project aims to advise Dominican Navy officials on ICB logistics and resource management requirements to maintain and sustain the U.S. provided Boston Whaler (Interceptor) Fleet – the primary interdiction force of the Dominican Navy. The Interceptor Fleet is critical to the DR’s ability to counter threats from transnational criminal organizations, violent extremist organizations, and malign regional and external state actors.  

During a scoping visit in April 2022, ISG and its Dominican counterparts established a project team to outline sustainment needs and to develop an interactive lifecycle materiel management costing method that would allow the Dominican Navy to budget sufficient funds to ensure that the Interceptor fleet is able to meet its operational commitments in the maritime domain. 

By analyzing the unit’s usage patterns, the team was able to model sustainment needs for the fleet to meet mission requirements. As a result of that analysis, the Dominican Navy has been able to justify a government investment to repower the fleet. Additionally, the FY2023 Dominican Navy budget will now include funding for sustainment requirements for the Interceptor Fleet identified by the project team last year. ISG also partnered with the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative Technical Assistance Field Team from the U.S. Coast Guard to synchronize logistics capacity building efforts to improve maintenance readiness of the Interceptor Fleet. 

ISG Regional Program Lead for the Western Hemisphere, Mr. Michael Knutson, said: “It is a pleasure to collaborate with the Dominican Navy on this project. While the ISG team has provided consultation on logistics international best practices, it has been the partner who has taken the advice and made it applicable to the Dominican Navy’s needs. In collaboration with the ISG team, the Dominican Navy’s Director of Programs and Plans, Commander Fausto Richardson, developed a practical and interactive operational model to predict lifecycle sustainment costs that will help the Dominican Navy portray its sustainment needs for priority capabilities and improve operational readiness for the Interceptor Fleet.”

ISG’s collaboration with its Dominican Navy counterparts facilitated the sustainable improvement of our partner’s capacity to demonstrate maritime readiness and to counter shared security threats.