
Coastal Trident is an operational research program conducted to advance the state of the art in countering threats to port and maritime security and sustaining the global operations of naval forces. It is planned and conducted by the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Port Hueneme Division, in partnership with Matter Labs, Economic Development Collaborative-Ventura County, the Port of Hueneme, and serves stakeholders in military, homeland security, and emergency response capabilities in the port and maritime domains.
Coastal Trident is conducted on an annual basis to advance capabilities that address asymmetric threats to naval operations, port and maritime commerce, critical infrastructure, and national security.
The following goals have been established to support operational research conducted under the Coastal Trident program:
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Reinforce federal, state, local government, and private sector strategic partnerships in the port and maritime domains
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Strengthen existing security and emergency response capabilities and CONOPS to support safe and effective port and maritime operations
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Explore concepts of employment and accelerate implementation of developing and transitional technologies to address gaps in port and maritime security capabilities
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Identify planning, acquisition, training, and exercise priorities related to preparedness against asymmetric threats and all hazards in the port and maritime domains
Gallery of Coastal Trident Highlights
Gallery of Coastal Trident Highlights
Archived Galleries
ANTX-Coastal Trident
ANTX-CT22 will be conducted as a series of technical demonstrations, field experimentation, and exercise activities, according to the unique objectives and operational, administrative, and support needs of each project.
The program is designed in modular components, which is intended to limit technical and operational risk, addressing the potential that delays or cancellations associated with one activity might impact the successful execution of the program. It also serves to allow for participants with differing priorities, levels of proficiency, and technical maturity to concurrently leverage program resources and learning environments.
Under this modular construct, ANTX-CT22 activities may be “plugged-and-played” where participating organizations, operational scenarios, and supporting resources are common. They might also be separated to establish a more focused training environment, assure information or operational security, or facilitate experimentation that allows capabilities to be pushed to failure without effect to other participants.
Alignment with the Advanced Naval Technology Exercise
ANTX was initiated in 2015 by the Naval Undersea Warfare Center’s (NUWC) Newport Division as a field experimentation resource for the Navy’s research and development (R&D) and science and technology (S&T) communities. ANTX is designed to provide a low-risk environment in which technologies can be evaluated for their abilities to address near-term technical priorities for the naval warfighter.
ANTX-Coastal Trident leverages the scenarios and operational environments supporting regional training and exercise initiatives to focus the capabilities and subject matter expertise of the government and its partners in industry and academia on Navy priorities and technical needs.
In 2022, ANTX-Coastal Trident will be conducted to facilitate concept demonstrations and field experiments in the following technology areas:
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Critical infrastructure security, threat mitigation, and incident response
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In-service engineering, maintenance, and sustainment of surface fleet and expeditionary combat systems
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Port and maritime domain awareness, data fusion, and decision support
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Augmented and virtual reality modeling, simulation, and digital engineering
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Unmanned systems applications, implementation, and countermeasures
ANTX activities conducted during Coastal Trident facilitate technical demonstrations and field experiments designed to “expand the advantage” of the naval warfighter through technical exchange, collaboration, and innovation. In order to maximize the benefit to the warfighter, these projects are focused on identified gaps and urgent operational needs.
Alignment with Regional Training and Exercise Initiatives
Scenario-based training and exercise activities are critical enablers for development of proficiency in mission tasks and for validation of pre-planned responses, regional concepts of operation (CONOPS), and joint or combined interoperability. These activities also facilitate a controlled learning environment, in which novel technology applications and concepts of employment (CONEMP) can be evaluated without operational risk.
In 2021, several regional training and exercise priorities leverage the learning environments establish by Coastal Trident, in order to expand awareness of regional operational and technical capabilities, create opportunities for engagement between practitioners and subject matters experts (SMEs), limit exercise fatigue and leverage unique supporting resources, and maximize the benefit within port and maritime security communities of practice and the greater body of knowledge.
Coastal Trident provides opportunities for operational stakeholders at the federal, state, and local levels of government to train and exercise in relevant and timely scenarios.
In 2022, these organizations have communicated the following objectives:
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Exercise of federal, state, and local underwater search and salvage capabilities
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Exercise of federal radiological detection and incident response capabilities
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Exercise of cyber security and cyber incident management capabilities
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Exercise of port and critical infrastructure security capabilities
Alignment of ANTX with Coastal Trident provides access to scenario-based, operationally relevant test environments with representative end-users not typically accessible to experimenters. Engagement in these venues maximizes feedback on concepts of employment, mission effectiveness, and operational suitability and provides access to interagency partners that expand awareness of technical solutions.
CT-22 activities will support the efforts of the NavalX “FATHOMWERX” Ventura Tech Bridge, the Port of Hueneme’s Maritime Advanced Systems Laboratory (MAST), and Economic Development Collaborative-Ventura County (EDC-VC) to promote engagement, education, experimentation, and assessment. These activities will be designed to connect operational stakeholders with technical SMEs to advance technology capable of filling operational gaps.
For more information, please request access to the CT-22 documentation portal and the Coastal Trident Archives.
Planning and Execution Milestones
The following schedule has been established for the planning and execution of CT-22 activities.
Planning Phase
Concept Development Meeting November 10, 2021
Project Proposals Due January 12, 2022
Initial Planning Meeting January 19, 2022
Mid-term Planning Meeting March 16, 2022
Final Planning Meeting May 11, 2022
Execution Phase
Program Execution June - September 2022
Technology Open House September 14&15, 2022
How Do I Get Involved?
Coastal Trident activities are determined by program sponsors and participants, based on their communicated research objectives, ad operational or technical gaps.
Organizations interested in proposing projects for CT-22 should complete and submit a proposal, according to the process outlined in the CT-22 Request for Project Information.
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Click here to download the CT-22 Request for Project Information

Click here to download the CT-22 Project Proposal form
Points of Contact
Brendan Applegate, Principal Investigator
NSWC Port Hueneme
Alan Jaeger, Ventura Tech Bridge Director
NSWC Port Hueneme
Bryan Went, External Engagement Partner
Matter Labs
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