1. Guy’s Career
Guy Thomas, former Science & Technology Advisor to the US
Coast Guard, has been involved in maritime surveillance for
over 40 years, proceeding from operator to systems engineer
to lead tester to inventor and developer. Other than his
time in submarines and his recent Distinguished Career
Service Award, he is proudest of having conceived (in
2001), secured funding for and helped design space-based
AIS (in 2004); and subsequently developing (in 2005) the
Collaboration in Space for International Global Maritime
Awareness (C-SIGMA) concept to fully explain and exploit
this new capability. This concept and its off shoots have
been briefed many places since then, including at the
European Parliament in 2010 and at White House in 2009,
2010, 2011 and 2012. In 2006 his concept was field tested
by a consortium of NATO, European Commission and US
agencies employing commercial space systems, including both
radar and optical satellites, to locate and track a
specific set of vessels know to be transiting from Piraeus,
Greece to Norfolk, Virginia. The test conclusively proved
the feasibility of space-based global maritime awareness
using unclassified commercial systems.
Subsequently asked by the US Air Force to organize a series
of tests to determine the maritime utility of the soon-to-
be launched Radar Sat 2 (RS 2) by MacDonald, Dettwiler and
Associates Ltd. (MDA) of Canada. The tests, conducted at
several places around the globe shortly after the
satellite’s launch in late 2007, clearly demonstrated the
feasibility of RS 2 in a maritime surveillance mode. He
consequently conceived and led the initial organization of
a 6 month limited object experiment (LOD) for the Chilean
government, using both MDA’s Radar Sat 2 and e-GEOS’ Cosmos
SkyMed Radar Satellites, as well as exactEarth’s and
ORBCOMM’s AIS collection constellations. The LOD,
conducted in the last half of 2011 and funded by the USCG,
clearly demonstrated the synergism of space-based AIS and
radar satellites in a maritime surveillance role for
resource and environmental protection as well as security
against a range of threats including smuggling of all types
and piracy, plus dramatically assisting in marine safety
and life saving situations.
Invited to be part of an inter-departmental White House
team re-writing the National Space Policy for President
Obama, his concept on the synergism of the space and
maritime domains was incorporated nearly verbatim into the
National Space Policy’s Implementation Directive (June
2010).
A researcher at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics
Lab (JHU/APL) from January 1995 to October 2003, he led or
co-led numerous technology focused war games and at sea
experiments. He was its liaison to the Naval War College
from early 2000 to late 2003. His 2001 paper on why and
how to build a Maritime Traffic Tracking System, published
in the Naval War College Review Fall 2003, became the
conceptual backbone of the national effort to build an
international Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) system.
He took early retirement from JHU/APL to become the Science &
Technology Advisor to that national effort at the interagency
MDA Program Integration Office, which became, at White House
direction, the national Office for Global Maritime Situational
Awareness (July, 2007). He contributed to the writing of the
National Strategy for Maritime Security, National Plan to
Achieve Maritime Domain Awareness, and the Global Maritime
Intelligence Integration Plan. He co-chaired the writing of the
national Maritime Domain Awareness Technology Roadmap, and the

2. Guy Thomas 410-383-6267 Home
2100 Mt Royal Ter 443-850-3235 Cell
Baltimore, MD 21217-4848 gguythomas@gmail.com
g.guy.thomas@c-sigma.org
Maritime Data Fusion Plan, the technical backbone of the policy
documents. He has also gotten the USCG directly involved in
the DOD Joint Capabilities Technology Demonstration (JCTD) program,
an association that he believes will continue to produce significant
benefits long after he has left the Coast Guard.
Retired from the US Navy in 1988, he served in combat and overtly
hostile environments as a signals warfare officer on submarines,
ships, and aircraft. To this day he cannot discuss the
submarine operations in which he was deeply involved but on
surface ships he participated in 28 MiG engagements off
Vietnam, a record that still stands today. His role was to read
the electronic environment and provide early detection,
identification and warning to USN and USAF fighters over enemy
territory. He was slightly wounded during the first B-52 raid
into Haiphong Harbor when his ship was hit in the bridge, where
he was stationed, by friendly fire. He was decorated for
restoring order and rendering aid to the wounded.
As an aviator he had over 2,000 mission hours and led part of a
small USAF/USN/Japanese team that exploited a defector’s brand
new, top secret, MiG-25. He led the mission systems acceptance
test of the Navy's EP-3E in the Pacific and while on assignment
to the Air Force, directed the initial test & global deployment
of the modernized Rivet Joint (RC-135W). He also conceived and
planned a joint RC-135/EP-3/SR-71 mission in the Sea of Japan
that many believe was the single most productive aerial
reconnaissance mission ever flown against the Soviet Union. He
is the 1st person in history to be allowed to wear both Navy
and Air Force wings at the same time and was one of the Navy’s
first designated sub-specialists in space operations, thus
becoming the first person in Navy history to be qualified in
four naval warfare areas. He also worked very closely with the
SEALS and other SOF elements on several occasions, including
the planning for the 2
nd
insertion into Iran (October, 1980) and
filled both the Space and Special Operations research billets
at the Naval War College (1982-1986), working very closely with
the CNO’s Strategic Studies Group as they developed the initial
Maritime Strategy (1981-1983). He retired in 1988 as Head of
Analysis, Joint Electronic Warfare Center.
A distinguished graduate of the Naval War College, he holds
Masters in Business Administration and Computer Information
Systems with high honors from Bryant University, and
studied for a Masters in Systems Engineering at Johns
Hopkins University. He is widely published and has studied
Spanish, Japanese and Russian.
His Russian led him to briefly work with the FBI to help a
KGB asset he had identified, defect, which led, years
later, to a significant intelligence win, a fact he is very
proud of, even if he still cannot discuss it.
He and Clelia are also very proud that the historic
Victorian they restored and now run as Wilson House Bed &
Breakfast, was selected as “Best B&B in Baltimore, 2012”.
JEWC