CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia National Guard’s Port Security and Resilience Assessment (PSRA) team is working across the country to assess the security profile of several strategically valuable facilities.

On WAJR’s “Talk of the Town,” Chief Warrant Officer 2 Matthew Mackey said the PSRA team, based in the Army Interagency Training and Education Center in St. Albans, conducts assessments with drones at port locations to examine any possible threats in order to prevent attacks.

“Our team does risk and vulnerability assessments across the country for ports and other critical infrastructure for the United States Coast Guard,” Mackey said.

There are other Department of Defense units that conduct security assessments, but the team from the WVNG is the only one in the country using drones to do it. Mackey said the drone view of a major port is an expansive view of operations that handle as many as 117 million containers every year, or more than 320,000 every day.

“It really gives you a real-time glimpse of how those operations are taking place, how those security measures are being worked on and implemented,” Mackey said. “So, you get to see it in action.”

There is no focus on ships flagged from certain nations, and the Coast Guard is managing the safety and security of the vessels entering, unloading, and exiting the port. The PSRA is solely focused on the cargo portion of the operation.

“It’s not really our scope to worry about where the vessel is coming from,” Mackey said. “It’s more or less the security measures that are in place for the cargo.”

The team members can come from any Military Occupational Specialty but must complete the Federal Aviation Administration Part 107 training. The pilots also get classroom training, hands-on work with the drones, and mission-specific information from the Coast Guard.

Currently there are five certified drone pilots that can operate a variety of different platforms.

“In every area we go to, there are cranes, power lines, towers, and light towers; it goes on and on,” Mackey said.

Participating in the team is an option any guard member can take advantage of. A 17-year veteran, Mackey said this is another example of how many opportunities that have real-world significance the WVNG can offer those who want to serve.

“We don’t have a specific, I mean, you don’t have to be military police, or an engineer, or a pilot in the Air National Guard to fly the thing,” Mackey said. “You need to meet the requirements and complete the training.”