G. Evan Spencer and Paige F. Wahoff ●
Prior to joining Blank Rome, CPT (Ret.) Paige Wahoff served as a U.S. Army Armor Officer and Judge Advocate, holding a range of Cavalry leadership and staff positions. Her assignments included Scout Platoon Leader for A Troop and Assistant S3 Operations Officer with 6th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, Texas. Paige is in the general litigation practice group in Blank Rome’s Chicago office, and is available to support the Maritime Group in litigation matters.
In the Army, you are taught that uncertainty is best confronted with discipline, purpose, and established processes. Reconnaissance is traditionally understood as a military activity aimed at reducing uncertainty, shaping decision-making, and enabling freedom of action. It is a purpose-driven activity, tightly calibrated to answer mission-critical questions and shape action in complex, contested, and often austere environments. This doctrine also has potent legal resonance in the maritime industry, which wrestles with overlapping regulatory regimes, dynamic risk landscapes, and heightened enforcement scrutiny.
Contemporary maritime operations are vulnerable to strategic competition, hybrid threats, and regulatory exposure, and the maritime domain is becoming an information environment as much as a physical one. Applying the Army’s reconnaissance fundamentals* to this domain reframes reconnaissance as a form of institutionalized due diligence: a legal, operational, and ethical obligation to anticipate risk, maintain situational awareness, and act responsibly in an interconnected global system. This article translates the Army’s reconnaissance fundamentals into actionable insights for maritime law and liability, using recent examples to illustrate how failure to apply these fundamentals can compound legal exposure.
1. Ensure Continuous Reconnaissance
The Army fundamental of “ensure continuous reconnaissance” means that information collection is never episodic or limited to a single phase of an operation. Commanders direct reconnaissance operations throughout all stages and critical events, and assign assets to best maintain a flow of relevant information. This persistent collection of information allows decisionmakers to identify and seize key terrain, confirm or deny military intelligence, develop courses of action, and maintain the unit’s most strategic position without relying on outdated or incomplete information.
A similar principle applies in maritime operations. Just as Army units continuously monitor the battlefield, maritime operators must maintain persistent awareness of a vessel and its operating environment. Regular monitoring of engine performance, cargo risks (particularly dangerous goods), cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and external threats provides the situational awareness needed to make timely operational decisions and prevent incidents. In the same way that continuous reconnaissance informs a Commander’s course of action, diligent monitoring of maritime assets produces operational records that may later be scrutinized in litigation or regulatory inquiries. When operators can demonstrate adequate oversight and appropriate responsive action over time, they strengthen their ability to defend against claims against them.
Take, for example, a routine Jones Act personal injury claim where a sailor may allege that the vessel was unseaworthy or that the vessel owner was negligent. Having thorough Health, Safety, Security, and Environmental (“HSSE”) policies in place—and diligently following those policies—will equip the owner to defend itself by showing evidence of the owner’s conduct vis-à-vis the alleged condition. Further, continuous reconnaissance in the form of actively monitoring vessels, crews, and conditions may enable owners to prevent claims by observing and remedying conditions that could lead to incidents.
2. Do Not Keep Reconnaissance Assets in Reserve
Reconnaissance assets are never kept in reserve. When committed, reconnaissance assets use all of their resources to accomplish the mission. Commanders are taught to analyze every decision and assign assets accordingly through the lens of mission, enemy, terrain, troops available, time, and civilian considerations (“METT-TC”).
Continuous and focused information collection efforts require an efficient mix and redundancy of reconnaissance assets; however, this does not mean employing all assets and capabilities simultaneously. Similarly, in maritime operations, failing to deploy available technology (engine health systems, collision avoidance tools, redundancy checks) invites legal scrutiny.
While all vessel owners will understand the importance of developing and deploying systems and procedures aimed at keeping track of assets and personnel, one challenge faced in that development and deployment is constrained assets. HSSE policies are not created in a vacuum, but must be developed within the operational and budgetary confines of the maritime business in which they are to operate. It is therefore imperative that owners consider the extent to which they are able to consistently devote assets and funds to not only developing and deploying these procedures, but in maintaining, monitoring, and improving the systems over time. Lax policies and a lack of enforcement of those policies—or leaving those assets in reserve—can often result in additional scrutiny and potential liability exposure than would exist simply by failing to plan. Of course, this is no excuse to fail to plan, rather, emphasis must be placed on properly scoping and deploying well-designed policies and procedures.
3. Orient on the Reconnaissance Objective
This fundamental is a tool that allows a Commander to effectively communicate over time and space, in a potentially kinetic environment. The decision maker uses the reconnaissance objective to focus reconnaissance efforts.
A significant trap for the well-meaning vessel owner is failure to review and revise policies and procedures as circumstances require over time. Owners must routinely and consistently capture information on the effectiveness, advantages, and disadvantages of a particular system and ensure those systems continue to achieve their operational objectives. This is especially relevant in the fast-changing technological and legal environment in which modern shipping finds itself. What were once well-designed policies may quickly fall out of relevance and may even promote negative outcomes as technology and laws change.
4. Report All Information Rapidly and Accurately
Timely reporting is a cornerstone in both Army reconnaissance and maritime regulation. Reconnaissance assets acquire and report accurate and timely information on the enemy, terrain, and civil considerations of the area over which operations are conducted. Operational planning and command decisions rely heavily on this information. For this reason, Commanders depend on the prompt and reliable transmission of relevant information in order to determine how and when to employ available forces. Sitting on information delays and restricts those tasked with analyzing the information and providing recommendations. To maintain focus and timeliness, Commanders link specific information requirements to decision points and establish a latest time information is of value (“LTIOV”) deadline. Notably, reconnaissance units report exactly what they see and, if appropriate, what they do not see. Seemingly unimportant information may be extremely important when combined with other information. Reports of no enemy activity are as important as reports of enemy activity. Failing to report tells the Commander nothing.
As in the military context, a vessel owner’s ability to make informed and timely decisions depends largely on the quality of information received from the reporting personnel. It is therefore an owner’s responsibility to ensure systems are in place to promote timely and accurate reporting. While vessels were historically disconnected from land and their owners once they set sail, modern communications and tracking technology make the exchange of information faster and easier than ever. But this speed does not always beget reliability. While a system alarm may be easily relayed to shore-side personnel, it is rarely the shore-side staff that is in the best position to triage a potential situation. Rather, therefore, than rely solely on automated notifications in monitoring vessels, owners should ensure crew are trained to report accurate and timely information that will facilitate shore-side personnel’s understanding of an evolving situation.
5. Retain Freedom of Maneuver
Reconnaissance assets must retain battlefield mobility to successfully complete their missions. If these assets are decisively engaged, reconnaissance stops. Reconnaissance assets must have clear engagement criteria that support the Commander’s intent. They must employ proper movement and reconnaissance techniques, use overwatching fires, and follow standard operating procedures (“SOPs”). Initiative and knowledge of both the terrain and the enemy reduce the likelihood of decisive engagement and help maintain freedom of movement. Before initial contact, the reconnaissance unit adopts a combat formation designed to gain contact with the smallest possible enemy element. This provides the unit with the maximum opportunity for maneuvering and enables it to avoid having the entire unit become decisively engaged.
In the same way, a vessel’s crew needs to be properly equipped to assess and report issues in a way that does not adversely affect operational success. This may include remote monitoring and reporting rather than limiting surveying and reporting to yard time. Maneuverability is also bolstered by performing routine maintenance tasks at sea or in port rather than taking the vessel out of operation. Conducting these operations while the vessel is in operation ensures the reporting system and procedures do not bog down operations or themselves get bogged down by changing operations.
6. Gain and Maintain Enemy Contact
Once a reconnaissance element establishes contact with an enemy, it is expected to preserve that contact unless directed otherwise by the Commander or unless doing so jeopardizes the unit’s survival. Contact may occur through any of several recognized forms, such as visual observation; direct or indirect fire; interaction with obstacles; aircraft sightings; detection of chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (“CBRN”) hazards; electromagnetic activity; influence operations; or other nonhostile indicators. Commanders typically authorize reconnaissance elements to initiate and sustain contact using the smallest feasible element in order to reduce risk while preserving situational awareness. Maintaining contact in this manner provides a steady stream of information about an enemy’s composition, disposition, strength, and activities. In practical terms, maintaining contact ensures persistent awareness of relevant actors and evolving environmental indicators that may affect operational decisions.
The “enemy” in terms of vessel operations may include personal injuries, operational inefficiencies or failures, navigational or equipment failures, environmental or legal failures, or any other aspect of vessel operations and management that could adversely impact the safe and effective operation of a vessel. Thus, the reconnaissance unit’s contact with the enemy can be likened to a vessel owner or crew’s observation of a condition needing to be addressed prior to an injury or failure, or an actual injury or failure. When such impacts occur, it is necessary that the first line personnel—the master and crew—be equipped to make initial decisions relating to the issue and maintain or improve the status quo pending further assistance. This may take the form of shipboard medical facilities and a Medical Person In Charge pending arrival at port and discharge to a hospital, or take the form of emergency firefighting or contaminant spill cleanup pending deployment of specialized resources to help in those scenarios.
For major issues like these, which do not involve vessel operational tasks, the crew may not be expected or equipped to properly and safely bring them to a resolution. In this instance, the crew is not the primary combat unit, they are the reconnaissance unit maintaining contact with the “enemy” and managing same until further resources arrive. Because there is often a narrow line between operational responsibilities and major incidents requiring additional resources, vessel owners should make clear the expectations of their captains and crews, and properly train them to execute the expected functions, recognize what situations require additional help, and how to obtain that help and maintain operations as appropriate.
7. Develop the Situation Rapidly
The reconnaissance principle of rapidly developing the situation acknowledges that Commanders must operate despite inevitable gaps in available information. The critical factor is not achieving perfect knowledge at the outset, but the ability to continuously refine situational understanding as conditions evolve. Effective reconnaissance assets understand how time impacts movement—both friendly and adversarial. How a reconnaissance unit marries their approach and speed is based on the urgency of the information sought.
Maritime operations increasingly unfold in volatile environments shaped by weather extremes, geopolitical instability, cyber interference, and regulatory change. Developing the situation rapidly may involve integrating real-time meteorological data, sanctions updates, piracy intelligence, or port congestion metrics into operational decisions. It further involves ensuring appropriate policies and procedures are drafted and disseminated and that the crew is fully and properly trained. Late information may make the difference between successful and unsuccessful incident response and may allow minor issues to develop into major ones.
This article is one in a series of articles written for Blank Rome’s MAINBRACE: April 2026 edition.
* Army Field Manual (“FM”) 3-90-2 Reconnaissance, Security, and Tactical Enabling Tasks; FM-98 Reconnaissance and Security Operations; ATP 3-20.98 Reconnaissance Platoon.